shoes&pattens
2

12

Shoes and Pattens

Many of the features described recur on other shoes of this period, though the toes are only slightly pointed. A large number, however, are decorated with embroidery - normally with a stripe running down the centre of the vamp, but in one instance also with a band on the ąuarters (see below, pp. 75-9). This is a form of ornament which is first recorded in London deposits of the late llth century - though elsewhere perhaps earlier - and which appears to have remained popular for about a century, barely outliving the 12th century. Shoes with vamp stripes were madę in a rangę of sizes (the four that are most complete measure c.177 (Fig. 8), 185, 225 and 230 mm (Fig. 7), corresponding to the modem sizes 10 (child), 11 (child), 4 (adult) and, probably, 3 (adult) respectively) and, as shown on contemporary illustrations (see below, p. 113), must have been wom by both men and women, though their ubiąuity would suggest that their use was not restricted to those of high social status. In com-parison with the larger boots and ankle-shoes (cf. Fig. 5), shoes of this kind seem quite lightly madę, and it is possible that they were intended mainly for indoor wear.

Only one of the embroidered pieces in the present groups is certainly from a shoe rather than

7 Early/mid 12th-century shoe. Scalę 1:3 approx.

an ankle-shoe (Fig. 7). In many respects it is very similar to the ankle-shoe depicted in Fig. 6, being of essentially one-piece construction - albeit with a smali strip insert (now missing) along the upper edge on the inner side - and having a smali vertical opening at the instep; it was apparently wom as a shp-on. The remainder are all ankle-shoes fas-tened with drawstrings which pass through a single, or in one case a double, row of slots -usually one slot on either side of the instep. The illustrated example (Fig. 8) has a stripe madę up of

8, 9, 10 Early/mid 12th-century ankle-shoes. Scalę: 1:3 approx.