My grandfather was a ship's carpenter on the old clipper ships and when they docked at Plymouth he used to follow the side of the river Fal all the way through to north Cornwall and then on a way to Bude where he lived. The journey would take two or sometimes three days.

One time he docked in January and the weather was freezing eighteen inches of snow all across the moors on his way home. He'd been walking for about four hours and his toes were nearly numb, grandfather only had on his sailors canvas shoes with the rope soles. He stumbled on some ice and as he put his hand out touched someone deep under the snow. Granddad uncovered the man and found that sadly he was dead. He did however have a good stout pair of brown leather shoes on. Granddad tried to untie the laces and take the shoes off, after all the poor man had no further use for them, but they were frozen solid to his feet. Grandfather thought oh well here goes and took out his ships carpenter's tools and gently sawed through the man's legs. He put the stumps with the shoes on in his bag, covered over the body with snow and carried on his journey.

He got near to Launceston and decided to find a farmhouse and rest up for the night. In those days it was traditional for a farmer and his wife to provide a place to sleep and breakfast for a sailor in exchange for the sailor telling a few stories about his voyages. This is what happened to grandfather. After a few tales the farmer showed him to the barn. Said he would be warm and comfortable there and not to worry about the cow. Grandfather before settling down for the night took the stumps of legs out of his bag, still with the shoes frozen on, and pushed them into the straw. He then covered himself over with straw and went to sleep.

In the morning the farmer came into the barn thought to himself where's the sailor to? Saw the legs sticking out of the straw, pulled on them and finding nobody on the end ran shouting into the farmhouse. Told his wife the cow had eaten the sailor and that they should pack up and leave before they finished up in Bodmin jail.

When granddad woke up he saw the stumps lying there, took off the shoes put them on and they fitted a treat. He went into the farmhouse and found it deserted so he helped himself to a chunk of bread and a pot of ale and sat down to have himself some breakfast. There was a knock at the door and when grandfather looked out the window there was an old man standing there. Grandfather opened the door and told the old man to come in as he looked frozen. He searched around and found some whiskey to give the old man and asked him how he came to be there. Well said the old man I was walking along the track by the Fal when I got so cold I must have passed out. When I came round early this morning someone had stolen my shoes and I had to walk all the way like this. He lifted his trouser legs and grandfather could see he had no shoes and no feet either, just short stumps below the knees.Granddad excused himself on the pretext of getting more whiskey, went out the back door away over the moor and didn't stop till he got safely home indoors.

The funny thing about them old brown shoes is they never wore out, they were passed down to my dad and he gave them to me and they are the ones I'm wearing today...................

I told this tale to the kids at school one day and after it was over one of the lads came up to me and said I didn't know Clarkes made shoes in them days!!
KJ