Abstract
With now over sixty years experience of finding worn-out shoes in unusual places, I believe my reactions may be typical of others thus confronted. First, wondering why anyone would place a pair of woman’s old shoes under the floorboards. Obviously they had no value, unless sentimental. So could they have been used for hiding cash or valuables? Hardly practical, no value, no use, set the puzzle aside. That was about 1950–51 when there were two finds on show in Northampton Museum, this pair of c.1800, and ten Tudor men’s, women’s and children’s shoes found in a walled-up cupboard by the chimney of a house on London Wall said to have escaped the Great Fire of 1665. These I dismissed as worn out and not worth packing when the family moved.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Atzbach, Rainer, ‘Late and Post-medieval Time Capsules: Archaeology from the Upper Stories’, Athena Review, 4(3) (2006) and 4(4) (2007), 44–52.
Barker, Norman F., ‘U.S. Army Fort Rosencrans, San Diego, California’, Society for Historical Archaeology Newsletter, 34(1) (Spring 2001), 21–22.
Crews, Ed, (Summer 2001) ‘A Shadowy Side of Early American History’, Colonial Williamsburg n.n. (Summer 2001), 32–37.
Drabble, Margaret, The Realms of Gold (London, 1977), 357.
Driel-Murray, Carol van, ‘And did those Feet in Ancient Time … Feet and shoes as a material projection of the self’, in TRAC 98 Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (Oxford, 1999), 131–140.
Easton, Timothy, ‘Spiritual Middens’, in Paul Oliver (ed.) Encyclopaedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World Vol.1 (Cambridge, 1997), 568.
Evans, Ian, ‘Touching Magic’ (Ph.D. thesis, 2011), relating to concealed finds in Australia, available to download at http://www.academia.edu. University of Newcastle (NSW, Australia, 2010).
Geisler, Jessica W., ‘Tracing the Footsteps of Ritual: Concealed Footwear in Quincy, Massachusetts’, (University of Massachusetts Ph.D. thesis, 2003).
Goubitz, Olaf, (1989) ‘Verborgen Schoeisel’ in Westerheem XXXVIII-5 (Archaeologische Werkgemeentschap voor Nederland, 1989), 233–239.
Hoggard, Brian, ‘Homes Hidden Charms’, SPAB News, 22(3) (London, 2001), n.p.
Lloyd, Penn, The History of the Mysterious Papillon Hall, Market Harborough, Leicestershire (Leicester, 1977).
Manning, M. Chris, ‘Homemade Magic, Concealed Deposits in Architectural Contexts in the Eastern United States’, (M.A. thesis, 2012), available to download at http://www.academia.edu. Department of Anthropology, Ball State University (Muncie, IN, 2012).
Moad, Michael, ‘The Old Vicarage, Upchurch, and the Discovery of Leather Shoes’, Kent Archaeological Review, 45 (Autumn, 1979), 110–112.
Nevinson, J. L., The Times Letters page, 5 February 1934: he asked for reasons for concealments.
Newman, Cathy, (2006 September) quoting June Swann ‘Man’s Shoe — Leather, with hobnailed sole and heel, slashed, 1660–1669’; in National Geographic, 210(3) (September, 2006), 86–87.
Orlita, Alois & Sixtova, ‘The Finds of Leather Items Including Footwear in Jewish Synagogues’ in Obuv v Historii/The Shoes in History 2004 Conference (Zlín, 2006): on CD with English translations following Czech, English version of this third from last.
Rollason, D. W., (1988) Two Anglo-Saxon Rituals: Church Dedication and the Judicial Ordeal (Leicester, 1988).
Spindle, Konrad (ed.), (1998) Das Geheimnis der Turris Parva, Spuren Hochmittelaltlicher Vergangenheit in Schloß Tirol Nearchos Sonderheft 1 (Innsbruck, 1988). Catalogue of exhibition Landesmuseum, Schloß Tirol, including papers by Harald Stadler, and Petr Hlavácek.
Swann, June, ‘Shoes Concealed in Buildings’, Costume, 30 (1996) 56–69.
‘Interpreting Concealed Shoes and Associated Finds’ in Ericsson, I. and Atzbach, R. (eds) Depotfunde aus Gebäuden in Zentraleuropa/Concealed Finds from Buildings in Central Europe (Berlin, 2005). 115–119. This includes other papers from Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland given at the 2003 Bamberg Conference.
‘The Shoe’ (concealed Balnabodach), in Branigan, Keith (ed.), From Clan to Clearance: History and Archaeology on the Isle of Barra c850–1850 (Oxford, 2005), 84–85.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 June Swann
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Swann, J. (2015). Shoes Concealed in Buildings. In: Hutton, R. (eds) Physical Evidence for Ritual Acts, Sorcery and Witchcraft in Christian Britain. Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137444820_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137444820_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-56884-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-44482-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)