How I miss those English made Clarks' chukka boots.
This was a more or less Homeric thread.  Like 'Gone With The Wind' it ran and ran. 
I was mightily upset when my Italian boots finally gave up the ghost last summer - the more so as I was told they couldn't be repaired only to hear that contradicted after I'd binned them.  But, as my wife pointed out, I wasn't going to call the first guy a liar. 
I really like my Astorflex.  Just not as much.  The old pair were just perfection.