Clog
Category
Costume
Date
1920
Materials
Leather, iron and English beech wood
Measurements
122 x 265 x 89 mm
Order this imageCollection
Hill Top, Cumbria
NT 641936.2
Caption
‘Does Mistress Heelis really ever take her clogs off? I thought she went to bed in them?’ Mistress Heelis – better known as beloved children’s author and illustrator Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) – poked fun at her own attachment to her clogs in The Fairy Caravan (1929), an ode to the wild landscape and agricultural traditions of the Lake District. These sturdy leather clogs with thick wooden soles were worn by Potter as she carried out her daily business at Hill Top, the farmhouse she had purchased in 1905. After marrying local solicitor William Heelis (1871–1945) in 1913, Potter relocated from her parents’ home in Kensington to Castle Cottage in Near Sawrey, over the field from Hill Top. She was well known in the area for her eclectic taste in clothes, shunning respectable fashions and the expectations of London society in favour of simple practicality. The clogs were made by Charles William Brown of Hawkshead. Brown was employed as a bootmaker by the Hawkshead Cooperative Society on Main Street, opposite the offices of Potter’s husband, where Brown’s sister worked. Helen Antrobus
Summary
One of a pair of clogs (right), black leather uppers; irons; one with split sole and rusting nails; soles dried and fragile. c. 1920. Made by Charles William Brown of Hawkshead. They were worn by Beatrix Potter (1866–1943), c.1920 - 1943.
Provenance
Previous owner had been given them by Capt. Duke in 1949.
Exhibition history
The Peter Rabbit Exhibition, Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Beatrix Potter's Birth , Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, 2016 - 2017 The Peter Rabbit Exhibition, Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Beatrix Potter's Birth , TFU Sendai Gallery, Japan, 2016 - 2017 The Peter Rabbit Exhibition, Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Beatrix Potter's Birth , Grand Front Osaka, 2016 - 2017 The Peter Rabbit Exhibition, Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Beatrix Potter's Birth , Hiroshima Museum of Art, 2016 - 2017 The Peter Rabbit Exhibition, Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Beatrix Potter's Birth , SOGO Museum of Art, Yokohama, 2016 - 2017 The Peter Rabbit Exhibition, Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Beatrix Potter's Birth , Nagoya City Museum, Japan, 2016 - 2017 The Peter Rabbit Exhibition, Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Beatrix Potter's Birth , Bunkamura Museum, Tokyo, 2016 - 2017
References
Antrobus and Slocombe 2025: Helen Antrobus and Emma Slocombe, 100 Things to Wear: Fashion from the collections of the National Trust, National Trust 2025, pp. 158-159.