Shoes
Shoes would generally be round-toed, flat soled and reach to the ankle or just below.    They were stitched or laced together with leather thongs, not nailed as with some Roman examples.   Shoes would be of leather (generally cow or deer) or rawhide.

Unfortunately there is very little in the way of surviving footwear from early Anglo-Saxon England, and what little there is tends to be very fragmentary.   What there is, however, does shoe that shoes in England were following the major continental developments, #1 and fortunately there are more surving (or at least reconstructable) shoes on the continent.

Shoes were generally of 'turn-shoe' construction. #2    This means that they were sewn together inside out, and then turned the right way around when finished.   This has the advantage of keeping all the stitching on the inside of the shoe, making it longer-lasting and more watertight.

Open Sandals
Sandals of the Iron Age and late Roman type were still being used, although enclosed shoes of one piece construction and probably two-piece shoes seem to make their first appearance in this period. 

The open topped sandal had been the basic shoe type since the early Iron Age (or perhaps earlier) in the Germanic world, and was introduced into the Roman wardrobe in the later Empire, probably brought in by the many Germanic mercenaries.   It is simply constructed from a single piece of leather, sewn (or rarely thonged) together at the heel and laced around the toes and over the top of the foot.   There is an incredible number of ways to shape the front of the shoe, from versions that expose most of the top of the foot to versions which are almost fully enclosed. 

Examples from the fourth and fifth centuries in Germany, Holland and Scandinavia are known from bog finds and waterlogged settlement sites, and shoes of this type are also found in sixth century Frankish burials.   This type of shoe seems to have been replaced by the enclosed shoe in the sixth century.

Open topped sandals of the type worn in the Iron Age and into the 6th century.

Pair of 6th century open sandals from a Frankish grave at Oberflacht in Germany

Enclosed One-Piece Shoes
The enclosed one-piece shoe seems to have become relatively common during the third and fourth centuries, both within the Roman Empire as well as in the Germanic homelands.   Essentially, it is of the same construction as the sandal described above but instead of perforated tabs around the front of the foot, the leather is cut to shape and sewn around the toes.   A seam runs up over the top of the foot, sometimeas all the way, sometimes only part of the way, the last few perforated tabs remaining.   Sometimes the uppers on these shoes are still slashed and cut into decorative shapes, echoing the open sandal type, as in the example from Duerne below.   Other shoes were closed right up to the ankle, and some even appear to have had a tongue-like extension at the front (and possibly the back too).   Examples of this type of shoe from Ireland and the continent are sometimes adorned with a line of decorative stitching along the front seam, and this practice may also have been carried out in Anglo-Saxon England too.   These shoes were generally to just below the ankle in height.

Enclosed shoes of one-piece construction, essentially the same construction as the earlier sandals, 5th-9th century.	Enclosed shoe from Duerne in Holland.  This is basically the same shoe as the one on the left, but has been enhanced with decorative slashing reminiscent of the sandals above.  4th-5th century.

Two-Piece Enclosed Shoes
Two-piece enclosed shoes start to appear in the second half of the sixth century.   These have a separate sole and upper, allowing a greater variety of designs for the upper as well as allowing a worn out sole to be replaced without replacing the whole shoe.   Instead of having a vertical seam at the front and back, this type of shoe has only a single vertical seam, which may be placed at the front, back or side.   This type still sometimes had decorative stitching down the front, seemingly in imitation of the front seam of earlier shoes.   This type of shoe eventually became the dominant type of shoe in Anglo-Saxon England, being seen in the form of shoes and low boots.   However, during the Early Anglo-Saxon period only the shoe type seem to have been used.

Two piece enclosed shoes from Sutton Hoo, early 7th century.

Shoe Fastenings
Most shoes had no fastenings and simply slipped on and off the foot much like a modern pair of slippers.   However, some were fastened with laces or thongs.   These were usually narrow strips of leather which passed through pairs of short, parallel cuts around the top of the shoe.   In some cases the last inch or two (2.5-5cm) of the front seam may have been left unsewn and closed with a lace in this manner. 

Continental shoes were sometimes fastened with a small buckle and strap, or might have the long laces carried on up around the calf in a criss-cross pattern tying just below the knee, sometimes with decorartive strap ends.   There is no direct evidence for either of these practices being widespread in England.   There is also no evidence for the flap and toggle type fastenings seen on later Anglo-Saxon shoes.

The top edges of shoes were often decorated (and reinforced) with whipstitching.

There are many words for footwear, some of which seem to describe a particular type, but it is now unclear exactly which words represent which type of footwear.   These words include scoh ('shoe', a low ankle-boot, shoe or slipper), swiftlere (a rawhide shoe), hemming, rifeling, the bag-like socc and a thonged sandal called a crinc (perhaps similar to the open topped Iron Age footwear).   As far as we know all these shoe types could be worn by either sex. 

2.   Some early Frankish shoes are of welted type in the Roman tradition, but there is no direct evidence of this type being worn by Anglo-Saxons.   However, it is possible later Roman sewn types may have continued to be made by Britons and thus be available to the Anglo-Saxons, although the nailed shoes do seem to have vanished.   back
 
 

Having problems with this webpage contact: questions@costumeclassroom.com