In 2023 I became interested in the concealed shoes phenomenon. It started from research alongside sculptures I was trying to make, shifted into a workshop proposal, and now is a collection of scattered notes.
Concealed shoes is the practice of hiding shoes within the fabric of houses, homes and other buildings. It has been evidenced in Britain and it's associated colonies, with the most discoveries dated between the 1500 and 1800s.
It is part of a wider range of latent and folk superstitions that have been evidenced to proliferate specifically during times of unrest, conflict and social disruption.
The shoes retrieved from their place of concealment were often well worn, damaged, patched and repaired, typically showing signs of multiple owners.
Some document the defuct profession of 'shoe translators', who would aquire old shoes in bulk, salvage parts that were still usable, and develop new shoes from these scraps to sell.
Whilst other concealed objects are easily missed, or perishable due to material, shoes are the most widely surviving items, and this practice has inadvertently provided the largest historic archive of working peoples footwear from the early modern period, which would not have been conserved otherwise.
It has been suggested that these shoes would operate as demonic traps when concealed in the internal structure of a building: as absorption devices to catch or funnel unwanted spirits away from it's inhabitants. Others have suggested that they were for good luck, concealed by builders to sustain their work.
Historically this phenomenon was a secretive activity, and it was considered a bad omen to remove these shoes from their hiding places, or to discuss it's occurrence.
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The recovered shoes would often be found alongside other items, including: clothing, toys, small objects, bottles of urine, workers shirts, coins, petals or pieces of paper, newspapers or deceased cats.
They have been mainly retrieved from households, but also pubs, churches and monasteries, during renovations and reconstruction in the last 50 years
They have often been discovered around the openings of buildings - around the doors, windows, chimneys. But also uncovered from under floors, above ceilings, and in roofs: tucked into thatch, or sitting between rafters.
The spaces where they were found would typically have been sealed after placing the objects.
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The activity has been said to be continued by residents, renters and owners of these properties, but also by the builders who would modify and maintain these buildings over time.
It has been suggested that builders would conceal the shoes during renovations to bring good luck in their work: with shoes being symbolic of a journey, and therefore bringing the next job quickly.
Clogs discovered concealed within defunct mines have been associated with rites of termination: when the tunnels were closed after becoming exhausted of material, and sealed.
The shoes of children and adolescents discovered largely outnumbers those of adults.
Outside of Britain, evidence of this practice has also been discovered in Europe, Australia, North America and the wider colonies of the British empire, with settlers and convicts carrying the practice with them.
The peaks of findings, when dated to their original date of concealment, coincided with periods of war.
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Concealing objects within the fabric of buildings traces back to prehistoric foundation burial rituals, when sacrificial objects, animals and human remains would be placed under a building during construction.
Buried cats were believed to guard from both real rats and spiritual vermin, both thought to spread disease.
The shoes have been said to operate as apotropaic devices to 'catch' unwanted spirits: which would be attracted by the human smell of a shoe, entering them and finding themselves trapped.
There is the understanding that a shoe is the receptacle of the person who wore them, retaining the shape, personality, the essence of the wearer, with a person’s soul being imprinted into them. These concealed shoes would emanate the personality of the previous owner, as a guardian for that property.
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An early figure attributed to the activity is John Schorn, a priest of North Marston, Buckinghamshire between 1290 and 1314. The earliest documented concealed shoes date back to this time.
John Schorne was not officially canonised as a saint, but widely known at the time, and after his death his parish became a popular pilgrimage site. He is often depicted holding a black boot, with a small devil looking out from it.
This has been attributed to two stories: one of him being called to perform an exorcism on an epileptic parish member, during which he used a boot to capture the devil which he removed.
The other story is attributed to a spring which appeared where his walking stick had touched the floor, providing water to the North Marston area. This well was said to be healing of gout, an inflammation of the feet caused by bad diet.
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It has been said that concealed shoes were a secretive practice, considered bad luck to talk about, with the effectivity reduced the more often the superstition is disclosed, and that it was unlucky to remove the shoes from their hiding place.
The Northampton museum currently holds over 2000 of these items in the Concealed Shoe index.
This information is pulled from essays by Ralph Merrifield in the 1980s of archaeolgy's relation to ritual and magic, June Swann's writings in the 1990s as the keeper of the shoe collection at Northampton Museum and founder of Concealed Shoe archive, and Hilary Davidson's more recent writings around grave textiles and textile archaelogy.