Concealed shoes
The hidden shoe
- Known today as
- Worn-out shoes, often a child’s, hidden in walls, chimneys, under floors, and above ceilings.
- Kind
- Amulet, in 1 older authority
- Earliest authority here
- The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1907–1914)
Revised October 3, 2026: An authority added from a text read in full. Checked against its sources, each read in full, in part, or in its abstract. Version 1, first published September 28, 2026.
Concealed shoes: what was it used for?
Probably a protection of the house: such shoes were among the things hidden at its openings, the hearth, the threshold, and its voids, against witchcraft and other dark forces. No explanation is certain; June Swann, who long kept the record of them, concluded that “at present we can only surmise.”
Concealed shoes: what does modern science say?
Most are found by builders and householders when old buildings are altered.
Concealed shoes: what lore surrounds it?
Most date from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. By 1995 the Northampton Museum’s index recorded over 1,100 concealments, from most counties in Britain and from Europe, North America, and Australia.
Concealed shoes: what did the older authorities say?
- The Catholic Encyclopedia
- The Catholic Encyclopedia defines the vain observances to which such hidings belong as “all those beliefs and practices which, at least by implication, attribute supernatural or preternatural powers for good or for evil to causes evidently incapable of producing the expected effects,” and adds, with some charity, that “many superstitions of our own day have been acts of genuine piety at other times, and may be so still in the hearts of simple folk.” Their apparent success “can mostly be accounted for by natural causes,” and on their side “there are arrayed the religious instinct, sympathy and apathy, confidence and distrust, encouragement and discouragement, self-suggestion and — perhaps strongest of all — the healing power of nature.”
Sources
- Hoggard, B. (2019). Magical House Protection: The Archaeology of Counter-Witchcraft. New York: Berghahn. Read in part · the text read
- The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1907–1914), “Superstition.” newadvent.org/cathen/14339a.htm Read in full · the text read
- Swann, J. (1996). Shoes concealed in buildings. Costume 30: 56–69. Read in full · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026, and October 3, 2026
- Passes
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Each quotation from the older authorities checked word for word against the text, read in full
- Every source read, in full, in part, or in its abstract, and every sentence checked against what was read (October 3, 2026)
- Sources
- 3 cited: 2 read in full, 1 read in part.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 28, 2026 · last revised October 3, 2026
- Chicago
“Concealed shoes.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 3, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/concealed-shoes.
- MLA
“Concealed shoes.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/concealed-shoes. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Concealed shoes. (2026, October 3). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/concealed-shoes
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See Also
Also in The Catholic Encyclopedia
Contact relics in The Catholic Encyclopedia · The Caravaca cross in The Catholic Encyclopedia · Cornicello in The Catholic Encyclopedia · Breve in The Catholic Encyclopedia · everything The Catholic Encyclopedia names →
Drawing on the same sources: Hoggard, Swann
Nearby in the alphabet
Confection of alkermes (with apple juice, rose water, sugar, ambergris, and gold) · Compound fumitory (Fumaria officinalis, with other herbs) · Confection of hyacinth (sapphire, emerald, and other stones, with coral, pearls, and gold) · Common ink cap (A grey mushroom that dissolves into black ink as it ages) · Common earthball (yellow-brown ball with a black interior, of acid woodland) · Copal · Comfrey (Symphytum officinale)
Historical description, not medical advice.