THE founder of a famous Huddersfield clog manufacturing business has died.

Mr Frank Walkley, 92, passed away on January 24 at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

He grew up in Crosland Moor and studied art and architecture at Huddersfield College gaining his school certificate.

Despite his qualifications he started as apprentice clog maker with Herbert Hays in Northgate before war service as a regimental equipment repairer.

After the war he set up his own namesake clog company in Birkby in 1946, manufacturing safety boot clogs.

By 1955 his company were producing nearly 20,000 clogs a year due to his drumming up business by cycling all over the country.

The business became well established and in 1972 bought clog sole manufacturers John Maude & Son when the last family member retired.

He bought the mill and gradually moved his machinery over from Huddersfield to Hebden Bridge, setting up the Walkley’s Clogs business in Calderdale in 1978.

His fourth wife Brenda who he married in 1979, said: “It was hard work and long days. He used to work seven days a week, some of the time.

“He genuinely cared about the employees. He used to go to their weddings and their funerals.”

She recalled how the factory in its later years became a tourist spot with thousands of visitors flocking each year to see clogs being made.

She added: “We used to have coach loads of people coming to visit. We had a restaurant and a gift shop.”

In 1987 businessman Mark Clyndes bought the enterprise from Mr Walkley, selling it in 1993 to Sue and her brother Roger Dower, who was a clog-maker.

A few years later Mr Walkley recorded his life working in the clog industry in an aptly named book ‘Clogs were my life’.

The entrepreneur’s later ventures included a stint owning La Piazza restaurant in Brighouse and training to be a stock broker aged 69.

In his retirement he pursued his affinity with the stitch to take on cross stitch and produced pictures of St George’s Square which were featured in the Examiner.

In his 80s Mr Walkley developed macular disease, a condition which causes the retina to decay, leading to sight loss and eventual blindness.

He spent thousands of his own money on Lucentis treatment which at the time was not available on the NHS in England.

He also campaigned to the government, together with a Halifax MP, for changes to allow the treatment to be available on the NHS.

Brenda added: “It wasn’t about the money. He was just so outraged that people were going blind when there was a drug that could help them.”

Mr Walkley had two sons, Michael and Howard, from his first marriage to Joan Waite.

He became step-dad to Cheryl and Richard when he married Brenda in 1979. He has five grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are still to be confirmed.