Joseph Cheaney & Sons

Joseph Cheaney & Sons stitches its soles rather than gluing them, and that single construction choice is why a pair can be resoled repeatedly instead of thrown away when the tread finally goes.

The firm has been making since 1886 and still works from Desborough in Northamptonshire, the county that has defined English shoemaking for more than a century. It was connected for a long period to the Church family, among the most established names in the British trade, and production has never left England.

Why Goodyear welted shoes London buyers keep for decades

The welt is a strip stitched to both the upper and the insole, with the outsole then stitched to the welt. It takes longer to break in and considerably longer to wear out, and it is the reason a good pair is cheaper over ten years than three cheap ones.

Try the same size on three lasts

English lasts vary noticeably between styles, so a size that fits an Oxford may be wrong in a brogue from the same maker. Fifteen minutes spent trying across lasts is the best-spent quarter hour in the shop.