Shoes of Early Ages.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 December 1932, Page 11

Shoes of Early Ages.

Beneath a building site in Little . Britain, in the City of London, workmen have uncovered a series of 50 shoes which disclose the fashions affected by Londoners from thetime of the Black Prince to Henry VII. (states a correspondent). The shoes are for the most part in an excellent state of preservation, but since many of them are obviously well-worn they are thought to have been thrown by their owners into a tributary of the city ditch which has long since been filled in. The collection, which is now in the possession of the Guildhall Museum, has been described as the finest single series of the kind which has been found in the City, “The earliest of the shoes show the toes grotesquely turned out,” an official stated, “corresponding to the fashion which is shown in the effigy of the Black Prince at Canterbury. This appears even in a child’s shoe about 6in. long, although its general shape is more sensible. ■ >

“These shoes also show a padded “toe” extending far- beyond the foot, an extravagant fashidh which did not last very long. The next development was what may be described as a normal pointed shoe, well-shaped to the foot in very much the modern manner.”