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Episode details

Essex,23 Apr 2025,12 mins

The town built by shoes

Secret Essex

Available for over a year

The Czech Bata Shoe Company arrived in the small Essex village of East Tilbury in the early 1930s. For the next 70 years its impact went well beyond that of a maker of footwear. Victoria Polley tells the story of the ‘Bata-town’. (Photo credit: Bata Heritage Centre)

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