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A thatcher has shared his most “unusual” find made while working on a roof - a pair of shoes believed to date back two centuries.
Chris Fellows, who lives in Thame, Oxfordshire and runs Thame Thatch, has found many other items such as tools from old craftsmen and newspapers during his career.
He said shoes were believed to have been placed in the thatch in the early 19th Century to ward off evil spirits.
Mr Fellows called the curious discovery a “good find” and said they had since been put back in the new thatch.
…
His subsequent research into shoes found they dated from around the beginning of the 19th Century.
"It was a time when superstition was rife - they were put in there to ward off evil spirits and witches.
"Apparently, the shoe, because it’s so close to the foot, would always contain a little bit of your soul in it - so they would stick them in the roof.
“And a lot of the roofs we work on have white window sills, because witches wouldn’t cross a white doorstep.”
Mr Fellows said he had found the shoes “quite close to Halloween”.
“Me and the guy I was working with took the rest of the day off, just in case.”
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I’m glad they put them back, that’s pretty cool.
Not for the local witches it isn’t.
But I suspect it’s a Thatcher’s tradition, perhaps adding something modern for future generations to find.
“Me and the guy I was working with took the rest of the day off, just in case.”
Very sensible behaviour, I bet the risk analysis didn’t even include the risk of a curse!
There’s a ghost in that house that, for a brief moment, was SO excited about finally being set free, until they just put the damn shoes back in
Yep really unfair. When you’ve been dead 200 years. Folks really should give you more than a few weeks to struggle out of bed.
Britain seems like such a magical place. Most of Europe does, tbh. How often do you hear about someone finding shoes to ward of witches in someone’s roof in the US? Never. Everything is so old there.
Some FYI
Timing wise, this was done when the US existed as the US. 200 years ago. And let’s face it, the US has its own history of witch fears. The UK doesn’t actually have much history of killing witches. Some, but the vast majority of accusations were released. Germany and a few other EU nations have more. But most were still released when tried.
That said public fear of it was there and the accusations happened. I’d also expect murders happened that were less official, so not documented like Salem etc was.
But the stuff that will really fascinate is the much, much older stuff than this.
I grew up near Wayland’s Smithy and Uffington White Horse. Both created before the Americas were discovered by Europeans. Even the Vikings. Likely before Native Americans had a land bridge to cross into the continent. (although someone more knowledgable of those dates would have to confirm that).
There really is an abundence of neolithic sites around the UK. Many near me, but over the UK as a whole. Well worth some time online or even a visit if you’re into such stuff.
Things like the white horse and Stonehenge are well known worldwide. But honestly there are so many more, few know about it is fascinating.
If you add the more recent castle ruins etc. It is insane numbers. Heck, we have a fake ruins that are older than the USA. The abbey walls in Abingdon are actually a 1100ad recreations of a 675ad abbey destroyed in the 900s. So someone wowed by history as old to them as this article’s event is to you. In the 1100s and recreating the building.
Timing wise, this was done when the US existed as the US. 200 years ago. And let’s face it, the US has its own history of witch fears. The UK doesn’t actually have much history of killing witches.
Fun fact: our last “witch trail” was during WW2 and Ian Fleming was involved. Although the last proper ones were about 300 years ago.
We’ve killed around 500 witches, mostly woman, almost all of them poor and a lot of it was, ultimately, part of anti-Catholic fears and persecution (like the Pendle witches).
I grew up near Wayland’s Smithy and Uffington White Horse. Both created before the Americas were discovered by Europeans. Even the Vikings. Likely before Native Americans had a land bridge to cross into the continent. (although someone more knowledgable of those dates would have to confirm that).
Uffington White Horse is a maximum of 3,300 years old, Native Americans arrived on the continent a minimum of 16,000 years ago.
Uffington White Horse is a maximum of 3,300 years old, Native Americans arrived on the continent a minimum of 16,000 years ago.
Very cool. Thanks for sharing. We really don’t have anything standing that old.
Stonehenge is known to have had a wooden henge from around 11000 years ago. And we have found a few settlements in peat bogs from that time. Some actual wooden ruins in some of the bogs. But nothing actually standing.
We really don’t have anything standing that old.
It’s likely humans only returned to Britain around 16,000 years ago as the ice sheets retreated, it would have wiped out any older evidence from the surface (although we have evidence of fires and human occupation going back half a million years in deeper deposits). The oldest structure in the UK is probably Star Carr in Yorkshire, dated to around 11,500 years ago, it’s been called “Britain’s oldest house”.
Star Carr
Wow thanks for sharing.
Although fires at places like Beeches Pit show people organising their space 400,000 years ago, we have stone tools and footprints going back nearly twice as far - oldest footprints in Europe. We’ve got Neolithic footprints near me and, while much more recent, they’re still magical things.
DNA evidence of the oldest Britains returning after the Ice Age shows two distinct groups. Which shows that, once northern Europe opened up again (at the height of the last Ice Age on refuges in southern Europe were habitable, it drew in people from great distances.
