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Left: a selection of iron cobbler's lasts. These were used to put boots or shoes on, to facilitate mending the sole or heel.
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Right: A shoe cleaner. This would stand by the door and was to enable scraping the sole free from mud and to brush the sides of shoes, before entering the house.
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Above: A trench digger's patten. This has a leather strap to be done up across the top of the user's boot. The metal plate sat under the sole of the boot as protection against continual treading on the top of his spade, and saved both the boot sole and the feet from the constant pressure.
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Right: a selection of shoe trees. These were pushed inside the shoes as you took them off, and remained there until you wore them again. Once the toe section was firmly inside the toe of the shoe, the other end could be flexed into the heel, to keep it firmly in place. The black ones are metal, the coloured ones plasctic, and the ones at the back right are wooden.
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Above: A three part shoe last. The toe and heel sections would be put inside the shoe and then the centre piece could be pushed between and so keep the shoe in shape. Note the extra leather on the toe (left) and heel (centre), to relive pressure on the sensitive points. [Rushden Museum]
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Left: A shoe last, that is built up with layers of leather to increase the size of the shoe, over a high instep or a corn. Many people continued to make, at home, their own shoes and for their family long after mechanisation.
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Right: A Shoe Caddy from about 1970. Made to put your foot on top to clean your shoes whilst wearing them! To hold all the polishes and brushes for good shoe care. Wax polish, shoe cream, liquid polish and the modern foam pads with a 'one wipe and it's done' polish.
In earlier times no one would go out in dusty shoes and cleaning was a daily ritual. Many shoes today are plastic, few are leather and many are uncleaned!
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Above: Shoe Caddy with an array of polishes.
The little brush has brass bristles to clean suede.
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