Since discovering these little clogs when clearing out my Mother's house in Northumberland I have been trying to find out more about them.
These two books have yielded lots of useful information about the history of clogs, how they were made, what materials were used, who wore them, and the industrial and social history of the time. Shoes of the working class.
There is a great quote in the Bob Dobson book "Clogs have souls as well as souls"
 |
One of the shoe collection cases at Northampton
|
I have also contacted several museums who hold shoes as part of their collections to try and date my clogs.
Rebecca Shawcross from the Northampton Museum service, and an expert in shoes, has been most helpful and dates my shoes to around 1900. They could have been worn by either a boy or a girl. Or maybe both in their lifetime
The laces make them more unusual as clasp fittings were more common. They are in good condition. But it has led me no closer to knowing why they were kept and in the back of a wardrobe stuffed with pages from the Newcastle Journal from 1970.
One theory which emerged from my reading is that they may have been found concealed in a building rather than kept as a family memory. We did move into a Nothumberland farm house around that time with building work carried out in 1970.
Are they 'concealed shoes' - this has led me down a whole new aveue of enquiry. Lots more research required. I am enjoying this journey of discovery.
