Finds in chimneys and under floor boards or above ceilings are well documented. Shoes hidden in wall cavities or ‘walled in’ is also common as is footwear left in roof area. Some finds have been under stairs or in the foundations of the building. Concealed shoes have been found in cottages, farms, manor houses as well as public buildings large and small. Churches, hospitals, schools and orphanages, workhouses, barracks, railway stations, Charlie Chaplin’s film studios, museums; and Oxford colleges have all had shoe finds. According to Swann (1969), most finds are by workmen or DIY occupants. Unfortunately many do not record the actual site nor have photographic evidence to present. Many finds are discarded, dismissed as aberrations.

Hiding artifacts like shoes in certain parts of buildings is thought by many to ward off evil spirits. Some speculate the tradition comes from a very old custom of killing someone then placing their body in the foundation to ensure the building holds together. A common belief is because old shoes keep the shape of the wearer’s foot, they trapped the spirit of the deceased and so were strategically hidden near openings where spirits could most easily gain access and lurk with menacing intention e.g. doors, windows, chimneys etc. The most popular theory is superstitious people kept old shoes of loved ones in the belief shoes retained the spirit of the owner and as omens bring good luck or more likely ward off evil. A common belief was the devil and his cohorts do not like the smell of humans and found the combination of leather and sweat repugnant. Concealing shoes was widespread in Europe with more than a thousand concealment shoes, some dating back to the fourteenth century, reported in Western Europe alone.

Many of the concealed items found have been children’s shoes, or clothes. Experts believe these were chosen because the power and innocence of the young were thought hold over evil. To occultists children’s shoes were pure and unsullied by adult life which would make it a stronger and more powerful totem. he common belief was the personalized items acted as a defiant, and permanent, reminder to the spiritual world, of the primacy of human beings. They may also have been kept as a keepsake of a lost child. Others believe these were a sign of fertility with a child’s shoe in the master bedroom a zemi (ancestral spirit) to having lots of children. Shoes were not the only personal items found hidden in old buildings and these include: coins, spoons, pots, goblets, food, knives, toys, gloves, and pipes.

Concealed shoes are typically well worn and often found as single shoes, very rarely in pairs. More left shoes have been found than right and no one is sure of the significance although, some believe it may be the heart side which is important. More female shoes have been found. No contemporary reference in diaries etc., has ever been found to where the shoes are concealed and many believe to communicate this information would in the minds of the occupants reduce the power of the item and risk the Evil Eye. Others feel contemporary writers did not describe it since superstition ran counter to prevailing religious beliefs and the Puritans punishment of witchcraft and magic was well-known. Some speculate the tradition of hiding shoes was a male preoccupation and kept secret almost out of fear that talking about it would reduce its effectiveness.

Most concealed shoes are usually well worn and are found in old chimney stacks or in the loft of old houses. These are thought to have been placed there by either the original builders or when the shoes date to a period after the houses were built, subsequent occupants. According to Swann (1999) an old Hertfordshire custom for luck was to discard old shoes by putting one to water and other to fire. This may in part explain one shoe hidden in the chimney. A pattern has however, emerged and old shoes are frequently restricted to openings on the north-east corner of a structure. Occultists believe this is the side evil spirits are thought to gain entry.

According to the Guinness Book of Records in 2010, 58 shoes and 189 shoe fragments were discovered beneath the fireplace of Gelli Iago, a 17th-century farmhouse in the Nant Gwynant Valley, Snowdonia National Park , Wales. The cache discovered by builders included men’s, women’s and children’s shoes, roughly dating to the 1870s-80s. Building contractors working on the external walls of a 400-year-old cottage. Experts believe the find could form “the largest collection of concealed footwear ever discovered in the UK.

There are over 1,000 recorded concealed shoes which have been found in the UK and the earliest dates back to the 14th century. A collection of 100 concealed shoes is kept at the Northampton Museum where an index is kept to record all UK finds. The Northampton Museum the Concealed Shoe Index (CSI) contains more than 1,900 records of shoes found in the fabric of old buildings. One the earliest examples in the Northampton Museum is a Tudor shoe circa 1540, discovered in an Oxford college, but others come from as far away as Egypt and Chile. Shoes are frequently found alongside other objects but no one has ever found a written record of why this custom was practiced. Concealed shoes in older buildings were not restricted to the UK and are regularly reported across Europe, North America and Australia.

In North America concealed shoes have been reported in New England, but there have also been finds of buried shoes as far south as Virginia and far west as Missouri. A treasure trove of old shoes was found hidden in the house walls of two buildings in Wayland, Massachusetts. A rare of a baby’s shoe was reported when an 18th century house was being demolished. The ankle high white shoe was discovered in a wall with some small wooden toys and ears of corn. Since 1750 the house had undergone many additions and experts remain unclear whether the shoes were hidden at the time the original house was built or in a later renovation. Others finds include a toddler’s shoe built into the wall near a downstairs fireplace in another house, hidden with it was an old sleigh bell.

Renovators to an old house in Walworth Township (a township in Becker County, Minnesota) found a baby shoe with what appeared to be human remains, concealed in a wall in the 100 year old house. The matter was reported to the authorities but as there was no evidence of a crime there was not much of a case to investigate. This one was reported but many others are simply dismissed as aberrations.

Hidden in the walls of a Gettysburg dormitory was a man’s boot made from calfskin leather and estimated to be 160 years old. The boot had a square toe and thin sole. The boot was cut neatly in half, and determined to be deliberate and made before the hand-sewn boot was concealed within the wall. Other similar finds have been discovered elsewhere but scholars are unable to explain why these boots were cut in half. Crews working to convert the 180-year-old Schmucker Hall, a former dormitory at the Lutheran Theological Seminary , into an interpretive museum found the cut shoe which was one of four with the oldest dated to the 1830s. Workers also discovered letters to Civil War soldiers and glass sarsaparilla bottles.

<

Ian Evans is an Australian historian and collects examples of concealed shoes from across the Big Brown land. Evans has reported over 130 sites across Australia, from bridges and houses, to prisons where shoes and other clothing have been concealed and believes many more items, possibly thousands, remain hidden in the country’s older settlements.

In the south east pylon of the Sydney Harbor Bridge someone left a child’s shoe in an access tunnel, not far from the Opera House. Evans believes this was concealed by a builder or stonemason in order to protect the structure from evil forces. In the 1923 when the Bridge was build young children did not work on the project and the shoe was new and of high quality, suggesting it was planted there deliberately.

One other remarkable example in Australia was found at an isolated 19th century country house in Western Creek, Tasmania. At first the owner found a single shoe in an attic space and dismissed it, thinking it may have been a rat or possum that dragged it into its lair. Then when he found a further 20 shoes hidden in other hard-to-get-at locations behind walls, up chimneys, and in attic spaces he realized this was more than coincidence.

Footnote
The Northampton Museum keep a concealed shoe index and are keen to add to the index. The Museum requires the following information:

Address of building
Date of the building if known and date of any alterations / building work
What the building was / is such as a private house, pub, farm etc.
Where it was found within the building
Note if anything else was found with it
Description of the footwear
Date of the footwear
Images of the footwear in situ

Further Reading
Cameron E., Swann J., Volken M., and Pitt F. (1998) Hidden shoes and concealed beliefs Archaeologoical Leather Group Newsletter 7 February 1998, 2-6.
Dinah Eastop Deliberately Concealed Garments Project Making sense of garment concealment
Dixon-Smith D (1990) Concealed Shoes Archaeological Leather Group Newsletter Spring No6 pp2-4.
Hiding shoes and ancient superstitions BBC News Indonesia (2012)

Evans I (2015) <“https://theconversation.com/these-walls-can-talk-australian-history-preserved-by-folk-magic-47636”> These walls can talk: Australian history preserved by folk magic The Coversation
Kennedy D (2012) Concealed shoes: Australian settlers and an old superstition BBC News Magazine
Lambourne M (2019) The mystery of concealed shoes National Museums Scotland
Mackay A (1991) Northampton Museums Concealed Shoe Index Archaeologoical Leather Group Newsletter 7.
Merrifield R ,(1987) The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic , B.T. Batsford Ltd., London, 1987
Prickett K. (2017) Northampton museum ‘concealed shoes’ index to go online BBC News

Sutton C (2015) Mummified cats, children’s shoes and an EMBRYO in a purse: Some of the haunting objects hidden in the walls and under floorboards of Australian homes in a secret 19th century trend to ward off black magic Daily Mail Australia
Swann, J. (1969) Shoes concealed in buildings. Northampton County Borough Museums and Art Gallery Journal, 6, December 1969, 8-21.
Ditto, Supplement (1988).

Swann J (1996) Shoes concealed in buildings Costume, Number 30, pp. 56-69(14)

Reviewed 22/06/2023