An English shoemaker in Norwich founded in 1874, when local shoemaker Obadiah Henry Bowhill bought an existing manufacturer's site and business; his son and son-in-law, Thomas Baines Elliott, later took it over and gave the firm its current name. Norwich once rivaled Northampton as Britain's other major shoemaking city, home to firms like Crockett & Jones and John Lobb from around the same era. Bowhill & Elliott acquired a fellow Norwich maker, the Osoeasie Slipper Company, in 1960 and shifted almost entirely to house shoes from there. Its Albert slipper became the house's signature, worn quietly by royals, presidents and film stars.