Looking back: Highlights of the past: February

February 1936

To begin with, a look at The Chiropodist reports on the official opening of a new premises for the Manchester Foot Hospital.

The photograph at the top of this article, and the one below, are from our collection. They show staff and students at the Manchester Foot Hospital during the 1940s, presumably in this new building.

February 1966

Thirty years later The Chiropodist focused on older people's feet and highlighted this questionnaire regarding elderly consumers of footwear.


Findings from the survey showed:

• three quarters of those asked were satisfied with shoe shop service
• many felt, however, that chiropody services were inadequate
• 1/13 bought shoes by mail order and 1/10 bought shoes at jumble sales

Thirty retail outlets were also questioned and stressed the importance of trained staff in dealing with elderly customers. Several shoe manufacturers were also contacted, including Clarks, Norvic (based in Norwich) and Somervell (which became K Shoes in 1976).

Overall there were three recommendations from the survey:

• all shoe manufacturers should improve their service to elderly customers
• the elderly should be provided with much more information regarding shoe styles and shoe fitting information. Retailers asked that older customers make use of quieter shopping times in order to get a better service
• all shop assistants should be given better training in order to assist elderly customers

February 1986

This month saw a brand new council chamber unveiled at Welbeck Street Headquarters. The Society was based at this address from 1984 to 2000 and the premises was located in Marylebone, just North of Oxford Street.


The photograph below shows Professor Jayson and Peter J Read shaking hands. This was a well-timed exemplification of the comment Read made in the report above. 


He said that he wished to continue the:

"passing on of tradition by the shaking of hands, young with old, whereby as many as 120 years could be covered by three generations".

Below is a photograph of the new Welbeck Street Council Chamber. On the mantelpiece you can see the ceremonial gavel and in front of the mirror, a statue of Spinario or Thorn Boy. We still have both in our collection.

At a Council meeting around that time concerns were discussed regarding the cost of the refurbishments.

February 1986 and 2006

During this month, adverts were published for Marigold Therapy. Such therapy is still used today, particularly to treat verrucae.



This treatment was pioneered by Dr M Taufiq Khan. In 1998 he submitted an abstract of a paper he wished to present at the Bristol Conference that year, entited Marigold Therapy is Complementary to Podiatry.

Khan passed away in 2007 and his obituary was printed in the August edition of Podiatry Now.