Featured Help dating child's shoe

Hi there,

We found the remains of a child's shoe whilst working on the house and I was wondering if anyone would be able to help us put an approximate age to it. The condition is really poor but you can see the basic construction in the photos. Grateful for any advice!

Thanks

 

Hi,
Many years ago people built a house and added an old shoe to help prevent lightening from striking the house. My Grams old house built in 1684 found several old shoes in the walls. The only old things I found in my old houses was an 1905 dime built into a kitchen window in my farmhouse.
greg

 

Katie, where are you from?

 

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It's just the shoe sole? Not the shoe itself? So questions are... How old is your house? How long is it? Is the toe rounded or squared? (Hard to tell from photograph.) Does the stitching appear to be machine or hand done? How thick is it? And, it doesn't appear to follow the shape of a foot -- there's no narrowing for a heel, for instance. Is it the full sole or only half?

Debora

 

It makes me think of some of the shoes found along the Thames foreshore.
http://mudlarking.blogspot.com/2012/03/shoe-but-from-what-century.html
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/14/london-history-mud-thames-foreshore-mudlarking

 

WOW - Look at all the brass nails used to hold the sole to the shoe!

 

What I suspected long ago... I need new glasses! From a quick internet search, I found that brass tacks were being used in shoemaking into the 20th century.

Debora

 

Thanks for all the replys! The house is in South Wales and we aren't sure on the exact age, but based on the fireplace it may be 17th century. I'm sure the shoe sole isn't that old but I'm just curious to know where it might fit in to the house's history. I heard that children's shoes were sometimes hidden beneath floor boards and under stairs to act as a decoy for any evil spirits entering the house.