As an ancient market town, Abergavenny has a long history of tanning and leather working. The first record we can find of a leatherworker in Frogmore Street is in 1655 when Morgan Jenkins of Rogmore Street was recorded in the parish birth register as a corvisor when his son John was born. Corvisors, later called cordwainers, made shoes in high quality leather. Three hundred years later Mr Sidney Foxall of Wilberton House, Frogmore Street donated the cobblers palm, awl and skiving tool, among other leatherworker's tools, to Abergavenny Museum.

The beautifully made boots were donated with a tale that they had been bought from an antique shop in Raglan and that a previous owner was 'a Lord who drowned himself'. This was possibly Lord Trevethin, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales and a keen angler. He drowned aged 92 in 1936 following a seizure while fishing in the River Wye.

These items may be seen in the Keep Gallery at Abergavenny Museum.