When Dennis Manville started his apprenticeship as a cobbler aged 15, Nike trainers were unheard of and his wage was just two shillings and sixpence a week.

Fifty years later he is still using the same style of cobbling tools, including knives, hammers and machines employed decades ago.

There have been plenty of dramas over his many years in the trade.

Mr Manville lost the use of a finger when a deep cut severed his nerve.

On another occasion, he tackled a knife-wielding raider whom he held in an arm lock to save his day's takings.

The man burst into the shop in February 1983 and demanded money. Brave Mr Manville simply went round the counter and grappled him until police arrived.

Mr Manville recalls he used to hate going to the cobbler's as a youngster.

During shopping trips with his mum, the roaring machinery frightened him witless.

Little did he know the same machine would still be the tool of his trade five decades later.

The father-of-three has spent a lifetime fixing people's shoes, making new soles and selling laces.

With his wife, Ann, he has run Manville's of Hove for 21 years.

The corner shop in Addison Road has been used as a shoe repair store since 1935.

Mr Manville, 63, started learning how to fix footwear at the tender age of 13.

He said: "While friends of mine were doing paper rounds, I decided I would do something different.

"I went to the manager of the local shoe shop and asked for a job. He said:

You can come in and wind the bobbin for my patcher after school.' I would work to 9pm every day."

When Mr Manville turned 15, he began a fulltime apprenticeship.

Mr Manville said: "In the early days, I was always getting cut on the machine through not paying enough attention.

"It's a precision job and you have got to have your mind on it."

The need for accuracy meant hands could not be allowed to get cold in the winter.

Mr Manville's former boss, Alan Hill, used to heat a metal last - used for shaping shoes - on an electric element so they could work in its warmth.

"It was a bit Dickensian but if you wanted to keep warm, you had to work harder - this is when accidents happened."

He said customer numbers had declined in recent years.

He blamed today's disposable society, which he said preferred to buy cheaper shoes to having more expensive ones mended.

He said: "The people who keep coming back are mostly the older generation.

"Youngsters are not really aware of what a cobbler does. They buy shoes to throw away. Probably some kids have never been into a shoe repair shop.

"Moulded shoes do not do your feet any good.

"Leather is the best thing to wear - it makes feet breathe. Anything else is virtually like putting your feet in a plastic bag.

"I still love my work. I would keep going through the evening if I had to.

"People think I'm stuck in a rut but I'm happy and making a living."