Practical, neatly knitted, and well constructed, I was astonished by these boots when I saw them in the Bankfield museum a couple of weeks ago.
I was visiting with my niece and my sister. My niece is studying fashion history as part of her history degree at Lancaster University, and was keen to see the exhibition of Victorian costume currently on display at the museum in Halifax.
I’ve never seen antique knitted boots or shoes before, nor seen patterns for them in any of the books in my rather vast collection of antique knitting manuals. In fact the boots are dated to the 1830s, just before the earliest knitting publications for Victorian hobby knitters were published. The only English manual on knitting I know of that predates them is a booklet for teaching stocking knitting in schools, probably with the intention of this being an income-generating option for children from poor families. The 1830s is however the period during which handknitting was switching from being an subsistence occupation for the poor to being a hobby for middle class ladies, as evidenced by the creation of many knitting “emporiums” and the plethora of books for hobby knitters that soon followed.
The quality of these boots is well beyond what I would have imagined. In fact, I think they are rather ingenious, and would rather like to make some for myself. I have a friend who might be willing to cut the leather sole for me…
