After walking away from his family's trade, a cobbler's son is now itching to retrace his roots by making himself a pair of shoes using his late father's tools and fabrics.

"The feeling has been brewing inside me for the past year. I keep telling myself I want to start making shoes again like I did when I was a child, helping my father in his workshop," Anthony Aquilina, 49, said as he thought back to those days.

The urge to make shoes again was reinforced when his father, known as Fredu l-Iskarpan (Alfred the cobbler), passed away on Wednesday aged 74.

"I kept all my father's tools, shoe-making machines and also pieces of leather and fabric and unfinished shoes from the 1960s. I plan to use some of his materials to make my shoes," Mr Aquilina added.

Apart from the odd shoe-repair, the last time he touched a shoe-making tool was 26 years ago, when he decorated his wife's wedding shoes in lace. Since then, life's busy pace has not left him much time to practise his skills, not even as a hobby.

The cobbler trade is ingrained in Mr Aquilina as his father inherited the job from his grandfather.

While his two sisters, Josephine and Miriam, were never really interested in the business, he loved spending time with his father at the workshop in Valletta. "I used to head straight there after school," he recalled, describing his father as a "very disciplined and committed man".

Yet, although Mr Aquilina acquired the skills, he decided to follow his passion for electronics and become a technician of hospital medical equipment.

"I was the one to break the link. Although I still know how to make and fix shoes I decided to take a different path. I still fix things in my job, however," he said.

As he dwelled on distant memories of his grandfather, Peter, he remembered being fascinated by one particular story.

His nannu worked in a shoe factory in Ħamrun and was handpicked to make the wedding shoes of Queen Elizabeth II who lived in Malta on and off for two years between 1949 and 1951.

"My grandfather handmade the queen's wedding shoes, which were then decorated in lace by the nuns of Żejtun. Together they presented her with shoes and a matching handbag," he said proudly.

Mr Aquilina's father and uncles continued the family trade when his grandfather passed away.

His father spent some years working in a factory and opened a shop in Vittoriosa where he repaired shoes on a part-time basis. He was awarded a contract to repair the shoes of British soldiers and Mr Aquilina's late mother, Rosaria, helped out.

After that, Fredu l-Iskarpan bought a shop in St Paul's Street, corner with St Dominic Street, in Valletta where he worked from 1958 until about 2004, when he retired.

Apart from repairing them, Mr Aquilina's father also designed and made shoes for sale. He also made shoes according to his customer's wishes and even adjusted shoes for people with disabilities.

"I used to love helping him. We'd take the measurements, buy the leather and other materials needed, design the shoe and put it together," he said adding he could not wait to make himself a new pair.