shoes&pattens
3

13

Shoes from London sites, 1100-1450

three rows of embroidery, rather than a single row as on the shoe, and seems originally to have had a large triangular insert on the inner side; there was a second insert at the instep, and the arrangements here may have been similar to those on the long pointed ankle-shoe (cf. Figs. 5 & 86), including a long flap which overlapped the smali existing flap on the outer side.

The plain shoes of this datę can be summarised briefly, because few merit particular attention. Ali were madę by the ‘wrap-around’ method, but one is slightly different in that it was designed to in-clude a smali triangular insert (now missing) in the angle between the main seam and the lasting margin on the inner side (Fig. 9). This is the first appearance of a cutting style which occurred sporadically throughout the later 12th century but became standard only in the early 13th. Some other ankle-shoes are noteworthy for the pre-sence of large cut-outs in the upper. These would have had an ornamental value, contrasting the colours and texture of the leather with those of the wearer’s hose beneath. One (not illustrated) had a single circular cut-out in the ąuarters, which was seamed at the edge, either to prevent it from stretching or, possibly, to secure a lining. Another (Fig. 10), which is additionally unusual in that it seems to have had a large triangular reinforce-ment-piece on the outside of the ąuarters, is cut very Iow over the toes in the manner of a modern ‘court’ or ‘bar’ shoe, a style which is occasionally seen on contemporary illustrations (see below, pp. 113-4).

The finał shoe to be discussed is ąuite different from any other in these groups, because the upper appears to have been madę entirely from a single piece of leather and was shaped at both the heel and vamp throat (Fig. 11). There is nothing to suggest that it was fastened by a drawstring or any other means, and its function may have been that of a modem slipper. The style evidently had a long life, for several examples were found in deposits of a century later (see below, pp. 16-17 and Figs. 18-19).

The later 12th century

Fashions in the second half of the 12th century are represented by three groups of rather frag-mentary shoes: one from Milk Street (3 regis-tered shoes), a second from Seal House (10 registered shoes) and a third from Billingsgate (28 registered shoes). As in the first half of the century, all the uppers are of one-piece ‘wrap around’ construction, but most of the soles - some of which were madę in two sections - are now clearly waisted in the centre. At the same time, the exaggerated toes of the earlier period passed completely out of fashion - there is only one pos-sible example - and while some shoes, especially those in the older tradition with embroidered vamps (see below), still retained slight points (cf. Fig. 12), most now had toes that were ąuite broad and rounded (Figs. 13, 16). The front of one such shoe survives almost intact, and, significantly, it has a rand still stitched between the upper and the sole. Unattached rands, rare in the early 12th-century groups, were found in considerable quan-tities at Seal House, suggesting that they had come into use almost universally by the late 12th century.

Drawstrings continued to be by far the most common means of fastening - which makes their absence from contemporary illustrations (see below, p. 114) all the morę surprising - but there are also two fragments from tali ankle-shoes or boots which were laced at the side. This fastening method was to become popular in the first half of the next century (see below, p. 18), and remained in use thereafter until the very end of the medieval period. Among the drawstring shoes themselves, at least one early 12th-century style lasted into the second half of the century. This was the ankle-shoe, sometimes with an embroidered stripe on the vamp, fastened by a drawstring which passed through a single, or morę rarely a double, row of slots (cf. Fig. 8). There are at least four examples from Billingsgate, one from Seal House and two from Milk Street. As before they tend to be in the smaller sizes, and the illustrated example (Fig. 12) must have been wom by a very young child. It is complete except for an insert on the inner side, which would originally have extended across the instep and sealed the vamp throat by joining the smali surviving flap on the outer side.