Help Build A New Chapter For Leather In Walsall

Aim

Raising £30,000 to build a new home for leather in Walsall, bringing production, education, community & affordable workspace under one roof.

Walsall leather made history. Now I’m building part of its future.

I’m raising £30,000 to create a new home for contemporary leatherwork in Walsall - bringing professional production, education, community initiatives and affordable workspace for emerging leatherworkers, designers and craftspeople together under one roof.

Over the past few months, I’ve been given the opportunity to take over the building where my own leather studio is already based. With current tenants Urban Hax moving on to develop an exciting new creative industries centre at The Guildhall, a rare opportunity has opened up: to transform this historic space into a working home for the future of leathercraft in Walsall.

Victoria Corn Mills, just a two-minute walk from the iconic Walsall Leather Museum, is a beautiful Grade II listed Victorian mill with its own history “in the leather”. For me, there couldn’t be a more fitting place to do this.

Your support will help me take over the right-hand building of the mill complex, providing ample space across two floors, and transform it into a fully equipped centre for making, learning and developing new skills - a place where  I can expand my own production space while making room for established industry, independent makers and the next generation of leatherworkers and designers to work alongside one another.

This is about more than expanding my own studio. It’s about creating the infrastructure for leatherwork in Walsall to have a future as well as a past.

Why I’m doing this

With an established leather fashion design business of five years, fifteen years’ experience in my field, a longstanding commitment to education and developing the next generation of leather designers, and a two-year battle to help secure the future of Walsall Leather Museum, my mission has always been clear: to build on Walsall’s illustrious history in leather and help steer it towards a future that can have a positive impact across industry, education and community for generations to come.

That campaign demonstrated just how deeply Walsall’s leather heritage matters but it also made me think about what we are doing to secure the future of the craft itself.

Preserving Walsall’s leather heritage is vital, but so is creating the spaces, opportunities and infrastructure that allow the culture, practice and ecosystem of Walsall leatherworking to continue evolving.

We need places where skills can be passed on, where new makers can establish themselves, where industry and education can connect, and where contemporary leathercraft can continue to be made here in Walsall.

Walsall faces very real social and economic challenges, but it also has something extraordinary: a leather industry and skills base with a reputation that reaches far beyond the town itself. Walsall’s status as a global centre for leather deserves a future every bit as innovative and pioneering as its past.

The Building

Victoria Corn Mills provides the perfect opportunity to do just that.

I’ve been based here for the past three years and fell in love with the building from the outset - its character, its history and, above all, its potential. There is something incredibly fitting about taking a building rooted in Walsall’s industrial past and adapting it to help drive an age-old craft forward.

From its red-brick façades and light-filled workshops to the original horse stables that lend themselves naturally to individual maker studios, so much of what this project needs is already here.

Better still, we’re not starting with an empty shell. For the best part of a decade, the building has operated as a fully equipped makerspace under Urban Hax CIC. It is already a functioning, serviced workspace, with workshop infrastructure, utilities and facilities in place.

That gives the project an enormous head start. Rather than funding major redevelopment, the investment raised through this campaign can be focused on the machinery, teaching facilities, workspaces and improvements needed to bring the new vision to life.

What I’m Creating

At its heart, this project is about creating a working home for contemporary leathercraft in Walsall - a place where production, education, industry and independent making can exist side by side, with a particular focus on fine leatherwork for fashion and contemporary accessories.

The space will allow me to expand my own leather production studio, but more importantly, to build something much bigger around it: a dedicated Leather School, with a teaching workshop for up to 20 people offering practical courses, specialist training and opportunities for people at different stages of their journey into leatherwork.

A shared professional workshop will give makers access to specialist machinery, equipment and workspace without having to invest in their own, while smaller spaces - including the original Victorian horse stables - will become affordable studios for independent makers and emerging businesses. The building will also remain home to resident luthier Mark Fullerton, who will continue working from one of the larger ground-floor workshops - opening the door for the maker community to extend into complementary heritage crafts too.

There will also be space for small exhibitions, demonstrations, visiting craftspeople, industry events and collaborations, alongside community and educational initiatives developed with schools, universities and other organisations.

This isn't intended to be another leather museum. Its role is different, but complementary. Walsall Leather Museum offers an incredible first point of access to the town's leather heritage and craft – after all, it’s where I started all those years ago as a little girl! I want to create somewhere people can take that interest further - from discovering leathercraft, to learning it, practising it and potentially building a career or business within it.

With the museum just a two-minute walk away, there is real potential for the two spaces to complement one another in the future.

This is about creating a place where things can be made, skills can be passed on, new careers and businesses can begin, and Walsall's leather industry can continue to evolve.

Where the £30,000 will go 

£30,000 will allow me to turn the opportunity into something real - equipping the building, preparing the new spaces and giving the project the foundations it needs to open its doors.

One of the biggest advantages of Victoria Corn Mills is that we're not starting with an empty shell. The building is already operational and much of the basic infrastructure is in place, meaning the money raised can be focused on the equipment, facilities and improvements that will have a direct and lasting impact.

The current working budget is:

• £14,000 - Professional machinery & specialist equipment
  Industrial sewing machines and specialist leatherworking equipment for production, teaching and shared workshop use.
• £4,000 - Workbenches, furniture & workshop infrastructure
  Creating practical, professional working environments across the production, teaching and communal spaces.
• £5,200 - Three-month setup period
  Helping cover rent, utilities, insurance and building costs while the new spaces are prepared, equipment installed and the project gets ready to open.
• £2,500 - Teaching equipment, storage, PPE & initial materials
  Everything needed to get the Leather School ready to welcome its first students.
• £2,000 - Building preparation & improvements
  Including lighting, electrics, signage and the practical work needed to adapt the existing spaces for their new uses.
• £2,300 - Legal, Repairs & renovation contingency
  Giving the project some breathing room for the inevitable surprises that come with adapting a historic building.

Almost half of the target will go directly into professional machinery, equipment, benches and workshop infrastructure - tangible assets that will continue supporting production, teaching and independent makers long after the campaign has finished.

The first three months will be dedicated to getting everything ready: preparing the spaces, installing machinery, setting up the Leather School and studios, and completing the work needed before the building begins operating at its full potential.

£30,000 gets the doors open. Production, teaching and workspace will keep them open.

Why it will be sustainable

The crowdfunding campaign is designed to get the project up and running - not to fund it indefinitely. Once established, the building will be supported by several complementary income streams: my existing five-year leather business will operate and grow from the site, the Leather School will generate income through courses and specialist training, the individual maker studios will provide regular rental income, and the shared professional workshop will create further opportunities through memberships and facility hire. Pre-existing partnerships and working relationships across multiple educational institutions can further the range and scope of training delivered, providing a fully equipped and purpose-built environment for highly specialist skills and learning.

Importantly, the studio spaces alone have the potential to generate around £24,240 a year in recurring rental income, providing a valuable baseline before income from teaching, production and shared workshop use is taken into account. By bringing these different activities together under one roof, the aim is to create a model in which production, education and workspace support one another - giving the project multiple sources of income rather than relying on any one activity to survive.

 Help me build what comes next

Walsall has been making leather goods for generations. The skills, knowledge and industry are still here - but if we want that story to continue, we need to create the places where the next generation can learn, work, experiment and build their own futures within it.

That’s what I’m asking you to help me create.

My goal is to raise £30,000 in six weeks to open the doors to a new working home for leathercraft in Walsall. Whether you pledge £10, become a Founding Supporter, choose a rewards package, support the project as an industry partner, or simply share the campaign with somebody who might believe in what I’m building, every contribution will help move this project forward.

Financial support isn’t the only way to help make this happen. I’m also keen to hear from individuals, businesses and organisations who may be able to support the project through machinery or equipment, leather and materials, workshop furniture, specialist expertise, teaching, introductions or future collaborations.

I’d love this project to build relationships that extend far beyond the six weeks of crowdfunding, so if you see a way you or your organisation could be involved that I haven’t mentioned, please get in touch at [email protected].

I’ve spent fifteen years building my career in this industry, five years building my own business, and the last two fighting for the future of Walsall’s leather heritage. Now I want to help build what comes next.

Walsall made leather history. Help me build part of its future.

For full details, project overviews and brochures or any further questions, please feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 2nd November 2026 at 12:55pm