Stories in the local media about the closure of Ager’s shop in Coventry are somewhat exaggerated.
Charles Ager’s shoe shop on Corporation Street is one of the oldest family owned businesses in the city. The store has announced that it is closing its children’s shoe department.
Reports on the BBC state that many people took their children in to have their feet measured and then went elsewhere to buy their shoes, leaving Ager’s out of pocket.
Charles Ager Ltd was established in 1840 by brothers Charles and Walter Ager, who started off life as rural farmers in Northamptonshire. Looking to start a business and try their fortune in the city of three spires, they made their way to Coventry.
Charles, who was a cobbler, set up Charles Ager in the West Orchard area of the city – and things quickly picked up. Carriage loads of customers would come to buy a pair of the best shoes, and as the shop’s reputation grew, they moved to much bigger premises on Smithford Street.
Unfortunately, this shop was bombed during the1940 blitz.
The blast which wrecked the shop – and indeed much of the rest of the city centre – left only a few girders standing.
Of the contents, the carefully sand-bagged safe alone remained, with the silver coins melted into one lump and bank notes crumbling at a touch.
Within weeks a new shop had been set up at premises in Corporation Street – complete with a temporary front, protected windows and a defiant ‘Business as Usual’ sign.
In 1945, just after the war ended, the current shop was opened on Corporation Street.
The latest owner of the shop, Mr Chris Hart, is Charles’s great-grandson. He joined his parents in 1989 as the sixth generation of the family to run the shoe shop.
It had been reported in the local press that the Coventry shop was closing. This was reinforced by the plastering of closing down signs on the premises. However it has now been clarified that it is only the children’s shoe department that is closing.
The closure of the children’s department is causing problems for the Coventry Boot Fund, which since 1893 has been providing shoes for Coventry children in need. At present grant recipients receive a voucher that is “cashed” at Ager’s. It is not yet known how the fund will work in the future.