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A 'concealed shoe' refers to a shoe, boot, or slipper hidden within the walls of buildings and homes, often for mystical purposes by those who constructed or inhabited them. Superstition and spiritual beliefs encouraged people to place these items in secret locations as a defense against witches and evil spirits. Eventually, the discovery of so many hidden shoes led scholars and archaeologists to conclude that they were intentionally placed, though the full reasoning behind this eerie practice remains largely unclear.
This ritual primarily took place in Britain, though it was also observed in the United States, Spain, China, and Australia. The shoes were often discovered in chimney flues and house eaves, and would have been worn by people of all ages and genders. Many were found near doorways, perhaps for protection from harmful forces. Other theories suggest this could have been a builders' custom, possibly linked to trade, or a way to commemorate something lost to time. What is it about shoes that inspired such peculiar customs?
9. How to Use Shoes to Find a Husband: A Beginner’s Guide
Much like Cinderella’s glass slipper, Hans Christian Andersen’s red shoes, and Dorothy’s ruby slippers, footwear has always held a special place in folklore and fairy tales. For example, in nineteenth-century England, a young girl wishing to dream about her future spouse would simply place her shoes at an angle and say, “I set my shoes in the form of a T, hoping my true love to see.”
If a girl’s shoes were left untied, it was believed that her future love was already thinking about her. Additionally, by placing a clover leaf inside one of her shoes, she would guarantee that the next man she met would become her future husband.
However, it wasn’t all about finding a husband; many shoe rituals were also linked to luck—both good and bad. For instance, if a man was struck by lightning, his shoes had to be buried immediately to prevent the spiritual energy from the lightning bolt from spreading. In Ireland, if a child went missing, burying a pair of their old shoes was thought to ensure the child's safe return.
It was once believed that throwing an old shoe at someone brought good luck! Queen Victoria threw a shoe at soldiers leaving for the Crimean War. Charles Dickens even included a scene in Great Expectations where Biddy and Joe threw shoes at Pip as he set off for London.
9. Ordinary Shoes Doing Extraordinary Things
Most of the hidden shoes discovered in homes were everyday, well-worn shoes that reflected the shape and personality of their owners. Unlike the carefully preserved historical footwear found in museum costume departments, these shoes were practical and unremarkable in style and cost. The shoes found inside barns and houses were ordinary, and after being hidden away for years, they might have appeared as nothing more than old discarded items.
In America, these shoes were often made from calfskin, a durable and sturdy material, in contrast to kidskin, which was finer and more expensive. Popular styles included latchet-tie shoes, which featured a narrow leather strap fastening the shoe to the foot, as well as bluchers, slit vamps, and high ankle brogans.
Nineteenth-century American men typically preferred Wellington boots for their concealed footwear, while women favored elasticated boots for both home and casual wear. These hidden shoes were not for special occasions or parties; the more everyday and unremarkable, the better for hiding them inside walls.
8. Magic Spells and Unsolved Murders
Anthropologists argue that if an object closely resembles a person, magic performed with it will have sympathetic effects, a concept sometimes referred to as homeopathic magic. For example, a picture of a person could work in the same way. Another belief is in contagious magic, which involves using an object that has been in contact with someone. A shoe, shaped like a foot and having had prolonged contact with the person, is a powerful magical object working on both levels.
In a Scottish murder trial in 1890, a local policeman was asked why he had submerged the murdered man’s shoes in water instead of keeping them as evidence for the trial. He explained that he was following an ancient tradition that claimed by submerging the shoes, he would lay the murdered man’s restless ghost to rest. This ritual was believed to protect the neighborhood from the spirit, which could bring calamity to all if left unresolved.
7. A Protective Charm
Some historians suggest that the use of shoes as magical charms within buildings originated from earlier practices of human sacrifice, where the building was given a protective soul. However, concealed shoes could also act as magical traps, representing a human sacrifice and serving as a decoy to capture witches or malevolent entities.
A similar practice emerged in the form of a witch bottle, commonly found in homes from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The process involved gathering hair, urine, or toenail clippings, and combining them with materials shaped into a heart, along with pins or nails. These bottles were often placed in the openings of homes, much like the hidden shoes, as a form of magical protection.
Any spells cast against a person would be redirected to the witch. The cork or plug in the bottle was believed to prevent the witch from urinating, ultimately causing her death. The magical connection between the contents of the bottle and the witch ensured that harm inflicted on the contents would return to the witch. This same principle is thought to apply to old shoes hidden in similar locations, so anyone who felt cursed could potentially immobilize the witch by inserting their shoe into the walls.
6. Destroying Concealed Magical Shoes
Similar to the belief that harming a witch could be done by damaging her shoe or a witch bottle, cutting up the shoes before hiding them was thought to potentially harm the witch who had cursed you. While it might have simply been done to make a large pair of shoes fit a smaller foot, or to repurpose leather from old, worn-out shoes to create new ones, some shoes were cut beyond repair. One reasonable explanation is that they were destroyed to 'kill' the spirit of the shoe and send it to the afterlife, much like the ancient pagan or early Christian tradition of sending offerings like coins to saints.
5. Where to Find Hidden Shoes, and What Else to Look For
Concealed shoes have been found in places such as fireplaces, chimney flues, windows, and doors—locations thought to be particularly vulnerable to spirits trying to invade the home. Think of how Santa Claus enters through the chimney to deliver presents on Christmas Eve! The largest known collection of concealed shoes comes from the John Adams Birthplace Collection, which holds 44 shoes and boots.
In the home of America’s second president, shoes, boots, and slippers—dating between 1855 and 1870—were discovered, with many of them found around the chimney and fireplace. This collection includes footwear belonging to both men and women, as well as children. It is the most extensive collection of its kind ever found in the United States.
4. A Hidden Mark Left by Builders
The act of concealing shoes might have more to do with the construction trade than protecting against witches or spirits. While it was still believed that hidden shoes could ward off bad luck, they might have been placed as part of a ritual to mark the completion of a project—whether it was the finishing of an entire house or simply a repair or final touch to the building.
The Bridges House in North Andover, New Hampshire, underwent significant renovations in the early eighteenth century, and when a later owner remarried in 1830, a woman’s shoe was discovered under an entryway that dated back to 1790. This shoe is thought to have either belonged to the second wife, symbolizing good luck in her new home, or to the first wife, who had tragically passed away, with the husband choosing to preserve her memory.
3. Modern Magic in Richmond
The most recent concealed shoe discovered was in a Massachusetts home built in 1908. It was a woman’s shoe that dated back to the 1930s. One of the most compelling modern stories of hidden shoes comes from the twentieth century at the Putney Shoe Factory in Richmond, Virginia. When the prosperous shoemaking company commissioned a new building in the city’s industrial area, a pair of white lady’s lace-up shoes was found hidden in the eaves of the structure.
The contrast between ancient customs and modern practices presents a fascinating argument for contemporary magic! However, it's rare to find such rituals today. As medicine and technology advanced, superstition faded when sickness affected families. Meanwhile, education and the spread of printed knowledge led to a more informed public, moving away from a culture dominated by folklore and oral traditions.
2. Spirit Captured Through Concealed Shoes
Shoes were sometimes kept as mementos of those who had passed away, with some believing that hiding a shoe from a deceased loved one within the walls of a house would keep their spirit present. The deeds to Papillon Hall in Leicestershire explicitly state that a pair of slippers once belonging to a little girl, now sealed behind a screen in the dining room, must never be removed. It is believed that her mourning family was so heartbroken they had the shoes' permanence documented in the deeds.
A similar poignant story comes from the Brintal-Loker House in Massachusetts. In the nineteenth century, the family suffered multiple child deaths, including a nearly two-year-old boy named Oscar. His small leather boot was discovered in the chimney alongside a sleigh bell, possibly one of his favorite toys. This brings back the old concept of connected magic, where the preservation of a shoe is tied to the spirit of its former wearer. Even today, those who part with a loved one’s belongings can understand the emotional bond between the items and the person they belonged to.
1. Did Shoemakers Inspire the Tradition?
At the John Adams Birthplace, archaeologists speculated that the practice of concealing shoes might have been carried out by shoemakers after they uncovered 44 boots and shoes hidden within the walls. Adam and Samuel Curtis, brothers who lived in the house from 1821 to 1830, were both shoemakers. One of the child’s Wellington boots even had the name ‘George Curtis’ written inside, identifying it as belonging to Adam Curtis’s son.
The fact that shoemakers once resided in the house where 44 shoes were found may not be as mysterious as it seems, especially when considering that shoes were symbolic of their profession—an occupation that demanded great time, dedication, and finely developed skills.
There are 13 known instances of concealed shoes found in the homes of shoemakers, similar to a practice in pre-Roman London where craftsmen discarded their tools into the Thames River, possibly to seek favor from the gods for luck and prosperity. It's also plausible that the collection of shoes found at the Adams house was simply a way to store old leather pieces for later use, a typical habit of frugal shoemakers who would never waste valuable material.
