It’s a real shoedunnit! Beachcombers hope to solve mystery as hundreds of pairs of Victorian footwear wash up on shore
Hundreds of leather, hand-made shoes from a 150-year-old shipwreck have mysteriously washed up on a beach in Wales.
The historical haul was discovered by volunteers cleaning up rock pools on Ogmore-By-Sea beach in the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales last week on December 18.
Nearly 450 of the strange kicks have so far been found by members of the Beach Academy community interest group, who called it an ‘amazing day of discovery’.
Incredibly, the shoes are believed to be from a shipwrecked Italian cargo vessel which struck nearby Tusker Rock about 150 years ago.
Emma Lamport, 56, from Beach Academy said: ‘Can anyone help us shed light on the hundreds of leather shoes we are finding at Ogmore and Llantwit beaches?
‘They resemble shoes from times past rather than modern styles, mainly adult males and children.
‘We are slowly excavating them from rock pool zones where they have been embedded into sediment or trapped in rocks as part of our rock pool restoration project.’
Ms Lamport, from Ogmore, added: ‘Over 200 were removed in Ogmore alone this week, while other shoes were found at Llantwit beach in larger quantities.
The haul amounts to 450 shoes so far, discovered by volunteers on a beach in Wales last week
Emma Lamport (pictured) said: ‘Some of the boots are in pretty good condition and with some you can very clearly see they are a men’s boot’
The shoes are believed to be from a shipwrecked Italian cargo vessel which struck nearby Tusker Rock about 150 years ago
Whose boots are those shoes?
‘The strongest theory is that the shoes come from a shipwreck called the Frolic that hit Tusker rock about 150 years ago as it was carrying shoes and cargo from Italy.
‘They were washed up the Ogmore river and every now and then they appear especially when there has been erosion of the river bank.
‘Another theory is the fact that Bridgend was also quite famous for shoemaking, apparently cobblers, who would dump old boots which could not be mended into the river at Portobello with over 50,000 pairs of boots and shoes being produced each week around 1960.
‘Some of the boots are in pretty good condition and with some you can very clearly see they are a men’s boot.’
Two years ago, Beverley Peatling found a similar haul of shoes.
She said at the time: ‘There is an amazing graveyard of old footwear on the banks of the river today.’
This is not the first time that bizarre historical artefacts have landed on Britain’s shores.
In 2022, a First World War German shipwreck was uncovered by big tides and storms at a Cornish beach – more than a century after it became stranded on a reef while being towed by the Royal Navy.
The remains of a 150-year-old shipwreck (pictured) emerged from the sands in north Wales after storms in 2019 July’s thunderstorms. Archaeologists ‘tentatively identified’ it as the 45ft long Endeavour which sunk without a trace in 1854
It is believed that the SV (Sailing Vessel) Carl, which was built in Maryport, Cumbria in 1893, and registered in Hamburg, was impounded at the start of the First World War in 1914, as it was a German ship in Cardiff docks.
There was even speculation that that the ship was suspected of being an enemy minelayer.
Then in 2019, the wreck of a ship that vanished without a trace almost 170 years ago emerged from beneath the sand on a Welsh beach.
Archaeologists reckoned at the time that the wooden planks outlining a ships hull, which appeared after storms swept away the sediment on Pensarn beach in Abergele, probably belonged to the lost 45ft trade ship Endeavour.
The sloop, which made a trade plying the Welsh coastline, sank when it was hit by turbulent weather in October 1854. All the crew reportedly survived.
Its shipwreck was revealed after storms in July 2019 swept away much of the sand.
