Clog
Category
Costume
Date
1920 - 1943
Materials
Iron, Leather, English beech [fagus sylvatica], Fagus sylvatica
Order this imageCollection
Hill Top, Cumbria
NT 641936
Summary
A pair of clogs, worn by Beatrix Potter c.1920 - 1943.
Full description
Beatrix Potter (1866 - 1943) wore clogs so frequently that she mocked herself in The Fairy Caravan (1929), with one of her collie dogs suggesting that she slept in them. Durable, reliable and hard-wearing when working and walking across her farms, this pair of clogs would have likely been worn by Potter between 1920 and 1943. The clogs were possibly made by Charles William Brown (1899 - 1976), a shoe and bootmaker based in Hawkshead with his family. Brown was employed by the Hawkshead Co-operative Society. His sister was a clerk at W.H Heelis & Sons - the family firm where William Heelis, Potter's husband, worked. Potter was photographed wearing a similar pair of clogs by the 1st Chorlton-cum-Hardy Guides in May 1929 (NT 242566). Previous description One of a pair of clogs, black leather uppers; irons; one with split sole and rusting nails; soles dried and fragile. c. 1920.
Provenance
Previous owner had been given them by Capt. Duke in 1949.