Penny Red Productions 334 subscribers 4,217 views 9 Dec 2022 KIDDERMINSTER Like many Kidderminster residents I recall seeing Johnny The Cobbler around the town at various times throughout my childhood. I was always slightly wary of him as a child; you never quite knew what he was going to do. I also remember hearing many tales of his exploits and snatches of information about his story and why he was the way he was. When I first decided to write about local figures I knew that I would inevitably write a piece about Johnny The Cobbler; but I was determined that I wouldn’t just regurgitate other peoples stories about him. I wanted to discover more of the facts about his life and give a more balanced picture of a person who to many local residents was a larger than life figure. After researching Johnny for a little while and reading many of the anecdotal tales on the Facebook group ‘Johnny The Cobbler Appreciation Society’ a few months ago I reached out to his family to see if I could get a little more factual information about him. To my surprise they shared with me quite a bit of information about his life & also dispelled several myths about him. I’m so incredibly grateful that the family trusted me to tell this story. I hope you enjoy reading/listening to it as much as I enjoyed writing it. At one time there was a push to have a statue of Johnny in The Horsefair. I’m not sure about the idea of a statue; I understand the sentiment but I don’t believe there’s any rational justification for granting him such an honour; he was a cheeky old devil and a much beloved figure in Kidderminster, let’s just leave it at that..