Pair of pattens (protective overshoes)
The clink and clatter of iron patten rings on a cobbled surface - a familiar sound in Devon farmyards. Pattens are overshoes, worn to keep the feet and expensive shoe leather out of the mud and wet. ‘Women Receive Support From Us’ is the motto of the Worshipful Company of Pattenmakers (founded 1670), an appropriate phrase for the sturdy footwear. Pattens were worn in both the town and the countryside, in farmyards, laundries, on dirty unpaved streets and in bad weather, raising the wearer out of the damp and muck. Pattens continued to be made and worn in rural areas into the 1920s, until they were finally replaced by rubber galoshes and wellington boots.
Object Summary
- Accession Loan No.
- 72/2015
- Collection Class
- Clothing and accessories
- Material
- woodmetal (iron)leather
- Common Name
- Pair of pattens (protective overshoes)
- Simple Name
- Pattens
- Period Classification
- Edwardian (1901-1914)
- Production Year Low
- 1890
- Production Year High
- 1910
