Old Worn Shoes

Have you been looking at purchasing a beautiful old Victorian era house? The charm of the house just seems to draw you in, the wood work and architecture inside is nearly perfect to the day it was built. Hard to believe the house was built in the 1790s? A house passed through generations of a family to finally be bought by yourself? Going through the home you find a shoe hidden in the attic, a shoe from the puritan era. Taking the shoe from the attic makes the whole atmosphere of the home change and leaves your family feeling and experiencing weird energy.

Are you wondering what the deal with putting an old shoe in the wall or attic of a house is all about? Where did the practice come from? Why did it stop being a popular practice? Well, let's dive into this together.

Old shoes have been hidden in houses all over the United Kingdom and Europe since the 16th century and made their way across the pond to the Colonies; now the United States. According to www.historicmysteries.com, “One of the earliest finds, from St John’s College in Oxford, has been dated to the 1540s. A shoe was even found hidden in the Winchester Cathedral choir stalls, which were installed in 1304. Yet there is still a mystery as to why this trend happened throughout human history.” Shoes are not only found in attics, they have been found in places like under floor boards, and in walls. Families that have found shoes in their homes have chosen to put them back, respecting the intention and purpose of these shoes.

You probably wonder what the purpose of these shoes that are being found in these old homes? The theory behind the shoes being hidden in homes stem from everything from bestowing good luck to warding off evil. Many people say this came about during the time of the great witch hysteria, that putting a shoe in the house would keep a witch away. The thought was that if you put a well worn shoe hidden away somewhere in the house, it would lure away the “witch/devil” and any other supernatural being that came for them.

Most often children’s shoes would be found in the walls of houses, some thought maybe it was because they had purer souls to ward off evil, other thoughts were that children's shoes brought fertility luck to the house. Or were there merely more children’s shoes available during that time?

Now I’ve heard from a friend who made the comment that this is a “witches” practice. Looking at it from this particular stand point, I can see what she means by that. The shoe itself could be looked at like a totem of sorts, a talisman used to ward off evil in the home.

From the paranormal standpoint of finding one of these shoes, I want to point to an episode of Kindred Spirits with Amy Bruni, Adam Berry and Chip Coffey. They’re called into a home where the homeowner had discovered an old shoe from the 1700’s that had been placed in the attic at the time the house had been built, the intention that had been put into the shoe was to pull away all negative energy and protect the house. Fear of the space and the energy that they could feel from the shoe doing “its” job came into being with them messing with the shoe, that paranormal activity started up in the home. Once the team came in to do their investigation and research of the property and the family who originally built it etc, they were able to educate the current family of the purpose of the shoe. It was an amazing episode to watch and I highly recommend watching Season 6 episode 2 of Kindred Spirits to get this paranormal take on these ancient and mystifying artifacts left behind by those who came before us.

Citations:

Readman, K. (2022, September 19). The mystery of the concealed shoes: Why were they hidden in walls?. Historic Mysteries. https://www.historicmysteries.com/history/concealed-shoes/21150/