shoes&pattens
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18

Shoes and Pattens

As far as can be judged from the surviving frag-ments, nearly all the Iow boots and ankle-shoes shared a similar one-piece ‘wrap-around’ type of construction with a main seam on the inner side and, normally, a smali triangular insert at the base (Figs. 20, 21, 23). The latter is a detail found only rarely before the early 13th century. A further difference from earlier examples is the absence of an insert at the vamp throat such as could provide an overlapping flap opening (cf. Figs. 5, 8). In-stead, the sides normally meet roughly in the centre and, sińce there is no tracę of a tongue, it seems that the front of the boot would have been closed tightly over the instep by the drawstring but may have remained open at the top. This difference can be appreciated by comparing the example illustrated in Fig. 20, which was madę entirely in the 12th-century manner and even has a pointed toe, with those in Figs. 21-23. Topbands and other reinforcement-pieces are not common but, occasionally, as on the very smali child’s shoe illustrated (Fig. 23), the presence of a butt seam along the upper edge suggests that an upper section may have been added to form ąuite a tali boot.

The fuli boot fastened with a drawstring wound many times round the leg is a further style which continued in use into the early 13th century. The elaborate type, in which the string passed through separate vertical thongs (cf. Figs. 15-16), is represented only twice, but there are several examples of the simple version. The illustrated boot (Fig. 24) is very similar to one found in the earlier groups (Fig. 13) - even to the extent of having the same strip insert along the upper edge - but, like several others of this datę, it has circular holes, rather than slits, for a very thin string less than 2 mm across. It is also remarkable for the number and complexity of the inserts on the inner side, a feature shared with one of the ankle-shoes described below (Fig. 27) and perhaps suggestive of difficulties in obtaining hides of sufficient size and quality at this time (see further, p. 46).

Among the most interesting shoes of this period are those laced at the side. This style of fasten-ing has hardly been found in earlier London assemblages and, conversely, has been found only sporadically in later ones before emerging as the ‘standard’ in the early/mid 15th century (see below, p. 43).There are six examples in all, of

21, 22, 23 Early/mid 13th-century ankle-shoes. Scalę 1:3 approx.

which three are shoes cut below the ankle and two are ankle-shoes (Tables 1-2). All seem to have been laced on the inner side. Among the shoes, the two which are most complete are almost iden-tical in form, being ąuite high at the instep but very Iow at the heel; both may originally have had topbands (cf. Figs. 27 & 90) - though these no longer survive - and reinforcement-pieces over the lace-holes on the inside. One (Fig. 25) has elaborate openwork decoration based on lunate, circular, rectangular and cruciform motifs, and is of two-part construction; the vamp and ąuarters remain intact but a smali insert, which joined the vamp on the inner side and carried one set of lace-holes, is now missing. The other shoe (Fig. 26) is madę entirely in one piece, and on the vamp throat is a rough knife cut with a pair of holes on either side, which possibly was madę by the wearer to relieve pressure on a high instep.