shoes&pattens4

134

Shoes and Pattens

intrinsically datable objects, a datę of c.1340 has been proposed - mainly on the basis of the pottery and of estimates of the time taken for certain foreshore deposits to accumulate.

(iii)    The third group appears to be slightly better preserved and consists of 70 registered shoes. The revetment with which it is associ-ated (Gil) has been dated by dendrochron-ology to c.1380, and this is supported by the evidence of jettons from the reclamation dumps behind.

(iv)    The fourth group is by far the best preserved, and came from dumps behind the finał - stone - revetment. These dumps covered virtually the whole area of the site and, sińce the volume excavated was probably at least twice that of any of the preceding dumps, a total of 359 registered shoes was recovered. The dumps themselves contained jettons and coins datable to c. 1430-40, and the revetment rested on a timber with a dendrochronological datę of c.1440.

1-6Milk Street, EC2, 1976 (MLK 76; Fig. 165.5) A series of Saxo-Norman buildings was un-covered, together with a large number of associ-ated pits ranging in datę from the 9th or lOth to the 12th or 13th centuries; above these was a seąuence of later medieval stone buildings front-ing Milk Street itself (Roskams & Schofield 1978). The only finds described in this volume are a group of three registered shoes from the latest of the pits (Pit 81). It is dated by pottery to the second half of the 12th century.

Public Cleansing Depot, Upper Thames Street, EC3 (Dowgate), 1959 (Fig. 165.6)

During observation on the east side of the Walbrook mouth, near the medieval Steelyard and public wharf of Dowgate, a clay river bank, probably of the late llth or early 12th century, and one or morę subseąuent timber revetments were recorded. A smali group of 9 registered shoes in dumps behind the latter was recovered in salvage conditions. Associated pottery suggests a datę in the middle of the 14th century (c. 1340-60).

Swan Lane/Upper Thames Street, EC3, 1981 (SWA 81; Fig. 165.7)

A smali controlled excavation exposed a late lOth- or llth-century clay bank, 12th/13th-cen-tury reclamation dumps and a series of hearths associated with the cloth-working industry. This was followed by a watching-brief covering some 4,000 sq m, during which further dumps and revetments extending up to the early 15th century were observed. The footwear was nearly all sal-vaged during the watching-brief, in difficult conditions and may be divided into four groups.

(i)    The earliest consists of just five registered shoes that were recovered from a series of deposits scattered across the site and associated with several different revetments. They are dated broadly to the second half of the 12th century by pottery and coins, although the same deposits also contain a large number of residual finds. For this reason, and because they have no cohesion as a group, the shoes have not been included in the generał descrip-tion of the collection (pp. 9-43); though the two with embroidered vamp stripes are con-sidered in the detailed analysis of this type (pp. 75-9).

(ii)    The second group (40 registered shoes) came from a series of large reclamation dumps which extended across the fuli width of the site, though the revetments associated with them were not fully recorded. The shoes were salvaged from a smali area and presum-ably represent only a tiny proportion of the vast assemblages once present. This is unfor-tunate, because in terms of style the surviving group is one of the most homogeneous ever to have been found in London and it would be useful to know if this homogeneity originally ran through the group as a whole. A terminus antę quem of 1279 is suggested by the presence of 38 coins of Henry III and the absence of any attributable to Edward I’s recoinage of 1279 itself. One of the coins can be dated to 1258 or later, but a pilgrim badge from Toulouse (1264 or later) and several badges thought to commemorate the cente-nary of Thomas Becket’s martyrdom (in 1170) bring the terminus post quem forward, probably to 1270. A time in the 1270s can thus be suggested with some confidence.

(iii)    The third group is again very smali (16 registered shoes) and came from reclamation dumps contemporary with a further revet-ment. A timber from the revetment itself has been dated by dendrochronology to 1394 or later, providing a rough terminus post quem,