School of History, UCC
Dr Ceri Houlbrook, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Education, University of Hertfordshire, Britain
Thusday 2 February 2023, 16:00 (4 PM)
The paper will be delivered through MS Teams. Please, contact Dr Jérôme aan de Wiel, School of History, UCC, for a Teams link: j.aandewiel@ucc.ie Or see link below.
Paper The concealed shoe is, possibly by design, shrouded in mystery. All that is known for certain is that a large number of single shoes, usually old, damaged, and dating to the 18th and 19th centuries, were hidden within the fabric of homes and other buildings: bricked up in walls, up chimneys, and under floors. Other than these few facts, all other information on the subject is speculation. Drawing on records of c.3000 concealed shoes, along with folkloric beliefs of the period, this talk will explore the potential motivations behind the enigmatic act of concealment.
Dr Ceri Houlbrook is a lecturer in Folklore and History at the University of Hertfordshire, with a doctorate in Archaeology. Her primary interests are the material culture of popular beliefs and ritual practices, past and present. She has published on concealed shoes, including a recent book with Professor Owen Davies on Building Magic, and has also published on the contemporary customs of coin-trees and love-locks. Ceri is currently working with Museum of London Archaeology on the ‘Witch-Bottles Concealed and Revealed’ project, and lectures on the University of Hertfordshire Folklore Studies MA.