Purcell gets green light for Clarks Shoes museum

Purcell has secured planning permission for a new museum in the Somerset village of Street that will tell the story of Clarks Shoes.

Clarks was founded in Street in 1825 and Purcell’s proposals will see the new attraction – named the Shoemakers Museum – created at grade II-listed The Grange, a former manor house connected with the Clark shoemaking family for more than 100 years.

The plans, which were approved by Somerset Council earlier this month, will see the removal of a 1970s building that connects The Grange and a barn. It will be replaced by a two-storey structure featuring a Bath stone loggia and a folded brick façade with perforations and projections.

The new museum will include The Grange and the barn. It will incorporate a permanent gallery, temporary display areas, an open-air events space, a schools’ education room, and a research and study library. There will be also be a café.

In addition to covering the history of Clarks, the museum will explore the social history of shoemaking and the history of Street and provide a permanent display for ichthyosaurs fossils, for which the village is renowned. Also known as sea dragons, ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles that swam in the seas that covered Somerset around 200m years ago.

Purcell said the new attraction, which will be located near the Clarks Village outlet, was targeting 50,000 to 75,000 visitors a year.