Walsall Leather Skills Centre, a not-for-profit community interest company that trains saddlers and leatherworkers, is tripling in size after signing a 14-year lease on two additional floors next to its existing premises, Equestrian Trade News reported on 12 October. Equestrian Trade News is a wholly owned subsidiary of BETA, the British Equestrian Trade Association. Companies House records show the organisation registered as Walsall Leather Skills Centre CIC, a company limited by guarantee incorporated on 6 June 2023.
More than £150,000 is being spent with local contractors and suppliers on the project, according to the report. Walsall Business Support subsidised the refurbishment works, which ETN said were well advanced, and the centre’s landlord, The QMSF Trust, has also invested in them. The extra space will house workshops and the centre’s collection of specialist equipment, and will let courses and events run at the same time.
The expanded centre will have six workbenches available to rent, along with workshop space for large harness work and room for specialist machining, shoemaking, bag making and leathergoods courses. The centre runs courses in saddlery, bridle and harness making, shoemaking and wider leathercraft, and its students come from across the UK and overseas, ETN said. Because the courses also cover shoemaking and bag making, the centre serves leatherworkers beyond the equestrian trade as well as saddlers.
The people behind it
Patrick Burns and Keith Bryan, both listed by Companies House as active directors of the company, spoke to ETN. Burns, a director of the centre, said the organisation has always believed Walsall should be the place where people come to learn leatherworking skills of a high standard, and that its ambition is to bring students, tutors, established craftspeople and beginners together. Bryan, a director and saddle tutor, described Walsall’s heritage of leatherworking and saddlery skills as extraordinary and said that heritage only has a future when people have somewhere to learn, practise and pass on those skills.
ETN presented the move as a boost for the town’s economy as well as for training, since the money is being spent with local contractors and suppliers.
What was not disclosed
ETN did not report the rent or total cost of the lease, how the spending is split between Walsall Business Support, The QMSF Trust and the centre, what the workbenches will cost to rent, when the new floors will open, or how many students the centre trains each year. It also did not say which courses lead to formal qualifications. Course fees and lengths, staffing for the larger space and whether there is a waiting list for places were not given either. Equanine could not reach a website or statement from the centre itself.
Equanine’s reading
- A larger training base in Walsall, with room for harness work and specialist machining, adds capacity in the part of the trade that supplies fitted and repaired tack, and keeps that training in the town ETN calls a saddlery town.
- Rentable benches give newly trained makers a place to work alongside tutors without taking on a workshop of their own. For a sole trader, a rented bench also lowers the cost of setting up. Retailers and saddle fitters looking for repair or made-to-order capacity may find new suppliers there over time.
- The refurbishment draws on a business support subsidy and the landlord’s own investment, and the company is just over three years old. Whether the extra space fills will show how much demand there is for craft training in the equestrian trade.
