73238 shoes&pattens7

47

Shoemaking and cobbling

of long narrow trimming pieces that have been found on London sites seems to indicate that, whatever the method, the results were not always precise; and besides, some of the smali inserts stitched into uppers are morę likely the result of miscalculation than of design.

Once cut to shape, the shoe was moulded on a last, a wooden form that served as a model of the foot (cf. Fig. 71b; for two examples from York, see MacGregor 1982, 144-5 and Fig. 74). The last probably was not always an exact model of the foot but may often have been adapted to suit the demands of current fashion and preference (cf. Salaman 1986, 144-5). After moulding and stitch-ing, which was done with it inside-out, the shoe was then turned right-side out: hence the name ‘tum-shoe’. Although present-day shoemakers now specialise in particular aspects of the craft, it is probable that in the medieval period the entire process was carried out by a single craftsman (ibid., 20). Indeed ordinances passed in 1272 for-bidding cordwainers to tan leather and tanners to make shoes imply that some members of the craft followed the whole process through from tanning the hides to making and selling the shoes (Mander 1931, 28-30). Despite a generał adherence to certain styles, there are likely to have been differ-ences in techniąues and practices between one shoemaker and another, and this is perhaps shown by the variations to be observed amongst styles which are superficially the same (compare, for example, Figs. 89 and 90).

Throughout the period represented by the present collection, the method of making a turn-shoe remained relatively consistent, with the main variations occurring in the cutting and planning. Leaving aside the earliest shoe (Fig. 82), which foliows the llth-century tradition in having the lasting-margin inset from the sole edge (see fur-ther, Pritchard forthcoming), it seems that most 12th-century shoes had the sole and upper joined directly together with a shallow seam (Fig. 72); but by the end of the 12th century it became normal to construct a morę watertight seam by stitching a smali triangular piece of leather, a rand, between the two main elements (Fig. 73). In the middle of the 15th century the method of construction was altered with the introduction of the turn-welt. It is possible that this originated with the stitching-on of a ‘repair’ sole, or ‘clump’ (see below, p. 90 and Fig. 123): not as a true repair but before the shoe was actually worn. Several shoes from Swan Lane (early 15th-century) have soles that are completely untouched, even though a ‘clump’ has been affixed to them and worn through. From here it would be but a smali de-velopment to extend the rand and stitch the ‘clump’ to this, after the shoe had been turned, rather than to the sole or upper (Fig. 74). In this transitional stage tunnel-stitching might still have been used on the outer sole (shown in Fig. 74), as indeed seems proven by at least one 15th-century turn-welt shoe that has recently been recovered from the City of London Boys’ School site (ex-cavated in 1986, too late for publication here). Fully-developed turn-welt shoes, however, seem

74 Turn-welt construction. The upper, inner sole and rand have been sewn in the manner shown in Fig. 73, but the rand extends beyond the edge of the shoe and has been used to affix, with tunnel-stitching, a second, outer sole.