41109 shoes&pattens1

Shoes from London sites, 1100-1450

appearance and construction it is remarkably similar to a common early 15th-century type (cf for example, Fig. 63) and almost certainly should be considered intrusive. The others are all parts of ankle-shoes with a toggle fastening, a totally new style which seems to have originated in the early 13th century and became increasingly fashionable in its second half. The most complete of these shoes has accordingly been reserved for detailed description below (Fig. 33).

The late 13th and early 14th centuries

It is these years which mark decisively the transi-tion from the styles of the early medieval period -in particular, the drawstring fastening - to those of the late medieval. Groups from four sites, Swan Lane (40 registered shoes; Table 3), Billingsgate (16 shoes), Trig Lane (17 shoes) and Ludgate (26 shoes: Table 4), illustrate these developments.

On shoes of all kinds the round or oval toe shape which developed in the first half of the 13th century remained in vogue, though occasionaliy a rather morę pointed style is seen (cf., for example, Fig. 31). The fuli boot continued to be produced, but it seems that the Iow boot or tali ankle-shoe, which was so popular earlier, steadily declined in numbers, in favour of the Iow ankle-shoe or shoe. This fact is not immediately obvious when comparing Tables 3-4 with Tables 1-2, but it should be remembered that the ankle-shoes counted in the former are almost all of the ‘Iow’, toggle-fastened type illustrated in Figs. 32-3, whereas those in the latter are mainly of the ‘tali’, drawstring type described above (pp. 17-18 & Figs. 20-23).

There was one major innovation in manufactur-ing techniąue in the second half of the 13th century: the use of a stout cord stitched just inside a cut edge to reinforce opening flaps and other areas of potential weakness (see further, pp. 22, 51). Almost without exception, shoes of all kinds had uppers madę as before in one piece, normally with a main seam on the inner side, but it appears that now there was much greater uniformity in styling and construction - madę possible, in particular, by the avoidance of irregularly-shaped inserts at the sides and instep - and that the leather used was morę regular in thickness and texture. This coincided with a greater use of calfskin for uppers, rather than sheep- or goat-skin as in the 12th and early 13th centuries, and it

21

29, 30, 31 Late 13th-century shoes. Scalę 1:3 approx,

may be that the supplies of livestock to the London market were reorganised considerably at this time (see below, pp. 44-6).

As Tables 3 and 4 show, fashions in the late 13th and early 14th centuries were dominated by the toggle fastening (Figs. 29-34). It is remarkable that this was the only type of fastening definitely recorded at Swan Lane, accounting for 28 of the 33 registered shoes, and the figures for Billingsgate are broadly comparable (9 shoes with toggles and just 4 certainly fastened in another way). At