Skan!

Shoes from London sites, 1100-1450

In this chapter shoe fashions in London over a period of 350 years are described. The dating evidence has been provided entirely by archae-ology - normally pottery, coins and other datable objects associated with the shoes themselves or dendrochronological dating of timbers associated with the deposits in which they were found - and for fuli details the reader is referred to Appendbt 1 (pp. 131-6). In all cases the illustrations are of actual shoes and boots in the collection, and they are reproduced at a scalę of one third. Missing parts are shown with dotted lines where they can be confidently inferred - either from stitching, impressions and other indications on the shoe itself or from similar shoes in the collection where these parts are still present. A letter ‘L’ or ‘R’ is used in the illustrations to denote left and right shoes respectively. Further details, including registration numbers and individual dates, are to be found in the List of figures and concordance (pp. 126-30), and ‘exploded’ drawings of many shoes, showing all the components, can be studied in the following chapter (pp. 51-74).

The early/mid 12th century (Fig. 3)

The earliest shoes to be described in this survey were probably in use during the second ąuarter of the 12th century and were found in just two deposits, at Seal House and Billingsgate. The groups are very smali (8 and 13 registered shoes respectively) but of considerable importance, because they seem to show that there occurred at this time ąuite a sudden, yet decisive, transition from the styles and techniąues of the preceding

3 Early 12th-century ankle-shoes. Drawstring fastening. The shoe on the right has an embroidered vamp stripe. For linę drawings of the same shoes see Figs. 5 & 8.

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