Concealed Garments
To most of Sittingbourne’s inhabitants the Plough Inn was a rather run of the mill building. It had an archetypal Victorian facade and an aspect and position that hardly caught the eye. East Street, despite being part of the great Roman road, was a relative economic backwater compared to Sittingbourne’s ‘High Street’. The building was not listed, nor had any form of preservation order upon it, so when it was sold for demolition and redevelopment, few took much notice. Sittingbourne, however, is blessed with many people who do recognise their town’s heritage; they took a closer look, and I was fortunate enough to be invited to take part.
It was apparent from the start that the building was far older than was generally imagined; initial structural surveys dated the oldest section to the 17th century. Further investigations discovered other important period features, but none were deemed important enough by English Heritage to warrant preservation. It became a race against time to record and save what little we could.
During an earlier survey we had discovered a mid to late 17th century ladies shoe under the floorboards in the oldest section. It lay east/west and sole down, a few feet from the front wall. This wall had been replaced at the very beginning of the 18th century when the new east range was constructed and the building completely refronted. The shoe was placed at this point as an offering to the house spirit and to spiritually ‘reseal’ the building’s perimeter against any evil. It was sole down to keep the luck from spilling out and purposefully damaged (some would go so far as to say sacrificed) to make it unusable again. It seems only single shoes were deposited in this way, so the devil couldn’t wear them. Shoes were commonly used as they took on the shape of the owner, becoming a part of them; hats and gloves were used for similar reasons and almost always ‘sacrificed’ too.
This first find indicated that others might also be found, and we made an ongoing documentary study and took a series of measurements, drawings and photographs. It was to be a year, however, before we were allowed to survey more invasively. The opportunity to do this was presented suddenly, as the building changed hands and the demolition order given! We made contact with the new owners, SEEDA, who gave us permission to carry out a deeper survey. We had just two and a half days.
We began by examining the 17th century ‘axial’ chimney which had been hidden by early 18th century boarding. Here we found a second shoe, high above the mantel. Between the shoe and the original mantel, was a deposit of finds some 3 feet deep and 4 or more feet across, mixed in with centuries of dust, debris and rodent nests. It took all the time we had been allocated to clear just this one area. Here we found 5 more shoes, a tricorn hat, dozens of fabric pieces (most with a knot in the middle), sections of horse harness, pieces of leather gloves, a 17th century receipt, buttons, clay pipes...the list goes on. Were the shoes deposited as a fertility charm, as well as for spiritual protection? We’ve all heard of the little old lady that lived in a shoe, who had so many children she didn’t know what to do. Shoes are still tied behind wedding cars to this day.
We looked in this chimney’s opposite number with high hopes, but found just a single high quality piece of fine fabric at the bottom of a pile of dust and debris. The disparity was astonishing. In this room though, we found many items under the floor boards; a shoe by the fireplace along with many children’s marbles from all periods, a freemason’s skittle and clay pipe (some floorboards had been cut to form a ‘grave’ as part of a masonic ritual and we now believe the Plough to have been the earliest masonic lodge in Sittingbourne). Further into the room we found a group of three 17th century items - a ladies bodice, a child’s bonnet and a pair of men’s gauntlets (complete site page). Despite all being heavily repaired at various times they were in excellent condition. We know who owned the building at this time, and
A shoe found on the site.
there are two main families as candidates responsible for deposition. The couple who first owned the building lost many children; they sold the property after the death of their fifth child. Could the clothes be celebrating their first surviving child and be keeping the family together in their new house? Or could the bonnet belong to a lost child, with the adult clothes keeping that child close to its parents? The other candidates are a couple that remained childless; was the bonnet a way of attracting a child to the relationship?
Lifting the floorboards in the room with the artefact-packed fireplace found nothing! The balance of finds has led me to consider whether the building had been divided into gender specific areas. Do the fireplace finds, with their more fertility-based artefacts, indicate a ladies room, whilst the ‘protective’ finds under the floorboards identify that room as belonging to the man of the house?
The study continues. The clothing is now with the conservation department at Southampton University for further work. If you have found, or know of, such concealed garments, please let me know.
Alan Abbey
Historical Research Group of Sittingbourne
The HRGS were recently awarded a Heritage Lottery Funding ‘Awards for All’ grant of £4,806 which will be used to purchase equipment to further their research. Author of the above article, Alan Abbey, Chair of the Group, says “March saw our first anniversary and we’ve come a very long way in a short space of time thanks to our members and sponsors. Several major projects are being planned; this new equipment will make their undertaking possible sooner and allow us to ‘step up a gear’ in taking local history further into the community”.
Below: Some of the items of found clothing