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Summary

The remains of a leather shoe, found in a well formed of a hollow tree trunk, was initially thought to date back to the Iron Age. However further analysis has shown that the shoe is from the Saxon period (7-8th century AD).

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FINDSPOT (VII to VIII - 640 AD to 760 AD) + Sci.Date

Full description

BBC News Website, 10th May 2005, 2005, 7. Iron Age Shoe Unearthed At Quarry (Article in Serial). SDV352745.

A BBC News website article, May 10th 2005, suggests that the shoe is thought to be at least 2,000 years old. It was excavated from an English quarry. The size 10 shoe should be displayed at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter.

Malvern, J., 2005, As a 2,000-year-old shoe is rescued from a tree… (Article in Serial). SDV360536.

The Times newspaper article (Wednesday 11th May 2005). The hollowed tree trunk had sunk into the hillside at the site of a natural spring. The remaining water was thought to have filled the well for thousands of years which protected the shoe from the attacks of microbes.

Reed, S. + Best, J., 2005, Britain's Oldest Shoe - and Two Wells (Article in Serial). SDV357289.

The excavation of an Iron Age well at Burlescombe has produced what appears to be Britain's oldest shoe.

Kennedy, M., 2005, Britain's Oldest Shoe an Iron Age Fashion Disaster, but Worth its Weight in Gold (Article in Serial). SDV360539.

The Guardian newspaper article (Wednesday 11th May 2005). The shoe was found preserved in clay, and was used to line an ancient well made from a hollowed out tree trunk.

BBC News Website, 2005, Iron Age Shoe Unearthed at Quarry (Article in Serial). SDV322361.

Excavations undertaken by Exeter Archaeology at Town Farm Quarry, Burlescombe revealed an Iron Age shoe within a hollowed tree trunk. The shoe was so well preserved that stitch and lace holes are visible in the leather. The tree trunk was one of two timber-built wells found on the site.

Reed, C., 2005, The Sole Survivor (Article in Serial). SDV360540.

Sun newspaper article (June 13th, 2005). The shoe is believed to be 3,000 years old, and possibly the oldest to be found in the UK. The clay encasing the shoe, meant that oxygen could not reach it, therefore preventing its decay.

Best, J. + Gent, T., 2007, Bronze Age Burnt Mounds and Early Medieval Timber Structures at Town Farm Quarry, Burlescombe, Devon (Article in Serial). SDV360988.

Gent, T., 2007, Bronze Age Burnt Mounds and Early Medieval Wells at Town Farm Quarry, Burlescombe (Article in Serial). SDV344682.

Two wells dated to the 7th century AD found during excavation around a natural spring by Exeter Archaeology prior to quarrying. Dendrochronological analysis of timbers from the springhead indicated that construction occurred during the Spring of AD629.
A shoe, made from a single piece of bovine leather, was found within the hollowed trunk. It measured approximately 250 millimetres long by 120 millimetres wide across the tread.
The leather produced a calibrated radio carbon date of AD640-760. This is some 50-100 years earlier than that of the tree trunk within which it was found suggesting the shoe was lost some time before the setting of the trunk, possibly during the use of the plank-lined feature and that it fell into the trunk as it infilled.

Friendship-Taylor, D., N.D, Leather from Burlescombe, Devon (Un-published). SDV360541.

The leather shoe from Burlescombe would be an extremely rare survival from the prehistoric period. It is possibly the first example of a recognisable shoe, rather than scraps of leather. It measures approximately 30cm in length, with several presumed thong holes to draw up the shoe around the foot.Another edge, which may be a heel seem, consists of a series of at least 6 small holes, about 1mm in diameter and 5mm apart.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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