Another story has appeared in connection with the closure of the shoemakers Ducker and Sons in The Turl, Oxford. See earlier post. This will occur later this month according to the story in The Oxford Times. The store’s ledgers are to be auctioned, details of which are provided in the article. Waugh is again mentioned as a former customer along with, inter alia, JRR Tolkien, some of whose purchases are described. Although not mentioned in the article, Waugh has described his relations with the shop in his Diaries. Here is the entry (p. 785) for 2 September 1961:
When Ducker of the Turl died I told Catherine Walston that I must find a new bootmaker. She took me to Thrusal of Cambridge (with whom I have dealt ever since). On my first visit he was measuring me for my last when Catherine suddenly drew attention to Thrusal’s own boot which was almost circular, like the boots ponies wore on their hooves when drawing lawn mowers. ‘That’s exactly the kind of shoe I have been looking for all my life.’ ‘I regret to say, madam, that I am obliged to wear it because of a deformity of the foot.’
A Google search for Thrusal of Cambridge failed to turn up any information and no shoemaker of a similar name came up in a broader search of the area. The premises of the Oxford shop are to be converted into a wine merchant.
