52309 shoes&pattens3

23

Shoes from London sites, 1100-1450

34 Late 13th-century boot. Scalę 1:3 approx.

L

Fuli boots were also fastened with toggles but here they were seated in a senes of slots spaced evenly up the inner side; on the outer side was a corresponding set of slotted tags which were secured over the toggles at the front of the boot. The most complete example of this type (Fig. 34) is of ‘wrap-around’ construction with an insert extending to the fuli height at the front. It appears to have had no tongue, but where they meet at the instep the sides were edged with long strips, one of which rosę above the top of the boot and curled over in a decorative flourish; this feature can be seen - albeit in much less exaggerated fashion -on a boot from an earlier deposit (Fig. 13) and may have been restricted to boots of this generał form and dimensions.

The popularity of the toggle fastening is to some extent surprising, not least because it seems to have been impossible to adjust the length of the toggle tags to fit the individual foot. In most cases where it survives the tag is so long that the flaps cannot have closed tightly over the instep and walking would have been very difficult. Indeed, as a means of fastening shoes the toggle has a curiously intermittent history, at least in London, for it first appears on a late Saxon ankle-shoe in the pre-1974 Museum collection (Pritchard forth-coming; cf. MacGregor 1982, Fig. 72 No. 627 for an example from Anglo-Scandinavian York). Here it is to be seen Iow down on the outer side, secur-ing a broad flap passing right across the instep. Yet its revival in the late 13th century, after a lapse of at least 200 years, was of considerable significance in the development of medieval shoe fashion because it introduced the concept of fastening a shoe across the instep by means of two movable flaps - a concept which was standardised in the buckles and straps of the late 14th century. This in tum madę possible the making of low-cut shoes which, because of the shape of the foot, are in-herently unsuited to fastening with a drawstring or with laces at the side. Toggle-fastened shoes and ankle-shoes appear to have been madę in a rangę of sizes, including those suitable for very young children. The smallest in the collection (Fig. 31) is an exact replica of an adult shoe, but now lacks its tongue and topband; an insert which carried the second ‘buttonhole’ is also missing from the inner side. Another shoe is only slightly larger, having a sole which measures just 169 mm. When allow-ance is madę for 5 per cent shrinkage during con-servation, this would correspond to the modem child’s size 8. The other three complete soles measure between 240 and 246 mm (modem adult’s size 4-5).

The only other style which was at all common in