IN 1957 young Walter Hurst was set to study law at university. But his mother became ill and his father told him he would have to help run the family business - just for a couple of years.

Walter is now 63 and never made it into law. Instead he carried on with the business and is one of the last remaining traditional clog makers in the country.

He comes from a famous family of clog makers, a tradition started 104 years ago by his grandfather in Hindley. That's when clogs were in huge demand by the mill and mine workers in the north.

Walter's father also worked in the shop and, when his grandfather died in 1920, he took over the business. Walter joined the team in 1957 and Hurst's clog makers won nationwide recognition.

He said: "I bet we were turning out 100 clogs a week in the 1950s. In the 1930s it would have been around 10,000 pairs a year. Now, of course, with no mines or mills, numbers have dwindled."

Now, he reckons 50 per cent of his trade is making clogs for dancers and for people who work in the steel and fishing trades. Today's clogs are still hand made - apart from the soles.

"Clogs are good for the feet," says Walter. "Show me a child who wore clogs and I'll show you a perfect pair of feet."

But Walter Hurst's shop in Hindley is no more. He retired in 2001, but went back to work in 2002. "I decided to retire and do a bit of work from my garage at home. Within months my workload was getting out of control so my friend, Tom Rickard who owns a long-standing shoe repair business in Wigan, asked me to take a space in his shop and work from there."

Tom's son, John is now being trained by Walter to be a clog maker. He has his own shop in Farnworth - ensuring the tradition lives on.