1

TOUCHING MAGIC
DELIBERATELY CONCEALED OBJECTS IN OLD AUSTRALIAN HOUSES AND BUILDINGS

Ian Joseph Evans Doctor of Philosophy History October 2010

Submission for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Humanities and Social Science University of Newcastle NSW, Australia

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
This work does not contain material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. I give consent to this copy of my thesis, when deposited in the University Library, being made available for loan and photocopying subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968.

Signed: Ian Joseph Evans

Date: 2 December 2010

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I hereby certify that the work embodied in this Thesis is the result of original research, the greater part of which was completed subsequent to admission for the degree. Signed: Ian Joseph Evans

Date: 2 December 2010

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I want to thank: Dr. Marguerite Johnson for opening the doors to the halls of academe, for making sure I stayed on the right track and Professor Hilary Carey for her encouragement and advice. Annie Evans for putting up with my pursuit of this project for a very long time. Michael McCowage for his sketches of houses and concealment locations. Steven Dunbar for his advice and assistance with computer software issues and for creating the pie charts of Australian concealments. June Swann, MBE, for her insight, memories, advice and for providing dates for a lot of old shoes and boots. Timothy Easton for giving me the benefit of his four decades of hands-on research into concealments, ritual marks and other traditional customs in Suffolk and elsewhere in the UK. All the people listed in the Catalogue of Finds who got in touch to tell me what they had found, provided images and opened their doors when I came calling. All of the museums, libraries and organizations and their staff who contributed in various ways. And the many people whose houses had contained secrets for many years and who willingly cooperated with a research project that was more than a little unusual.

CONTENTS
Abstract Introduction 1.1 Ritual Armour 1.2 Circumstantial Evidence 1.3 Historiography One: Methodology 1.1 Prelude 1.2 Steps towards Awareness 1.3 Discovery 1.4 The Research Process 1.4.1 Research Tools: The Media 1.4.2 Research Tools: Lecturing 1.4.3 The Recording Process 1.5 Investigation 1.5.1 Pattern and Variation 1.5.2 Shoes 1.5.3 Why Shoes? Why Garments? 1.6 Conclusion 8 10 11 14 18 23 23 25 26 29 33 35 36 37 38 39 43 45

Two: Cultural Context 47 2.1 Background 47 2.1.1 The Countryside: The Spirit in the Corn 50 2.1.2 The Village: The Curious Case of the Bewitched Onions 53 2.1.3 The City: Rituals of London 55 2.1.4 Discovering the Discoverers 63 2.2 Present and Future Research 71 2.3 Conclusion 72 Three: Tracing the Past 3.1 Ancient Roots 3.1.1 Dates of Shoe Concealments 3.1.2 The Devil in the Boot 3.1.3 Masonry and Freemasonry 3.1.4 Who Concealed? 3.1.5 Mysteries in the Materials 3.1.6 Protection: D.I.Y. or Call in the Professionals? 3.1.7 Putting it in Writing: Charms and Curses 3.2 Conclusion 73 73 75 77 80 84 87 95 101 104

Four: Secrets in the Void 4.1 Case Study: Analysis of a Concealment 4.2 The Cat in the Cavity 4.2.1 Information Derived from Cat Concealments 4.2.2 A Powerful Tradition 4.3 Conclusion Five: Analysis 5.1 Site Statistics 5.2 Notes on Positional Issues 5.2.1 Shoe Finds: The Breakdown 5.2.2 Gender Analysis of Shoe Finds 5.2.3 Miscellaneous Finds Other than Shoes 5.2.4 Analysis: Shoe Sites 5.2.5 Locations of Concealed Objects: Cottages 5.2.6 Locations of Concealed Objects: Terrace Houses 5.2.7 Locations of Concealed Objects: Fireplaces & Chimneys 5.2.8 Identification of Concealed Objects 5.3 The Story in the Leather 5.4 Quantifying Finds 5.4.1 Varieties of Location: All Finds 5.4.2 Mens Work? 5.4.3 Concealment Locations Within Buildings 5.4.4 The Missing Shoe 5.5 Concealments: A Roman Origin? 5.6 Cats 5.7 Garments 5.8 Conclusion Six: Conclusions Seven: References Eight: Bibliography Nine: Appendix 1: Catalogue of Concealed Objects New South Wales Tasmania Victoria South Australia Western Australia Queensland Appendix 2: Media Coverage Appendix 3: British Researchers & Organisations Appendix 4: Archives, Libraries, Museums & Other Institutions

106 106 121 125 126 128 130 130 133 133 134 136 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 152 155 157 164 172 175 177 186 207 224 225 294 338 358 376 400 415 419 421

Appendix 5: Concealed Cats Found in Germany

424

TABLES

1.1 Total Concealments Identified in Australia 2004 2010 4.1 Residents of No. 37 Lower Fort Street 4.2 Birth Dates of Hurley Children 5.1 Locations of Objects Within Buildings 5.2 Shoe Site Totals by State 5.3 Gender and Age Analysis of Shoe Finds 5.4 Sites with Objects Other than Shoes 5.5 All Find Sites by State
GRAPHICS

38 114 116 132 133 134 136 138

The Chimney at Rhos-Y-Medre, Toowong, Queensland Anatomy of a Concealment Distribution of Concealed Shoes in the UK, 1997 Locations of Concealed Objects: Cottages Locations of Concealed Objects: Terrace Houses Locations of Concealed Objects: Fireplaces and Chimneys Cat in a Subfloor Box

42 109 131 140 141 142 170

IMAGES Where archival and other images have been included these are identified in the captions by the name of the contributor or photographer or in the following manner: BM British Museum, London; BA British Archaeology magazine; CoSA City of Sydney Archives, Sydney; CM Cuming Museum, London; FLS Folklore Society, London; GWMM Goulburn War Memorial and Museum, Goulburn, NSW; GF Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College, London; HCCMAS Hampshire County Council Museums & Archive Service, Winchester; HHT Historic Houses Trust of NSW, Sydney; HRP Historic Royal Palaces, London; ML Mitchell Library, Sydney; MV Museum Victoria, Melbourne; NL National Library of Australia, Canberra; NMG Northampton Museums and Gallery, Northampton; NMS National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh; NMW National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; NPG National Portrait Gallery, London; PRM Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford; RCAHMS Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Edinburgh; SoA Society of Antiquaries, London; SLNSW State Library of NSW, Sydney; SLR State Library of Victoria, Melbourne; SR State Records, Kingswood, NSW; V & A Victoria and Albert Museum, London; WHM Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes; WL Wellcome Library, London. Images supplied by private individuals or from regional collections are credited by name. Uncredited images are by Ian Evans.

ABSTRACT

he objective of the research that resulted in this thesis was to establish whether the practice of concealing objects in sealed voids in old houses and other buildings, widely known in the United Kingdom for many centuries, also occurred in Australia. The supplementary tasks were to establish how widespread it was, the period in which it occurred, and whether the practice displayed the same characteristics as in the United Kingdom. These objectives necessitated the discovery, photography and recording of as many concealed objects as could be located. Distinguishing qualifying objects from random losses or strays was based upon personal experience in the field together with information derived from research in the UK and discussions with colleagues in this area of research in that country. Following on from that, my intention was to place this custom within the framework of folk magic rituals carried out in England until the earlymid 20th century. By confirming that folk magic was intricately woven into the lives of the English people a high probability that such practices were brought to Australia by convicts and settlers became evident. This research required an unusual methodology in that the virtually complete absence of any contemporary documentation, an absence of record that is recognised by UK researchers, suggested that a similar void might exist in Australian archives and libraries. My own prior extensive research into Australian domestic architecture had already failed to identify any references to such practices in this country in the literature relating to architecture, social history or the building trades in both Australia and England. The focus of the research project therefore was to find as many concealed objects in Australian structures as possible and to examine and record these finds in an effort to understand the practice from a scrutiny of the objects and the place and manner of their concealment. The discovery phase was implemented by means of media releases, radio and television interviews, published articles in mainstream and heritage media and by lectures to specialist groups, particularly archaeologists. The result of this work, extending over a period of more than six years and which included travel to Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and within New South Wales, resulted in the accumulation of a significant number of finds of deliberately concealed objects. These have been recorded in a National Catalogue of Finds on which this thesis is based. It was confirmed that objects, which in the context of this research include

boots and shoes, garments, cats and a variety of domestic artifacts and childrens toys, were concealed in Australian houses and buildings, that they were both numerous and extremely widely distributed, that the types of objects and their placements were the same as those found in the United Kingdom and elsewhere and in consequence that a folk magic custom long established in the United Kingdom was practiced in this country, raising the possibility of an ancient lineage for a practice that was previously unknown in Australia. Further research is recommended in an effort to extend the scope of this oneman study. It is considered that this research will produce new insights into the lives of Australians in the period 1788 1930s.

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INTRODUCTION
he text that follows describes research that set out to identify and attempt to understand finds of deliberately concealed objects within houses and other buildings throughout Australia. This research has entailed visits to as many of the sites where concealed objects were discovered as could reasonably be achieved. The purpose of these visits was to check the circumstances of the concealments and to record and photograph both buildings and objects. While documentation associated with concealments was absent in every case, the objects themselves, though mute and mundane, conveyed information from which patterns associated with this practice were eventually determined. After hearing about the practice during a visit to England in 2002 I determined to establish whether it had travelled to Australia. I knew from my previous work on Australian architectural history that this practice was not known here. But after discovering in England that concealments were being made in that country throughout the 19th century it became apparent that there was good reason to look for the custom in Australia. No-one, it seemed, had undertaken any research into the matter here. I was eventually able to locate and record more than a hundred sites throughout Australia where shoes, garments, cats and other objects had been placed in inaccessible locations within a variety of buildings. Travel within New South Wales was, for a period of two years, financed by a grant from the NSW Heritage Office. Travel to Tasmania and Queensland was self-funded before I began this thesis. A trip to Adelaide to give a lecture on this work was funded by Flinders University and provided the opportunity to visit a number of sites in Adelaide and environs and to photograph the objects found. After locating sufficient finds to confirm that the custom had been well established in Australia I looked for published accounts and descriptions of the practice. While there were numerous journal articles in the United Kingdom there were no academic dissertations to which I could refer. The major reference book was Ralph Merrifields The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, published in London in 1987. Merrifield drew a connection between concealments and fear of evil spiritual forces from the world beyond our own physical environment. Concealed objects, he believed, were charms designed to protect buildings and their occupants. Merrifield, in using the word charms, sets this practice firmly within the realm of magic. But if it was indeed magic, who practised it? Where and when did it originate? Who initiated the practice? Who or what were the evil forces that directed harmful influences against ordinary people? Any attempt to provide answers to these questions was clearly going to produce significant challenges and perhaps

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to defy complete resolution. But glimpses of possible answers to at least some of these questions are now apparent. I believe that the text that follows and the Catalogue of Finds will provide answers as well as raise further questions. Much of the body of the text deals with the cultural milieu from which the greater number of Australias convicts and immigrants were derived. The intention is to demonstrate that folk magical practices were part of the web of life in their places of origin, creating a mindset that was tuned to magic and the underworld, and that some of these beliefs and practices were transferred to Australia as a result of the convict system and of emigration from Britain during the 19th century. I have focussed on England in this study because it was from there that the largest group of emigrants came to Australia. The 1891 census of the population of the colonies of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia shows that 49.36% of the overseas-born in those colonies came from England and Wales. Those of Irish origin totalled 21.2%, the Scots 11.9% with the remaining 17.56% from elsewhere.1 1.1 ritual armour Professor Owen Davies of the University of Hertfordshire recently compiled a list of some of the protective rituals and devices used in England and Wales in the postmediaeval period: Certain marks scratched on stone, plaster and timber in old buildings, or images marked on plaster using candle smoke. These marks will be described or illustrated later in this text. Witch bottles containing urine and sharp objects, used to counteract bewitchment. Pierced and baked hearts to ward off witchcraft and evil. Celestial letters. They circulated in print and manuscript and were used to protect against witchcraft and misfortune during childbirth. Written charms. Produced and sold by village and urban folk magic practitioners known as cunning-folk, they are fascinating examples of the interaction of print, manuscript and oral cultures. Harmful image magic. Dolls and effigies carved in wood and wax, usually pierced with nails or pins. Curses written on paper, or on slates and deposited in wells - a tradition strong in Wales. Concealed shoes, garments, bones, hair, animals and personal objects. These were secreted in wall cavities, under hearths and in roof timbers to protect the home. Healing objects. These include a wide range of items. Prehistoric beads, axes and arrowheads were valued for their healing powers. Other items include holed stones and cauls.2

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It would be unreasonable to believe that practices such as these, assuming for the moment that at least some of them survived into the 19th century, would simply disappear once convicts or settlers had arrived in Australia. Researching the survival or disappearance in Australia of the entire body of such practices is beyond the scope of this thesis: I have set out here to demonstrate that magic was a vital part of life among many English people before they came to Australia and that at least one such magical practice survived in this country in secret until at least the mid-1930s. The English language is littered with evidence that the belief in the power of evil spiritual forces exerted a powerful influence on the minds of people in the comparatively recent past. Still in everyday use in English are words such as nightmare, charm, charming, spell and magic itself. These words have been stripped of the fear and power that they once embodied and have become innocent terms whose original meaning is rarely considered by those who use them today. We use these words lightly, but do not experience the feelings of dread that they once imparted. While dictionaries are not usually cited for scholarly work they provide a useful source for interpreting and dating words that have now lost almost all of their original power. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary provides dates for the first published reference to a great many words relating to evil spiritual beings and their activities. By telling us when such words came into the language it provides a marker to those periods when fear of supernatural forces was part of everyday life. From the Dictionarys third edition (1968) here are some of the more common words with their original meanings and the dates of their first published appearance in English: Bewitched Charm Charmed Charmer Charming Magic A person or animal under the power or spell of a witch. 1526. The chanting of a verse having magic power. An incantation, magic spell or a talisman or amulet. The origins are thought to be the Middle English charme, from Old French, and from the Latin carmen meaning a song or incantation. 1564. A person or animal under the spell of a witch or evil being. A person who uses magic powers; an enchanter or enchantress. 1676. The act of creating or imposing a spell; exercising the power of magic. 1720. The art of producing effects claimed to be beyond natural human power and arrived at by means of supernatural agencies or through command of occult forces in nature. 1697.

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Magician Nightmare Overlooked Spell Spellbound

A person skilled in magic; a necromancer, wizard or conjuror. Date unknown. A female incubus, spirit or goblin that settled upon a person during sleep and induced a feeling of suffocation. 1562. A person, animal or foodstuff harmed by the malignant power of the evil eye. 1596. A set of words, formula or verse, supposed to possess occult or magical powers; a charm or incantation; an occult or mysterious power or influence. 1592. Enchanted, entranced or trapped by a spell. 1799.

The social climate in which words such as these were in common use was described by John Webster, practitioner in physick, in 1677. The common people, he wrote: .. are all generally enchanted and bewitched with the strange things related of Devils, Apparitions, Fayries, Hobgoblins, Ghosts, Spirits and the like.3 With the passage of centuries and a loss of belief in the power of witchcraft and of evil emanating from the spiritual world these words have gradually undergone a transformation in meaning. While they are all still in use they have been almost entirely shorn of their original supernatural connotations. Rendered harmless, they serve new purposes in the third millennium. This is not the place to delve deeply into the vast subject of witchcraft other than to mention that the fear of witches, witchcraft and malign spiritual beings retained some of its force in 19th century Britain and that the influence of these beliefs continued to be felt throughout the British Isles into the early 20th century.4 Recycled accounts of ancient beliefs were promoted by authors of populist books and helped to fuel continuing fears and village antagonisms. Among these was a description of a witch, published in 1823 in W. Grant Stewarts Popular Superstitions &c. of the Highlanders of Scotland: The face is so wrinkled that it commonly resembles the channels of dried waters and the colours of it resembles nothing so much as a piece of leather The eyes are small and piercing, sunk into the forehead, like the expiring remains of a candle sunk into the socket..5 Elderly widows lacking the protection of a husband and family were largely socially defenceless against accusations of witchcraft. Ill-health, painful joints, loneliness and depression were very likely to reinforce their alienation from the communities in which they lived. The unknown author of a pamphlet entitled The Old Witches, published in 1853, scoffed at beliefs that appeared to pose a continued threat to elderly women in English villages at the time:

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Anne Baker, Ione Willimot and Ellen Greene, the Leicestershire witches with their familiars. These women were executed at Lincoln in 1618 and 1619. From Wonderful Discoverie of the Witchcraft of Margaret and Philip Flower.

An old woman with a wrinkled face, a furred brow, a hairy lip, a gobber tooth, a squint eye, a squeaking voice, or a scolding tongue, having a ragged coat on her back, a spindle in her hand, and a dog by her side a wretched, infirm, and impotent creature, pelted and pursued by all the neighbourhood, because the farmers cart had struck the gateway, or some idle boy had pretended to spit pins for the sake of a holiday from school or work.6

1.2 circumstantial evidence In discussing the European experience in the Australian colonies we need to consider the emotional implications involved in the transition from a life in Britain with long-established family and societal networks to an alien and exotic world on the other side of the planet. By any standards, this must have been an unsettling, disturbing and depressing experience even for those who had made the decision to emigrate rather than having it made for them. For the convicts in particular, transportation was a terrible experience. They were torn from their homes, families and familiar environment and sent to the far side of the earth. There was to be no return and little prospect of ever seeing either home or their loved ones again. Emigrants would have found the experience almost as traumatic. The deeply unfamiliar landscape, creatures and indigenous people had an impact upon these new Australians, as they experienced for the first time the unearthly sounds of the Australian bush, the grunting of koalas, the howling of dingoes and the shrieks of Antipodean bats. A world away from family, friends and familiar surroundings, emigrants and convicts alike experienced profoundly unsettling phenomena: the seasons turned around, the sun rising and setting in different places and unfamiliar stars in the night sky. In this alien, exotic and sometimes frightening place they may have sought comfort in familiar rituals from home.

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Throughout the 19th century the fear of death was part of everyday life. This was a time when you could expect several of your numerous children to die before they reached puberty, and a time when appendicitis or a cut that became infected could result in death. By the 1890s and into the early 20th century you could die of the plague in Sydney and in other port cities around Australia.7 The uncertainties of life in Australia spilled over into fear for family members left behind in the old country. When written news from home was not available, the Irish emigrant Martin Normile, a settler at Lochinvar in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, relied on his dreams and those of his wife to inform them of the health of family members back on the old Shammerick Shore. In February 1863 his dreams had acquired a dark edge and he wrote home to ask if all was well: My wife has been dreaming of her people also so we were thinking there might be someting wrong with ye.8 The vast and unbridgeable distances that separated emigrants from family members at home created a need that could not be assuaged by mere reason or the consolations of everyday life. In an age before the advancement of science and the discrediting of magic, powerless people turned to rituals to assuage their fears. In Religion and the Decline of Magic (1991) Keith Thomas explained why magic helped people at the time Martin Normile was fretting about his family in Ireland: It lessens anxiety, relieves pent-up frustration, and makes the practitioner feel that he is doing something positive towards the solution of his problem. By its agency he is transformed from a helpless bystander into an active agent.9 Hans Dieter Betz described magic as: the art that makes people who practice it feel better rather than worse, that provides the illusion of security to the insecure, the feeling of help to the helpless, and the comfort of hope to the hopeless.10 Richard Godbeer found that, having survived the journey across the Atlantic, magic served 17th-century settlers in colonial New England in many ways: New Englanders used magic to surmount the barriers of time and space, to look into the future and across vast distances. Magic also enabled them to harness the world and adapt it to their own ends. Through magic, men and women overcame their natural limitations: it made the world a more immediate and accessible place, giving new powers of perception and action to those who mastered its possibilities.11 It is appropriate at this point to define some of the terms that will be used throughout this thesis. Magic and several other words associated with it have already been discussed but there are other terms that require explanation. These include ritual, spiritual midden

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and apotropaic. Ritual is defined in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, 1965, as pertaining to or connected with rites, these being formal procedures or acts in a religious or other solemn observance, or a custom or practice of a formal kind. The term spiritual midden has to be split into its component parts, spiritual and midden in order to arrive at a clear definition of its meaning. Spiritual has many meanings but in this context the one that is most pertinent is in relation to a connection with spirits or supernatural beings. A midden is a mound or deposit of domestic refuse, commonly dating from the past. Thus a spiritual midden can be seen as a cache of domestic artefacts from a previous era which have the power to influence beings from beyond the world inhabited by humans. Apotropaic comes from the Greek apotropaios which means to turn away. In its present useage it refers to the use of magic and amulets or symbols to ward off evil or ill fortune. In considering why people would turn to folk magic it is useful to understand just how different everyday life was in the Australian colonies during the 19th century. In the first half of the century the street and the neighbourhood of the town or city in which people resided constituted the practical world of themselves and their family. Relatives in England faded from their lives as a result of the difficulty and delay in communicating. Those who could read and write could keep in touch with letters but the mail was very slow and often uncertain. The illiterate could pay a scrivener or prevail upon a friend to put their news on paper. For a great many people, however, the voyage to Australia terminated ready contact with parents, siblings, and in some cases, with wives and children. To those at home the emigrants had passed into a world beyond understanding and beyond reach. Folk magic gave emigrants and exiles a sense of control at a time when their grip on this world seemed fragile indeed. By attempting to reach into the other world they sought to influence, to regulate and to some degree to control the place in which they found themselves. It is necessary to approach the issue of precisely how to identify the concealment of objects in buildings. Ritual is the term generally accepted and used by academic researchers in this field in the United Kingdom, even though there has not been an academic study of the practice there. Turning to the profession of archaeology for guidance on the use of this term in the context under study might be considered a logical step to take if it were not for the fact that some prominent members of this discipline are still rigidly adhering to formal definitions from previous eras. Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice by the eminent archaeologists Paul Bahn and Colin Renfrew, now in its fifth edition and widely used to train students in archaeology, defines ritual as something that meets the following criteria: Focusing of attention 1. Ritual may take place in a spot with special, natural associations (cave, grove of trees, spring, mountaintop)

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2. Alternatively, ritual may take place in a special building set apart for sacred functions 3. The structure and equipment used for the ritual may employ attention- focusing devices, reflected in the architecture, special fixtures..and in the movable equipment . 4. The sacred area is likely to be rich in repeated symbols .. Boundary zone between this world and the next 5. Ritual may involve both conspicuous public display and expenditure, and hidden exclusive mysteries, whose practice will be reflected in the architecture 6. Concepts of cleanliness and pollution may be reflected in the facilities . and maintenance of the sacred area Presence of the deity 7. The association with a deity or deities may be reflected in the use of a cult image 8. The ritualistic symbols will often relate iconographically to the deities worshipped and to their associated myth. Animal symbolism may often be used 9. The ritualistic symbols may relate to those seen also in rites of passage Participation and offering 10. Worship will involve prayer and special movements and these may be reflected in the . iconography of decorations or images 11. The ritual may employ various devices for inducing religious experience (e.g., dance, music, drugs, the infliction of pain) 12. The sacrifice of animals or humans may be practiced 13. Food and drink may be brought and possibly consumed as offerings or burned/poured away 14. Other material objects may be brought and offered 15. Great investment of wealth may be reflected both in the equipment used and in the offerings made 16. Great investment of wealth and resources may be reflected in the structure itself and its facilities.12 These criteria make no concession whatever to the possibility of humble household rituals and appear to have been wholly framed within the context of classical archaeology. With a new generation of archaeologists being trained by Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice a book that has become required reading at universities in a number of countries it appears that it will be some time before the profession recognises the role that folk magic rituals played in the lives of people until the comparatively recent past.

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An alternative view to that offered by Bahn and Renfrew is promulgated by Amy GazinSchwartz, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Assumption College, Massachusetts, who concludes that ritual was often part of everyday life. These polarised points of view on ritual summarise the dichotomy of approaches to finds made during archaeological investigation, whether on ancient sites or those of the 20th century. At one end of the scale are those who recognize the models posed by Renfrew and Bahn; the other is occupied by researchers who can see the potential for a duality of use in everyday objects. For the latter group, an understanding of folklore provides the cultural equipment to see meanings that would otherwise remain undiscovered. Integrating material culture with ritual, the practical and the spiritual, provides new ways to understand the past. Gazin-Schwartz suggests that everyday objects: can be included as ritual items, however, because their practical use required that they be used in a consistent, prescribed manner and that the practitioner call upon other nonphysical aspects of the item, or powers associated with it, to achieve the healing or protection. In the context of daily, household, and subsistence activities, everyday items were invested with meaning that was not simply utilitarian or functional, but that expanded into the spiritual world.13 The concealment of objects in sealed voids, a practice carried out in secrecy and with considerable care taken with respect to the placement of particular objects in particular places, was undertaken by a great many people in widely separated locations in the United Kingdom and throughout the Australian colonies. The careful observance of this customary practice over a very long period of time in the United Kingdom, and for a lesser but still lengthy period in Australia, suggests both enduring and powerful motivation. The term ritual is thus considered an appropriate appelation. The subject of this thesis is a ritual practiced by convicts, settlers and immigrants of European origin. The emphasis is thus on Australian colonial history. While the Aboriginal people of Australia had a rich culture in which magic played an important role, this complex history has not been examined as part of this research.

1.3 historiography Analyses of the measures taken to protect houses from spiritual attack have been limited in comparison with the research and writing that deals with building technology, technique, materials, finishes and history. A large body of works on the history of houses and other buildings and their architecture exists and the number increases every year.

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Furniture, furnishings and the decorative arts have been described and illustrated at length. We also know a great deal about the manner in which people lived in and used their houses. But an apparent refusal to draw an association between the fear of evil spiritual forces and the effects that this fear might have had upon the occupants of houses, and on the buildings themselves, has been evident for some time. Recognition of the fact that objects with a perceived role in protecting houses and their occupants were being found in many old buildings dawned slowly in Britain where Ralph Merrifield first drew attention to this domestic ritual with The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic (1987). Merrifields work was essentially an interrogation of practices that left traces in the archaeological record. More recently, in Conversing by Signs (1998), the American folklorist Robert Blair St George promoted the theory of the embodied house in which buildings represented the bodies of their owners. Different parts of the structure were taken to stand in for the flesh and bones of the people who lived in them. Windows were eyes, structural timbers the ribs and the fireplace hearth represented the heart. The house, according to St George, thus required the same degree of protection as the bodies of its occupants. The basis of this theory appears to be Robert Underwoods New Anatomie (1605). Underwoods work, a versified allegory of human physiology, also compared the Body of Man to a city a fact which is apparently irrelevant to St Georges need to make a point about houses. Underwoods curious and less than influential text is a dubious foundation for a theory on reasons for protecting houses from spiritual attack. Whether or not the concept of the embodied house actually existed in the minds of those who concealed shoes, garments, cats and domestic artefacts within the structure of their houses remains uncertain but there is tangible evidence of the fear that unpleasant spiritual forces aroused. St George records that the Puritans of 17th and 18th century New England used objects hidden in cellars or chimneys while houses were being constructed: Shoes were concealed behind walls, above windows, under floors, in roofs, and in chimney stacks.14 The question of the source of the fear, itself evident in the rich harvest of concealed objects retrieved from buildings in Australia, North America, the UK and Continental Europe, has not been confronted until comparatively recently. It was only when a small group of historians, most notably Owen Davies in the UK, re-examined the issue of the survival of witchcraft beliefs into the 19th and 20th centuries, that some conclusions could be reached. Keith Thomass monumental work Religion and the Decline of Magic (1991) had seemed to be the last word on the subject, effectively deleting witchcraft from the discourse on modern history. But Davies, using newspaper accounts of provincial court cases in England, confirmed the survival into the 19th and 20th centuries of the belief in witches and witchcraft and of the network of cunning men and women, conjurers, wizards and astrologers, who had been part of British life for many centuries. Enlightenment and social progress, it appeared, was not quite as universal as many people had believed. It became clear that deep pockets of ancient belief had survived until at least the early 20th

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century. A preliminary excursion into the field of the material culture of folk magic and witchcraft in Britain was made by the independent researcher Brian Hoggard who, from his base in Worcester, sent questionnaires to 661 museums throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In England alone, 47% of the museums that responded reported objects of interest to the survey.15 As research intensified, some long-standing conclusions and assumptions came under question. Principal among these was the belief that the rich culture of folklore, folk magic and witchcraft of Britain had failed to make the journey to Australia with convicts and settlers who arrived here in the period 1788 - 1935. This assumption is now under serious challenge. As Davies has said: It is hard to believe that witchcraft accusations did not occur in the new continent and that magical practices, which were widespread in early nineteenth century urban and rural Britain, suddenly became redundant.16 Nevertheless, evidence of these beliefs and practices is hard to find in Australia. Maureen Perkins, in Visions of the Future: Almanacs, Time and Cultural Change (1996) and The Reform of Time (2001), used 19th century almanacs to obtain a glimpse of the culture in which folk magic survived after being transplanted to the Antipodes. By examining the content of almanacs she was able to call into question the image of a society completely absorbed in material concerns.17 Perkins conducted a meticulous examination of the entire surviving body of Australian almanacs and in so doing established that these mirrored the content of English almanacs. Almanacs blended the factual and the pragmatic, including the day and date and agricultural and horticultural advice with folklore relating to the weather, planetary influences on human life and astrological predictions. The first Australian almanac was The New South Wales Pocket Almanac and Colonial Remembrancer, published in Sydney by George Howe in 1806. Many others followed and during the 19th century almanacs were published widely throughout Australia. Perkins concluded that: they met a demand for the marvelous, the unusual and the supernatural.18 The widespread distribution of almanacs in Australia and their evident success testifies to the existence of a culture that subscribed to belief systems in which astrology, folklore and the supernatural played a significant part. Tangible evidence of the belief systems hinted at by the almanacs has now been revealed by the discovery of a large number of examples of the material culture of folk magic in caches throughout Australia (see the Catalogue of Finds: pages 224 414). The concealment of these objects in sealed voids in houses and other buildings tells part of the story of the transplantation into Australian society of ancient fears and the folk magic practices and beliefs that were used to counter evil spiritual forces. Other evidence is likely to be found if social and architectural historians and archaeologists are prepared to look for it. The Catalogue is thought to be the first in

21

the world to provide a comprehensive national inventory that combines the evidence of folk magic practices involving the concealment of shoes, garments, cats and domestic artefacts in buildings. It might be thought that the practice of folk magic and the practice of religion would be mutually contradictory but the evidence is that practitioners of folk magic, and indeed much of the population, saw no conflict in this. James Obelkevich in Religion and Rural Society: South Lindesay 1825 1875 (1976) recorded that in this part of Lancashire: Villagers might attend both church and chapel, but their religious realm extended beyond the churches, and indeed beyond Christianity, to encompass an abundance of pagan magic and superstition.19 Obelkevich argued that the distinction between magic and religion had been blurred so that a case existed for an inclusive rather than an exclusive definition of religion.20 Concealments of a variety of objects in Australian churches and associated buildings (two Catholic Churches and a Cathedral, an Anglican rectory, and a Primitive Methodist Church), plus the home of an active member of Sydneys Roman Catholic laity, provide support for this argument. Details are in the Catalogue of Finds, pages 227, 243, 394, 286, 341 and 375. Faced with an absence of documentary material to explain questions associated with concealments, researchers are forced to draw conclusions from the evidence that is available. Tentative at this stage, such conclusions may be tested and either confirmed or found lacking at a later date. In discussing the fading power of witchcraft in late 19th century Lancashire, Obelkevich provided us with a theory that may fit the latter stages of the concealment ritual in Australia. He observed that dairymaids who had once believed that the evil eye of a particular witch prevented the butter from forming, at a later time attributed this failure to the abstraction witchcraft. Obelkevich observed that: .this was witchcraft without witches. A further stage was reached when dairymaids, still placing their remedial sprigs of wicken over the churn, no longer knew why they did so; they no longer knew about witches or witchcraft. It was a ritual without a myth, degenerating into mere luck.21 David Vincents Literacy and Popular Culture (1989) revealed some of the factors that contributed to the slow fading away of witchcraft beliefs during the 19th century. Among these were the growth of mass literacy in Britain, the steady dissemination of knowledge resulting from the greater availability of education and the rise of the postal system which made newspapers more widely available. Despite this trend, memories of ancient cus-

22

toms remained durable and were extensively documented in Bob Bushs By Rite: Custom, Ceremony and Community in England 1700 1880 (1982). The rich pattern of traditional culture and belief was examined by Bush in a book which remains the definitive work on the subject. The background to life, work and cultural activity in England in much the same period is meticulously described in John Rules The Labouring Classes in Early Industrial England 1750 1850 (1986). The role of folk magic appears to have continued until quite recently in communities that were outside of the mainstream of national life in Britain. David Clarks Between Pulpit and Pew: Folk Religion in a North Yorkshire Fishing Village (1982) records a range of practices and events which elsewhere has faded into history. The village of Staithes, an isolated and insular community, was studied by Clark who lived there for a time in the mid-1970s. He recorded that the villagers made no distinction between practices which appeared to be of pagan origin and those that emanated from the religion of their church: The individual is merely born into a social setting in which a rich variety of religious beliefs and practices are in existence, both inside and outside the church.22 To return to the matter of the Puritan settlers in New England, Richard Godbeers Devils Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England (1992) examines cultural systems and magical practices within a group of people whose beliefs and customs had accompanied them from Britain, seemingly without significant alteration. While these people had left Britain a century and more before Australia received its first European settlers, the successful transplantation of English and Scottish witchcraft and magic into America provides an indication of the likelihood of the replication of this process in the Australian colonies in the period from 1788 onwards.

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ONE: METHODOLOGY

abstract

his research depended on the active assistance and cooperation of members of the public, including homeowners and builders, and professionals such as archaeologists and architects. I set out to contact these people by using mainstream media and periodicals targeted to the owners of old houses and other buildings. The intention was to locate and identify concealments if indeed these existed in Australia. Opportunities to give lectures to community groups and to archaeologists were also sought. I had first to understand the history of the practice of concealments in the UK which I visited on two occasions during the course of research. 1.1 prelude During a visit to England in August 2002 I met colleagues who aroused my interest in unusual finds in buildings of the United Kingdom. Before leaving Australia I had arranged to meet Richard Bond, an architectural illustrator with English Heritage, in London. I had made contact with him via the British Archaeology email mailing list (BritArch) and had discussed an idea for a book on UK house styles and periods. Richard took me to Sutton House at Hackney where I saw marks carved into the lintel of a fireplace. Later, Richard gave me a photocopy of an article by Timothy Easton an independent architectural historian and artist who had first described and offered a theory on Timothy Easton Bedfield Hall 2002 the reason for the marks found on so many English houses of the 16th and 17th centuries. I later contacted Easton and went to stay at his house, Bedfield Hall, in Suffolk. He showed me a number of old houses and buildings in Suffolk and I saw what he termed apotropaic marks on many buildings. The word is from the Greek apotropaios, a term applied to Apollo who was said to protect the young and avert evil. I also saw marks on the ceilings of a 17th century house that had been written with smoke from One of numerous a candle. These appear to be alternative versions of the marks apotropaic marks on the original kitchen inscribed on fireplace lintels and window and door reveals. At ceiling, Bedfield Hall, Eastons house I saw shoes that had been found in the voids Suffolk, 1620.

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adjacent to the flue of the chimney that served both the kitchen and breakfast room of the building. These he considered to have been deliberately placed to decoy evil spirits who might enter the house via the chimney. The painted plaster ceiling of the original kitchen (now the breakfast room) at Bedfield Hall had been inscribed with numerous identical marks which were distributed across the surface. These consisted of a circle containing patterns resembling the petals of a flower. Easton believed their purpose was to protect the food served to members of the family of Thomas Dunstan who lived there from 1620. I arranged for Bond to meet Easton in London and we had lunch in a caf near the English Heritage office in Savile Row on 4 September 2002. It was at this meeting that I learned that shoes were still being hidden in houses and other buildings in Britain throughout the 19th century. I immediately began to suspect that the practice might have been carried to Australia with convicts and settlers during the 18th and 19th centuries. I had been aware of the many concealed shoes found in the UK before I arrived in England but had thought the practice had died out before European settlement began in Australia. During my 2002 visit to England and on later visits in 2004 and 2006 I met Brian Hoggard, the folk magic researcher, in Worcester, Dr. Owen Davies of the University of Hertfordshire who has written extensively on British witchcraft and magic, and June Swann, former curator of the boot and shoe collection at Northampton Museums and the person who first began to systematically compile an inventory of concealed shoes in buildings. In the year after my return home in late 2002 I remained intrigued and alert to the possibility of finding either apotropaic marks or concealed shoes in Australian buildings but it was not until early 2004 that I found the opportunity to begin serious research in Australia. On 24 February I posted a brief message on the NSW Heritage Office email network for heritage advisors, tentatively seeking information on unusual finds in buildings. I asked: Have any of you found or heard of artifacts or animals such as cats built into the fabric of old houses or buildings? Artifacts might include old shoes or items of clothing, perhaps inserted into cavities in a chimney stack. Objects of this type are often found in old buildings in the UK and served to protect houses and other buildings from evil. I suspect that they were also used here but have a feeling that no-one has looked for them. I received two good leads within a few days: Ray Stevens of Oikos Architects, Balmain, reported the discovery of a very old shoe and part of a lace collar in a circa 1830 house in Dawes Point, Sydney (page 243), and the architect Christo Aitken of Bathurst described a tradesmans boot found in the chimney breast of Burrundulla, a well-known 1860s house at Mudgee, NSW (page 271). Shortly afterwards, when my message had been circulated on the Victorian heritage office email network, Wendy Jacobs of Ballarat reported the find of a concealed cat, made some years before, by workmen renovating Her Majestys Theatre, Ballarat (page 339). When, sometime in March, one of the organisers

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of the Historic Houses Trust of New South Waless Out of the Woodwork Festival rang to ask if I could give a lecture at their 2004 event I had a subject that seemed perfectly suited for the occasion. My lecture, entitled Bewitched: Ritual, Magic and Witchcraft in Old Australian Houses and Buildings, was delivered twice: on Saturday 1 May and Sunday 2 May, 2004, at the visitor centre on the Trusts Rouse Hill Estate, Rouse Hill, on the western outskirts of Sydney. This was the first time the information I had so far gathered was made public. It was also the first of many lectures that I was to give in the following five years. The information available to me at that time was slight but I felt confident that there were many more concealed objects to be found. I also felt that obtaining publicity provided the only way forward with this research. The Rouse Hill lectures attracted a great deal of media interest and many radio interviews took place as a result. These often produced new finds. But the greatest response came with the telecast at 9.30 pm on 17 October 2004 of an episode of the ABC-TV history programme, Rewind, which told the story of my research into deliberately concealed objects. Numerous reports of finds came from widely dispersed areas of Australia. After that, there could no longer be any doubt that the custom had been widespread in the Australian colonies. 1.2 steps towards awareness In previous projects directed at gathering information for my books on building conservation and Australian architectural history much of the research work had been carried out in libraries and archives. Documentary evidence was readily obtainable there. Both primary and secondary sources were consulted. The books and other sources used by Australian and British architects and builders during the 19th and 20th centuries were of particular use. A full list of these, consisting of more than 250 books, manuscripts, catalogues and pamphlets, is contained in the bibliographies of my books: Restoring Old Houses (Macmillan 1979), The Australian Home (Flannel Flower Press 1981), The Federation House A Restoration Guide (Flannel Flower Press 1986), Caring for Old Houses (Flannel Flower Press 1988) and The Queensland House History and Conservation (Flannel Flower Press 2001). These works included guides and catalogues on every variety of building materials and fixtures as well as more recent books on the social and cultural interpretation of historic buildings. I studied brickmaking, bricklaying, stonemasonry, plastering, joinery, carpentry, roofing, ceramic tiles for floors, walls and hearths, terracotta tiles for roofing, cast iron for practical and decorative purposes, lights and lighting and a considerable variety of techniques related to their use. I endeavoured to know something about everything that was associated with the construction of houses, from the design of chimneys to the system of bells used to summon servants to the various rooms. To understand interiors I investigated painting and decorating, the design and manufacture of wallpaper, stencils and stencilling, staining and graining of timber, and

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design and construction of imported and colonial furniture, the placement of furniture within the rooms, fabrics, curtains, utensils and ornaments. I made an autodidactic journey through an area of study that traversed the disciplines of history, architecture and the decorative and fine arts in Britain and Australia in the period from 1788 to the 1950s. Extensive bibliographies relating to this area of research, and which list several hundred books, periodicals and manuscript material, can be found in Furnishing Old Houses (Macmillan 1983), Colour Schemes for Old Australian Houses (Flannel Flower Press 1984) and More Colour Schemes for Old Australian Houses (Flannel Flower Press 1992). Both of the latter were written in collaboration with Clive Lucas and Ian Stapleton. To better understand wallpaper of the 19th and early 20th centuries I read the published literature, examined the Margaret Monk collection of 19th century wallpaper sample books in Melbourne and inspected surviving original wallpapers in situ on the walls of old houses. Theory, while essential to understanding, was not enough. Writing about buildings required site visits and in the course of many such inspections in various areas of Australia I became aware that history is also written in stone, brick, timber, earth and a host of other materials: paper, paint, ceramics, metal and glass. These materials, transformed by industrial processes and by the hands of tradesmen and craft workers and put into position as a result of artistic and creative impulses, became shelters for generation after generation of Australians. I learned to look for the truth beyond the document. Carefully scraping away later accretions of paint and wallpaper from the walls of old houses, I travelled back through time to see original finishes and decorative effects. It could be said that all of this work was a preparation, in a process of which I was not then aware, for discovering a story hidden within the very fabric of the buildings that had such a fascination for me. At the right time, all of this preparation reached the point where the flash of understanding occurred. It happened at that caf in Savile Row, London, on 4 September 2002. 1.3 discovery I was to learn that finds of concealed objects had been made throughout Australia for many years. The earliest recorded find of which I am aware was made in Brisbane in 1913.1 The cut-off date for this practice is difficult to establish, but the remnants of a young persons boot, found embedded in original fill in the southern approaches of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, suggest it continued until at least the 1920s (page 277).2 A womans shoe of the earlymid 1930s, concealed in a chimney in the Newcastle suburb of Stockton (page 275), takes the story a little further forward in time.3 In the absence of any understanding of their purpose, it appears that the vast majority of such finds were rationalised, disregarded or discarded. If, for example, a tradesman involved in renovating a house found an old shoe while demolishing a chimney and had no knowledge of similar

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finds made by colleagues elsewhere or the reason for its presence in the building there was a high probability of the shoe being tossed onto the sites rubbish pile. Finds of this type extending back over many years are now being described by men involved in several of the building trades. Damian McMahon, an electrician from Wentworth Falls, NSW, emailed me on 4 August 2009 to report his own experiences while working in Sydney: Over the years I have found many old shoes in chimneys and under floors. A number of the recent finds has been made by tradesmen as news of their significance spreads throughout the wider community. Arthur Rudman, a specialist painter and decorator, was involved in finds of concealed shoes at St Augustines Catholic Church at Balmain and the Church of the Sacred Heart, Temora, NSW, both of which are recorded in the Catalogue of Finds (pages 227 and 286). Other finds by tradesmen are listed in the Catalogue, including those of the skulls of two cows and a childs shoe at Triangle Flat (page 289) and shoes at Bathurst (page 229), Camperdown (page 236) and Mudgee (page 279) in NSW, as well as at Beulah Park, South Australia (page 363), and Lindisfarne, Tasmania (page 325). The earliest recorded find by tradesmen of which I am aware occurred at the old Commissariat building, Brisbane, in 1913, as previously referred to and as recorded in the Catalogue (page 401). This discovery was made by Queensland Works Department employees and because the significance of the Commissariat as the States oldest surviving building was well understood the work appears to have been carefully supervised. A photograph taken of Works Department staff standing on the old upper level of the Commissariat after the roof had been removed underlines the importance of the building. When what was believed by Works Department supervisors to be a remnant of the convict period was found during the work it was swiftly passed on to the Queensland Museum. (See the Catalogue for more information and photographs). But this was a unique set of circumstances and there can be little doubt that there were a great many other instances in which shoes, garments and cats found in unusual locations went unrecorded. Busy tradesmen, especially in pre-internet years, were in no position to link the occasional discovery of a battered old shoe or a very dead cat with a body of finds, either in Australia or elsewhere, or to make the leap of understanding necessary to connect such objects with ancient beliefs involving fear of the unknown or evil spirits. Archaeologists have been involved in finds made at Southampton Homestead, Balingup (page 377), and St. Marys Cathedral, Perth, Western Australia (page 394), the former police station at Mitcham, South Australia (page 365), and the Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, a property in the care of the Historic Houses Trust of NSW (page 279). The Barracks finds, made during the 1970s, were recorded but not understood. A pair of shoes, found in the roof cavity at Elizabeth Bay House, Sydney (page 247), provides an example of a find in a building that was being restored for use as a house museum by the Historic Houses Trust. A number of finds has been made by home renovators who are not tradesmen. These include the pair of shoes found by the architect John Endersbee and

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his father-in-law during renovations of Johns cottage in the Adelaide suburb of Parkside (page 368), and by Norbert Gross at Semaphore, South Australia (page 369). Finds reported to me by architects involved in conservation work include the shoe and part lace collar from Dawes Point (page 243) and the tradesmans boot from Burrundulla, Mudgee (page 271). Most finds in the past were discarded. The exceptions were those in reasonably good condition and that were regarded as curious or quaint. Some of these were kept by tradesmen or the owners of the buildings in which they were found. A few made their way into museums but their significance was not recognized until my research became known. These museum objects were mostly 19th century shoes that were kept as artifacts relating to fashion, taste and social status. Some were garments. Museums and public organizations holding objects found in building voids include the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, the Burnie Museum, Tasmania, the Migration Museum, Adelaide, the Unley Museum, Adelaide, the Mount Horrocks Historical Society, Watervale, South Australia, the Residency Museum, York, Western Australia, the office of the Australian Archives, Adelaide, the Western Australian Museum, Perth, Chiverton House Museum, Northampton, Western Australia, the Queensland Museum, Brisbane, the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, the Newcastle Regional Museum, National Trust of Australia (NSW) at Riversdale, Goulburn, Goulburn War Memorial Museum, and the Historic Houses Trust, Sydney. A few of the more interesting, unusual or appealing finds are privately held, either by tradesmen or the owners of the houses. These are seen as curios, often with rather puzzling questions associated with their discovery in building voids. As a result, some highly inventive scenarios are created to explain their presence in unusual locations. A pair of expensive boots of the 1880s, suitable for a young woman, found beneath the floor of the National Trust property, Riversdale (page 253), was explained by a descendant of the family resident there at the time as having been hidden during a game of forfeits.4 Not every owner wants to keep the objects found in their houses. Many of the shoes are in poor condition and are not seen as decorative or desirable. I have been given some of these, as well as a childs winter coat from Cessnock, NSW (page 239), and a very unlovely dead cat from a house in the Sydney suburb of Marrickville (page 265), and have accepted them in order to save them from probable abandonment. I hope suitable homes will be found for these objects at the conclusion of this research. Some owners prefer to replace concealed objects just as they were found. Others keep them in an accessible place such as a cupboard or on a shelf in a back room. Most of the concealed objects of which I am aware remain in the houses where they were found. There is still some superstitious awe associated with these objects. I have been aware of reluctance to allow some objects to be taken from the house as well as an urge to put others back into their original position. Robert Millington, owner of the miners cottage in Hartley Valley Road, Lithgow, where nine shoes were found in the roof cavity (page 263), was reluctant to bring them out for photography and hastened to put them back immediately the shoot was completed.

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1.4 the research process Within a few months of commencing research, I began to suspect that concealments had been carried out, at least in part, by members of several building trades. Large boots splashed with lime mortar or plaster found in voids in a number of buildings pointed to the almost certain involvement of bricklayers, stonemasons and plasterers. A number of such finds can be seen in the Catalogue. But the literature used by all of these trade groups had nothing to say about concealed objects. As previously described, I had already read a very large number of books on the building trade of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, principally in the collections of the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, of which the majority had been written and published in Britain. The books that I consulted all had a strictly functional and technological basis. They contained not a word that so much as hinted at folk magic or anything remotely connected with it. I also referred to numerous books and archival descriptions of life in the 19th century home. Typical of the books was Cassells Household Guide, published in London in instalments between 1880 and 1890. A definitive work of its time, it contained a vast range of information on everything from cooking to the engagement and management of domestic servants, the keeping of poultry and the making of wills. There is nothing that refers in any way to practices that might have the slightest connection to folk magic. Site visits, while an essential part of the research process, left me with a yearning for some contemporary written description of the custom. Conversations with colleagues in the UK, both by email and during visits there, revealed that British researchers have found nothing in contemporary archival documents. My own investigations in contemporary documentation yielded very little that related to concealed objects except in a somewhat peripheral and enigmatic way. The texts relating to this practice are scarce indeed. There is an intriguing if cryptic reference in the diary of Samuel Pepys, identified by this researcher, in which he describes a visit to his parents house in London on 5 December 1660 where his mother had just passed a kidney stone. Pepys recorded that she had dropped this object into the chimny and could not find it to show it me.5 Such an intensely personal item would have been considered a suitable decoy to lure evil spirits into a void and so lead them away from the occupants of the house. We cannot be sure that this was its purpose but the particular phrasing by Pepys, a writer of some precision, in which he reports that the stone had been let drop into the chimney suggests an apparent Samuel Pepys by J. Hayl, 1666. deliberate intent to place it in a cavity from which (NPG)

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it could not be retrieved. Drop into the chimney has other implications, suggesting that someone had ventured into an upper level of the house, perhaps the roof cavity, and found a point of access that provided a one-way path for the deposition of the stone. Pepyss note also states that his mother was still ill of the stone, raising the possibility that she suspected evil causes for her illness and providing a theoretical motivation for her apparent urgency in placing the stone she had passed in a chimney where it might serve to protect her. Had she intended to dispose of the stone by throwing it into the fire on the hearth a quite different form of expression would have been employed. Pepys appears to have found nothing unusual or significant in this behaviour and by taking it for granted implies that he understood what was taking place and was aware of the purpose behind it. Pepyss diary was in code and not available in published form until 1825. Its circulation would have been too limited and the description of the event too vague to have had any influence on public practice of this custom. In seeking to trace the origins of concealments I also looked for information within the contemporary witchcraft literature. The outbreak of the plague in England, beginning in the mid-14th century and continuing during a further three centuries, may have had a bearing on concealments. The custom may have been stimulated by the witchcraft scares of the 16th and 17th centuries as well as the English Civil War (1642 1651) which added to the fear factor in the lives of a great many people. Folk magic would have been considered a suitable counter to the threat posed by evil forces, whether that threat came from witches, plague or war: each presented the possibility of harm delivered to the very door of ones house. To give an example of a situation in which war affects the use of charms, the folk magic researcher Edward Lovett recorded a sharp increase in the price of cauls around the London docks after the first World War began. Cauls were prized by seamen as protection from the perils of the deep and with the advent of submarine warfare in the Great War their price at the London Docks rose from eighteen pence to 7.6 Extensive collections of books on witchcraft, from the 16th to the early 18th centuries, are held by the Museum of Witchcraft at Boscastle, Cornwall, and the Rare Books Library, Fisher Library, University of Sydney. While visiting Cornwall in 2006, I spent The caul at top was placed on several days examining witchcraft books and artifacts parchment paper, folded and carried in the small purse, at the Museum of Witchcraft and, back in Australia, a above. Gladstone, Macleay further period examining the Fisher Library collection. River, NSW, late 19th century. Key works consulted in both of these places are listed in (Ian Evans collection)

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the Bibliography. The only relevant passages found in these books are discussed in the following text and in that part of the thesis that deals with the manufacture of what have come to be known as witch bottles. The witchcraft books consulted contained no overt reference to concealing objects in buildings as protective devices but allusions were found one textural and one visual that provide circumstantial evidence relating to this practice. The text is from Daemonologie, by James Charles Stuart (1566 1625), the king who united England and Scotland, patron of Shakespeare and instigator of the King James Bible. James was also a firm believer in witches and witchcraft and in Daemonologie expressed views that were generally accepted in his kingdom. First published in Scotland in 1597 it was reprinted in England in 1604 and widely James VI, King of Scotland, distributed. In a discussion on witches familiars, the painted circa 1590 before he small evil beasts said to act as agents of the Devil, James gained the English throne. wrote of the danger of these creatures entering houses to (NPG 1188) do harm to the people who resided in them: being transformed in the likenesse of a little beast or foule, they will come and pearce through whatsoever house or Church, though all ordinarie passages be closed, by whatsoever open(ing), the aire may enter in at.7 The Kings remarks were not necessarily a statement of a startling concept at the time. In fact, he appears to have been expressing views that were already widely accepted and of ancient origin. But whatever the case may be, the Kings warning of dangerous spiritual forces that could enter buildings wherever the air itself passed through the structure appears to have had considerable force. Readers of this very influential work found their beliefs recorded and stamped with the seal of Royal endorsement. Apertures that could have been vulnerable to the sort of home intrusion described in the book included such liminal spaces as doors, windows, chimneys, and roof and subfloor cavities. Roof cavities were tightly sealed against the intrusion or rain, hail and snow but were often porous to airflow. The same applied to subfloor spaces where the passage of air was often necessary to carry away dampness from the earth. A further warning against intrusions by evil spirits came in the early 18th century in Richard Boultons Complete History of Magick, Sorcery and Witchcraft: If they enter as a spirit only, any place where the air can pass thro is sufficient for their passage.8 This passage has a faint echo of the text in Daemonologie of the century before and suggests that memory of Jamess warning had survived. Beings that could enter a house on a puff of air clearly required special precautionary measures.

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Joseph Glanvill, above. (NPG D30085). Right, demonic beings attack a house at Tedworth, Wiltshire an image from Saducismus Triumphatus.

Another significant find in the many volumes of witchcraft books consulted was a sketch and section of text in a work of the late 17th century. Nearly eighty years after Jamess warning, Joseph Glanvill (1636 1680) published Sadducismus Triumphatus in 1681. It contained an illustration showing demonic beings hovering above a house in the village of Tedworth in Wiltshire. Perilously close to the chimneys, the creatures constituted a powerful visual image and served to reinforce the message of 1604. The text describes the sound of a demon singing as it came down the chimney to begin another night terrifying the occupants of the house of Edward Mompesson.9 The chimney as a source of evil also featured in the case of John Davis of Emms Court, Sheep-street, Stratford-on-Avon, who in 1867 claimed that a widow named Jane Ward had bewitched his family. His daughter described events that had terrified the entire family: a man and woman came down the chimney a few days hence, both headless, and seized her by the body, cast her violently on the ground, and then tossed her in the air10 A resource that I examined in England was the folk magic collection of Edward Lovett, held at the Cuming Museum at 155-157 Walworth Road, London. Lovett (1852 1933) was the head cashier of a large City of London bank and an enthusiastic collector of items relating to folk magic. He was an active member of the Folklore Society, joining it in 1900, and an enthusiastic researcher and collector of information on rituals and of the objects associated with them. His collection of charms and objects was donated to the Cuming Museum, part of the Southwark Central Library, in 1916 and provides an insight into the folklore beliefs of Londoners during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Lovetts work produced evidence of the survival of ancient beliefs in an urban environment from which many of Australias convicts and settlers originated.11 The Cuming Museum collection is extensive and includes miniature shoes, a cows heart pierced with nails, acorns said to

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protect against lightning, a caul and a large number of other objects described by Lovett as charms. Among the more esoteric items are the skin of a black and white cat intended to be worn as a cure for rheumatism and chest complaints and a witch ball an irregular glass sphere with a silvery surface patina, embossed metal top piece and a brown silk cord. This was said to have been used for crystal gazing. Edward Lovett and his folklore research are discussed in detail later in this thesis. 1.4.1 research tools: the media The support of the media, and in particular ABC National and Local radio, has been of enormous assistance in this research. Without media support it would have been impossible to locate the majority of the objects recorded in the Catalogue. Fortunately, I found no difficulty in interesting various forms of media in the project. My background in journalism and public relations has given me a lot of experience in preparing, issuing and placing news releases in the media. And the authority and credibility provided by my various books on Australian traditional architecture and building conservation ensured that what I had to say was heard. I was able to enlist media support by providing broadcasters and journalists with interesting news stories, using previous finds to encourage people to come forward and report fresh discoveries. Using the media in this way has been an essential element in this project. Travel to inspect sites and finds has been undertaken only after discussions by email or telephone with the person or persons who reported the find or finds from that area. There were no random pursuits of these objects. In the majority of cases the person who reported a find was the owner of the property. Research in a given area was thus initially targeted but also generalized in order to seek further concealments from that area. My usual practice when arranging to visit an area was to issue a media release in advance. These releases were always localized in order to make them more attractive to radio, local television or newspapers. When visiting the site of a confirmed find, perhaps in a regional town or city, the local newspapers were often invited to the scene after I had examined the find, assessed the site, discussed the circumstances with the owner or occupant of the building and confirmed the authenticity of the object. An interview and photograph of the find, with my request for information on any other objects found in the area, was often the result. However, timing the ensuing publicity was not in my hands and the result has sometimes been that I was no longer in that area when publicity eventuated. This most commonly occurred with local newspapers in cases where publication was weekly or bi-weekly. The effect of this was that a visit to a regional area, whether in New South Wales or another state, with all of the concomitant arrangements for travel and accommodation that this incurred, sometimes resulted in an article in the local newspaper after I had left the district and finds that were reported to me after I returned home. Return visits were not always feasible or economical and in such

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cases I had to rely on owners to supply digital images or, in particularly interesting cases, arrange for a visit by a professional photographer. As well as the major news media, other opportunities to publicise the project were provided by the websites of heritage organizations such as Heritage Victoria and Heritage South Australia. Brief messages, with images of typical finds, were posted with the cooperation of the relevant state heritage bodies. Email networks of heritage advisors, such as those run by the NSW Heritage Branch and Heritage Victoria, were used from time to time to keep the state-wide networks of heritage advisors and specialists in our two most populous states informed of progress in my research. Heritage advisors operate throughout regional areas of New South Wales and Victoria and are called in by homeowners to advise on restoration projects. Advisors visit houses and other buildings while work is in progress and, in discussions with tradesmen and homeowners, are in a good position to hear about finds of objects made during renovation work. Because they have now been briefed on this research heritage advisors are able to discuss any finds that are drawn to their attention and pass the information on to me. After some initial publicity in major metropolitan newspapers, coverage of this research in the printed news media has largely been restricted to the suburban and regional press and is usually linked to particular finds and a call for information from members of the public. Printed media associated with heritage organizations has provided useful support from time to time. These magazines included Reflections (magazine of the National Trust of Australia NSW), Heritage Matters (newsletter of the WA Heritage Council) and Trust News, the national magazine of the Australian Council of National Trusts. Publications for the general public and also of particular special interest groups were employed to disseminate information on the project as widely as possible. Publications for which I provided articles ranged from Readers Digest Australia (July 2006: 91 96) to the pagan communitys Spellcraft magazine (Winter 2009: 46). I took part in numerous radio interviews, mostly with the ABC but also for a few commercial stations. Ive spoken about this research on a number of ABC Radio National programmes and on ABC Local radio in every capital city and in regional areas throughout Australia. Among these stations perhaps the one that I least expected was a call for an interview on the ABC station in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia. No record was kept of these interviews as I had no idea at the time that I would eventually begin work on a thesis and that this data might be usefully included in my methodology. The media has proved to be the most effective research tool in this project. This approach to the research has ensured that the number of finds of concealed objects in my Catalogue has steadily increased throughout the past five years. The gradual accumulation of finds has added to the weight of evidence that establishes deliberate concealments as a custom widely known to Australians throughout the 19th century. Word-of-mouth has also carried the story of this research far and wide throughout Australia. People in whose houses shoes or other objects have been found

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tend to tell their friends. And those who have heard radio interviews, or who saw me on Rewind on ABC-TV, are in a position to explain the significance of any discoveries that they may encounter to people who had previously been unaware of this research. 1.4.2 research tools: lecturing Spreading the word via public lectures and presenting papers at academic conferences proved to be effective research tools. Academic conferences, especially those arranged by archaeological organizations and associations, provided a good opportunity for the targeted dissemination of information to people whose professional training and interests ensured an attentive audience. My first lectures at Rouse Hill in 2004 used oldfashioned 35mm slides but after discovering Powerpoint and its ability to use digital images to create pages that combined text and images I used it for all subsequent talks. The lectures that I gave changed as research progressed. Variations incorporated new information and new images so that more recent lectures are very different to those that preceded them. All lectures incorporate question and answer periods where members of the audience can seek further information and in fact often provide new information. It is during these segments of such events that new finds are often reported. Papers presented at archaeological conferences, while not always producing immediate results, may result in subsequent contact from some of those who attended to report finds that are the result of their professional investigations of old buildings. Two significant sites in Western Australia were the result of the lecture given at the Australasian Archaeological Associations New Ground conference at Sydney University in 2007. The finds, at St Marys Cathedral, Perth (page 394), and at Southampton Homestead, Balingup (page 377), are described in the Catalogue of Finds. 2004 2010

lectures

Historic Houses Trust of NSW, Rouse Hill House, Rouse Hill, NSW, 1 & 2 May 2004. Public lecture Central West Heritage Advisers Network, Bathurst, NSW, 20 April 2005 State Heritage Office of NSW, Parramatta, NSW, 26 May 2005. Talk to head office staff National Trust of Australia (NSW), National Trust Centre, Observatory Hill, Sydney, NSW, 4 October 2005. Public lecture Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Institute Building, North Terrace, Adelaide, 19 October 2005. Public lecture Alstonville Plateau Historical Society, Alstonville, NSW, 17 September 2006 Brisbane City Council Heritage Advisory Committee, Kindler Theatre, QUT

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Gardens Point, Brisbane, Queensland, 11 November 2006 University of the Third Age, Brunswick Heads, NSW, 14 November 2006 Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society, Chauvel Cinema, Paddington, NSW, 21 June 2007, 12.00 noon and 6.00 pm Queensland Museum, South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, 7 March 2007. Public lecture Australasian Archaeological Association New Ground conference, University of Sydney, NSW, 25 September 2007 Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society, Noosa Bicentennial Hall, Sunshine Beach, Queensland, 30 August 2008 Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society, St Marks Anglican Church, Buderim, Queensland, 1 September 2008 University of Newcastle, School of Humanities and Social Science, Tree House Function Room, Callaghan Campus, Newcastle, NSW, 3 November 2008. (Part of confirmation process) Australian Archaeological Association Conference, Australis Noosa Lakes Resort, Noosaville, Queensland, 4 December 2008 City of Sydney Historical Association, Sydney Mechanics School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW 14 March 2009.

1.4.3 the recording process Objects were identified, measured, photographed and examined for makers marks, owners tags or identification, sizes, damage (whether intentional or through wear), colour, style and/or design and any other characteristics that might serve to date the object and identify the original owner or the person or persons responsible for the concealment. Few of these processes applied to concealed cats. All that I could do with them was to verify that they had been found in a sealed void, photograph them and record details of the find. Not long after commencing active field research I realized that the shoes that were found were, within limits, dateable objects. I also understood that dating shoes was a highly specialized matter and that if this research was ever to be brought to a conclusion I could not find the time to undertake a study of shoes to a level of expertise that would enable me to accurately date those that were found. Timothy Easton, the independent architectural researcher of Suffolk, had found many caches of concealed objects and, in the context of dating shoes, mentioned June Swann of Northampton. Brian June Swann, MBE Hoggards website (www.apotropaios.co.uk) lists an article

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by Swann as recommended reading. She was for many years curator of the historic and famous boot and shoe collection at Northampton Museums and Art Gallery. Northampton was the centre of the British bootmaking industry in the 19th century. I wrote to Swann and she agreed to date shoe finds for this project. I visited her at her home in Northampton in April 2006 and we have been in regular contact via email ever since. Her contribution enhances the Catalogue of Finds. The task of photographing the shoes and the buildings where they were found posed a challenge and I decided to convert from 35mm film, which I had used for many years, to digital.

1.5 investigation In order to provide laypersons and professionals such as archaeologists, historians and conservation architects with some means of identifying and distinguishing deliberate placements from accidental losses I set out to identify patterns associated with the concealment of shoes and other objects. This necessitated visiting the sites of as many finds as I could conveniently and economically manage. I inspected sites and the objects found and photographed them in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Queensland. Within NSW I visited sites in the central west, Hunter Valley, south-western areas and Sydney and its environs. Many more sites, notably in rural Victoria and in Western Australia, have not been visited. To assist with this work within New South Wales, I was fortunate to receive a $10,000.00 dollar-for-dollar grant for travel and research within the State from the NSW Heritage Office (now the NSW Heritage Branch) in 2007. While there are no archival documents to tell us about this practice a great deal can be concluded from the evidence of the artifacts, mute though they are. As a result of numerous site visits in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland I have gained a better insight into practices associated with the custom. Patterns of concealment have become clearer as the number of recorded finds has increased. The distribution of the practice throughout Australia is now apparent and the termination period is also reasonably firm as can be seen in the Catalogue of Finds. A notable characteristic of all kinds of concealments is that they are placed (or dropped) beyond the reach of everyday life or use in the buildings in which they are found. It is also clear from the circumstances of a good many of these concealments that subsequent occupants had spent years living in houses without any knowledge of the objects secreted within their homes. In many cases partial demolition of some of the structure of a building, as in the case of renovations, may be the only way to find these objects. Floors may have to be taken up, chimneys demolished or walls opened up or taken down. In the rest, discovery may occur as a result of an awkward and unpleasant journey into dark, damp, confined, dirty, spider-infested and unpleasant voids where people rarely venture. Finds are sometimes

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made by tradesmen, pest exterminators, building valuers and others whose work requires venturing into spaces that are rarely visited. Others are found by homeowners who, for one reason or another, set out to explore the secret places of their old houses. Until I began to publicise this matter finds of concealed objects appear not to have been reported to heritage authorities. The objects in themselves are everyday artifacts, humdrum in their very ordinariness. Their position in buildings is what makes them extraordinary.
TABLE 1.1

TOTAL CONCEALMENTS IDENTIFIED IN AUSTRALIA 2004 - 2010 Shoes Cats Garments Religious objects Animal bones Toys Miscellaneous* TOTAL 95 17 12 5 3 3 12 147

* Parasol, book covers, leather leggings, gloves, bottles, teaspoons, shoe last, cotton reels, gunpowder flask, coins, cutlery, baby powder tin, printed matter.

Source: Catalogue of Finds. Note: a number of sites contain more than one type of object.

1.5.1 pattern and variation in concealments There are no significant variations in the pattern of concealments throughout the entire period of this custom from state to state in Australia (or colony to colony, as they were in the 19th century). Additionally, no such variations have been found in 19th century concealment practices between the United Kingdom and Australia. This uniformity is a notable and in fact a remarkable aspect of a practice that occurred in Australia for more than a century, without benefit of any written instructions and in locations separated by great distances. In todays world the media and the internet would be essential tools in spreading information so widely and so effectively. The people who carried out concealments in 19thcentury Australia had no such communication tools at their disposal. And with nothing in print, with the known exception being the cryptic reference in Samuel Pepyss diary and a folk magic researchers note about concealed cats in the early 20th century, the only way in which this practice could have been disseminated is by word-of-mouth. The widespread dissemination of concealments throughout the Australian colonies speaks volumes for the depth and antiquity of this practice in the British homeland and its penetration among the convicts and settlers who brought it to the Antipodes. The locations of concealments within buildings reflect the cautionary words of King James in Daemonologie. In the case

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of masonry houses walls are generally solid, providing less opportunities for impromptu concealments. The exception would be in those cases where objects are inserted in the wall during the course of construction or renovations. An example of this occurred at the former Tasmanian Inn at Epsom, Tasmania (page 307), where flat objects were selected for insertion in the interstices between sandstone blocks in an internal wall constructed in circa 1853. These can be seen in the Catalogue of Finds. A number of suitable cavities for concealments occur in those areas of buildings where structure takes precedence over purpose. These include chimney voids, beneath floors and within the roof cavity. The single example of a purposely-created cavity so far found in the structure of a masonry building is at Burrundulla, Mudgee (page 271), in inland NSW, where the void was made by omitting a brick from the return wall of the chimney breast in the library. This associates the concealment with the bricklaying gang who constructed the house in 1865. The boot crammed into the resulting space is probably that of a bricklayer rather than a member of the family who owned the property. Plasterers who later covered the interior surfaces of Burrundullas brick walls with two layers of plaster (the scratch coat and the finish coat) had to have been aware of the presence of this object. There is at least one other example of the probable involvement of plasterers in the concealment of objects. The childs boot and half a lace collar found beneath a lath and plaster wall of a house constructed in Lower Fort Street, Dawes Point, Sydney (page 243), in 1833 provides another link to the craft of plastering. Details of both of the finds described above are in the Catalogue and are more closely examined in the Analysis. There are numerous examples of finds of large boots splashed with lime mortar or plaster throughout the Catalogue. These finds suggest that the custom of concealing shoes in buildings has strong links to the building trades. 1.5.2 shoes Shoes are the objects most commonly found in concealment sites. It follows, therefore, that they were the preferred objects for concealment. For this custom to be so rigorously carried out, by so many people, over a very long period of time, at some personal trouble and inconvenience, tells us that it was thought to be important. In the UK, concealments of shoes, cats and domestic artifacts have been linked to belief in evil spirits, demons and witches. The English researcher Brian Hoggard has concluded that the objects selected for concealment were considered to be effective in protecting people in houses or other buildings from evil beings: The location of these objects within houses, and primary literary sources relating to witch bottles in particular, indicate that at least some of these artifacts were concealed to ward off witches and other perceived evil influences

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such as ghosts and demons. ... This evidence suggests that popular beliefs and practices concerning the fear of witchcraft and other malign forces changed little after the period of the witch trials, except in minor details, and continued through the 18th and 19th centuries and well into the 20th.12 The large numbers of shoes found in concealments provide researchers with artifacts that are a useful research tool. Shoes can reveal a good deal of information, principally because they can be dated, sometimes to a fairly narrow period. Information derived from shoes can include not only the approximate age of the wearer, within very broad parameters, but also the sex and, to a degree, the social status of the wearer. The extent of wear, generally very high, speaks of a time when Australians were far less affluent than they are today. The most common location for concealed shoes is in close proximity to an important fireplace or chimney. In cottages there may be a chimney stack that serves both the kitchen and parlour. In this arrangement the single brick or stone stack contains two flues, serving back-to-back fireplaces in the adjoining rooms. These chimneys are a prime location for concealments because of their role in serving two of the most important rooms in the house. The kitchen is where food was prepared and cooked on a cast-iron range usually set into the brickwork of the chimney, and the parlour was the place where families gathered at night to sit around the fire. Kitchens and parlours with their fireplaces were at the heart of every household but because chimneys were open to the sky they were seen as vulnerable a point of easy entry for the forces of darkness. As C. Riley Auge has pointed out, the chimney was both a source of warmth and energy and a zone of great potential danger as it: .conducted the ever present hearthfire smoke up and out of the home, but unlike windows and doors, it could never be closed and thus invited free commerce for any malicious traffic directly into the house through the hearth. Hence, the opening directly related to the hearth paradoxically left inhabitants feeling not only assured of warmth, sustenance and life but also vulnerable to and threatened by the possibility of misfortune, illness, and death.13 This is the very point made by King James in Daemonologie. The danger, he suggested, lay in such openings as doors, windows and chimneys. The perceived risk presented by chimneys and fireplaces may have posed an exquisite dilemma for the occupants of houses. Sitting close to the fire in the depths of winter could put them in peril of attack from evil beings who, in passing over the landscape at night, might have seen smoke rising from the chimney and decided to enter the house. The alternative scenario lay in the possibility of malign interference with the food on the kitchen stove. Attack in either case could have been catastrophic. The Kings warning appears to have been taken

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very much to heart in 17th-century England and concealments in or close to chimneys were made there for the next three centuries. Shoes and the standard variety of concealment objects may be found under the floor near the hearth, in one or both of the voids on either side of the flue, or in the roof cavity. Smoke-shelf concealments, where hot gases passed by in close proximity, appear to have been reserved for shoes. Concealments in all of these locations occurred in Australia until the mid-1930s at least. To understand where shoes may be concealed in a chimney it is necessary to know how chimneystacks were constructed in 19th century Australian houses (see sketch on following page). Brickwork was built up in a broad structure from a concrete foundation set on solid ground after the removal of topsoil from the site. The base of a chimneystack was wide, often 1.8 metres or more. At floor level, there was a hearth on which fires or firegrates were set into an opening in the brickwork facing the room. Smoke rose from the hearth into a narrow flue that wound its way up through the roof structure and out to the sky. One chimney stack may contain one or more flues, serving two or more rooms. The brickwork of the stack necessarily contained voids, sometimes known among bricklayers as pockets, which made perfect receptacles for concealed objects. In some cases, these voids may be open at the top of the main structure in those examples where it terminated in the roof cavity. The flue or flues that carried on up through the roof were considerably smaller than the base of the stack. By entering the roof cavity through the trapdoor commonly found in a corridor or lesser room occupants of the house may have been able to drop objects into a void or voids in the chimney stack. In this way the structure made it possible to renew the power of the cache by the addition of further deposits from time to time. New objects may have been added by entering the roof cavity through the ceiling trapdoor and dropping the shoes or other items into the voids. The steady accumulation of shoes and perhaps garments and assorted household objects over the years created what in the UK has been called a spiritual midden14 which is considered to have been employed to renew the effectiveness of the cache of concealments in a house. It was, in effect, a subset of a broader ritual practice. Refreshing the cache may have been carried out by new owners or occupants of a house to personalise the protection provided by concealments. The fact that new owners made fresh deposits in a midden suggests that the protection provided by concealed shoes was considered to be highly personal: it appears to have been thought that another persons shoes or artifacts would not necessarily provide protection. This practice has been identified at Valley Farm, located near Ranelagh in the Huon Valley of Tasmania, and described in the Catalogue of Finds (page 326). The discovery of the practice of renewing the midden was made possible by fashionable changes to the style of footwear which make it feasible in many cases to narrow down the date of manufacture of individual shoes. This information can then be cross-referenced with property title records, thus opening the way to a tentative identification of the original ownership of the shoe, whether by a particular family or even an individual. The link to the possible

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ownership of the shoe or shoes can be made by referring to land title records showing ownership, to directories of the 19th century which record occupants of houses, and to family histories compiled by descendants of owners of houses. Dating a shoe thus opens the way to establishing a connection with the occupants of a house at a certain time in its history.

The Chimney at Rhos-Y-Medre, Toowong, Queensland

VOIDS OPEN TO ROOF CAVITY

LOCATION OF SHOES

FLUE CHIMNEY BREAST (BRICK) CAST IRON GRATE

MANTELPIECE

Sketch by Michael McCowage

This cutaway view shows the fireplace in the dining room and the roof cavity above. The timber cornice and the rooms wall and ceiling lining boards are also shown. Dotted lines indicate the flue through which smoke escaped from the building and the voids, accessible from the roof cavity, into which shoes were dropped. Voids which were open in this way enabled occupants of a house to periodically refresh the potency of concealments with additional shoes or other objects, thus creating what is now known as a spiritual midden.

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1.5.3 why shoes? why garments? Shoes, unlike most other items worn by people, retain the shape of the body after we take them off. Some other items found in some Australian sites, including gloves and a straw hat, have similar characteristics but are less frequently used in concealments. Shoes are deeply personal, moulding themselves to the shape of the feet that wear them and thus retaining the footprint of the wearer. They were readily available and, once worn out, suitable only for use as decoys. The fact that it took so long to recognize their purpose when they were found in building voids is testimony to the fact that as charms shoes were subtly undetectable. The story of concealed garments is not as well documented as that of shoes, although they serve the same purpose. There is no record of the first recognition of this practice which may have begun at much the same time as the concealment of shoes. The circa 1350 mediaeval hat from Little Sampford Church, Essex, now in Saffron Walden Museum and documented by the Concealed Garments Project at http://ehive. com/account/3580/object/28593/Hat, was found during repairs to buttresses in 1908. Did concealed shoes, garments and other domestic artifacts have a propitiary function? The use of propitiary magic was common in British life and continued until the 20th century. There were charms to protect crops from thieves, amulets and talismans to protect men in war and the services of cunning men and women, the village or town practitioners of folk magic, when doctors failed to heal the sick.15 In the absence of any contemporary documentary explanation for the concealment of shoes, garments, cats, domestic artifacts and other items it is difficult to be dogmatic about the intent of this practice. The purpose no doubt existed in the mind of the practitioner: he or she alone knowing whether the objects were being concealed to propitiate evil forces or to lure them into a trap. In the latter case, the belief may have been that evil beings would be unable to escape from shoes or the voids in which they were placed, or decoyed away from their human prey by objects that had about them some of the essence of the occupants of the building. Shoes have a long history of association with rituals. In Roman Britain, shoes and other objects were deposited in wells and pits, for reasons thought to be linked to foundation offerings to the gods of the underworld. These were, in effect, gifts to placate the gods for the disturbance to the earth.16 John Schorn, rector of North Marston in Buckinghamshire from 1290 to 1314, was said to have conjured the Devil into a boot. Painted screens depicting this feat have survived in churches in Suffolk, Norfolk and Devon17 and a token illustrating this was recovered from the Thames at London and is now in the British Museum.18 Rood screens may have served as inspiration for sermons in churches, thus disseminating the story of Schorn and setting the scene for a belief in the power of shoes in ritual protection against evil. The legend of John Schorn and his use of a boot as a trap for an evil spirit was widely known in England for perhaps two centuries and may have served to stimulate long-standing beliefs in the magical power of shoes.

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There are obvious pitfalls in the process of attempting to read the past and describing what we believe to have been the purpose of artefacts, whether in groups or as solitary examples, which are unaccompanied by any contemporary explanatory text. Christopher Tilley explores some of these in Interpreting Material Culture, a chapter in Ian Hodders The Meanings of Things: Material Culture and Symbolic Expression (1989). The primary problem, according to Tilley, is: .....the precise assignation of meaning. The interpretation of the meaning and significance of material culture is a contemporary activity. The meaning of the past does not reside in the past but belongs in the present.19 The ambiguity of material objects from the past, discussed in Hodders chapter Postmodernism, Post-structuralism and Post-processual Archaeology adds to the difficulty of interpretation, resulting in what Tilley points out is a distinct reluctance by archaeologists to offer interpretations of the objects they find: Archaeologists write, but many do not feel they should be writing! ..writing always transforms. The process of writing the past in the present needs to become part of that which is to be understood in archaeology. The ultimate aim of much archaeological discourse is to put an end to writing, to get the story right.20 Christopher C. Fennell in Crossroads and Cosmologies: Diasporas and Ethnogenesis in the New World (2010) describes practices adopted by members of incoming cultural groups in the United States as they attempted to maintain core cultural beliefs in an alien environment. They did so by focussing on individualised and private uses of core symbols to invoke spiritual powers for self-protection. Such rituals were carried out by widely differing ethnic groups, including members of the BaKonga and Yoruba people of Africa and German-speaking immigrants from Central Europe. African rituals involved the creation of caches of quartz crystals, polished stones, pieces of chalk, ash, iron nails and blade-like fragments, bird skulls, crab claws, coins and bone disks secreted under the floors of dwellings.21 Interpretation of meaning is again a key element in understanding these practices. Hodders views on the possible interpretations of objects have a particular bearing on the objects found in Australian and other concealment locations: . The material object soon becomes divorced from its context of production and it can be taken into new concepts of use. The meanings of objects may change as they move into new contexts. The ambiguity has a greater potential for increase in regard to material culture, simply because the object is more durable.22

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This ambiguity is clearly expressed in the objects that are the subject of this thesis. Shoes, garments, cats and domestic artefacts are considered, not in terms of their original purpose, but as objects with an altogether different and perhaps more sinister purpose. Meaning is thus distorted and we are, in effect, looking through a prism of time into a period when the world was viewed from a perspective which is not part of our life experience.

1.6 conclusion In 2002 there was no general awareness in Australia of the use in this country of a practice that had been carried out in England and elsewhere in the United Kingdom for many centuries. But, after discovering that the practice was still very much alive in the UK throughout the 19th century I concluded that it must have been carried to Australia by British people who travelled here in the 18th and 19th centuries. From 2004 onward I conducted extensive on-site research in five states, which, combined with media publicity and telephone and email communication with Western Australia, resulted in the accumulation of records and images from more than 100 sites. Of these, some 60 sites were visited and carefully examined. All of the sites identified so far have been included in the Catalogue of Finds. The Catalogue is the first comprehensive record of a previously unknown, ancient and secret practice which survived in Australia until the mid-1930s. As such, I suggest it represents a breakthrough in the artifact-based study of Australian history and has repercussions for the field of social history and the study of folk magic in Australia and elsewhere. While the objects found are not accompanied by any written explanation of their role or purpose, they have provided evidence that enables some of them to be dated and linked to particular occupants of the buildings where they were found. Examination of the circumstances of these placements and of the objects found has enabled tentative conclusions to be reached which will enable other researchers to identify the concealments which will inevitably be found in the future. The objects found to date are, I believe, the tip of an iceberg of concealments in the period up to circa 1935 and point to widespread use in cities, towns and rural areas of Australia of an age-old practice intended to protect households from evil originating in the spirit world. Site evidence indicates that this practice had links with the building trades, including bricklaying, stonemasonry, plastering and carpentry. Building tradesmen have always been charged with protecting the occupants of houses and other buildings from storm and tempest, rain, hail, wind, snow, extremes of temperature, rising or descending damp and the attacks of thieves, potential molesters and enemies of all kinds. This is part of the duty of care that is integral to the art and craft of the builder, and as such is intended at least as much for the protection of the tradesmen

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concerned as the occupants of the buildings they constructed. Protection from other forces and influences, which were thought for many centuries to be inimical to human health, safety and security, and which were believed to direct attacks against the homes of people across the face of the earth, may have been seen as a logical extension of the duties of responsible building tradesmen. There are indications that the participation of householders in this practice was important. The majority of concealed shoes bear no sign of wear by tradesmen, and the probability is that they were the shoes of the occupants of the houses in which they were found. This includes footwear of men and women and, in particular, the shoes of children and young people. But the possibility remains that these were, to a greater or lesser extent, trade concealments with the objects procured by the master builder from the current or incoming residents of a house. The exception to the general run of concealed shoes is what appear to be the boots of tradesmen. These are sturdy, well-worn and display on their surface the evidence of painting, plastering, bricklaying or stonemasonry in the form of splashes of materials commonly employed in these trades. Lime, paint, plaster and mortar usually mark these objects. It is not clear why some concealments are those of the householder and some the footwear of tradesmen. The possibilities are as follows: Some concealments may have been orchestrated by the master builder, as previously described. If a shoe or shoes relating to the occupants of the house were not available, he may have resorted to the use of his own worn-out boots or a boot or boots of a member of the building team. Without contemporary accounts of this practice it is not possible to make a firm statement of the circumstances that produced variations in the type of footwear used in particular concealments, although a theory on the use of childrens shoes is considered later in this thesis. If shoes or boots either from the owners of the house or a member of the building team were not available another type of object, such as a cat, might have been chosen for the concealment. The issue of concealed cats will be discussed in greater detail but the history of other varieties of magical practice in Britain will be explored first of all in order to understand why folk magic came to the Australian colonies.

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TWO: CULTURAL CONTEXT

abstract

his chapter examines the cultural context from which our British settlers came and scrutinises the ways in which folk magic was part of their lives. The intention is to examine one substantial and significant national group from which so many of our settlers and convicts originated and to demonstrate that these people came with personal histories in which magic and ritual were intertwined as part of the web of everyday life. It is suggested that some of these practices came to Australia and that they survived here, unnoticed, until at least the third decade of the 20th century. Although the figures are described as imprecise, during the 19th century Australia received about 1,600,000 immigrants of whom approximately 50% came from England. Of these, approximately 80,000 were convicts, although this number is bolstered by the inclusion of family members transported with those sentenced to exile.1 This chapter provides a glimpse of some of the belief systems by which these people lived before they arrived in Australia. While the ritual practices described may be widely known in England there is little awareness of them in present-day Australia. A further intention is to identify the people who first discovered the practice of concealing objects in buildings and to ascertain when and how their finds were made. Both documentary and oral history has been used to compile the history of a discovery that has not yet received full recognition by social historians and archaeologists.

2.1 background

Emigrants and convicts who came to Australia in the 18th and 19th centuries brought with them a complex set of established values and beliefs. Cultural baggage from cities, towns and rural communities throughout the British Isles and elsewhere arrived with these people, although much of it failed to thrive in the new environment. Ronald Huttons Stations of the Sun provides an illuminating account of the range of seasonal ritual practices in Britain but it would be easy to conclude that the great majority of these practices were left behind on the docks from which the emigrant and convict ships sailed for the Antipodes. Morris dancers, hobbyhorse riders and a host of other traditions and rituals described by Hutton failed to survive in the Australian colonies, although Guy Fawkes bonfires burned throughout the country on 5 November until the 1970s.2 It is easy to see how some practices that had been carefully observed in a British rural setting would disappear if, for example, people from such a context came to live in an Australian

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city or town. The transition in such cases would have been too great and the context of the observance lost. There was also the dispersal effect in which members of previously homogenous social and ethnic communities were scattered throughout the population and so rendered unable to generate sufficient numbers to maintain the customs they had once practised. Where homogenous groups of immigrants existed, as at the Cornish mining village of Moonta in South Australia, some folk magic practices and beliefs survived for a time. The Cornish continued to celebrate Midsummers Eve with bonfires and believed in the existence in the copper mines of dwarfs called knockers who used picks and hammers to find good ore.2 But harvest rituals, an important seasonal marker in rural England, disappeared in colonial urban settings. The new environment and vastly different cultural context overwhelmed such rituals. While not all of the customs and rituals that were part of their lives at home were successfully planted in Antipodean soil, some of these survived the journey. Religious belief was a cultural given: attendance at Church and the rituals of joy or sorrow that surround marriage, birth and death were occasions and events that took place in the public domain. However, we are less well informed about rituals that may have been observed in secret. Edward Lovett, an English folklore collector in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, recorded in an article in the Folklore Societys journal in 1909 that these existed but were difficult to unearth: The collector in search of folk-beliefs and articles connected with them meets with far more difficulties than the collector of old china or other merely material objects. He wrote of two opposing groups whom he had encountered in his extensive researches: the believers and the unbelievers. Both had their reasons for refusing to divulge information about the practice of magic: ... the ardent believer who will not expose sacred things to an outsider, and . the unbeliever who refuses information about what he considers to be degrading superstitions or discreditable survivals.3 By 1908, the reluctance to speak about old ideas and customs was becoming more evident. Lovett, an outsider from the city, found it difficult to gain the trust of the shepherds and Folklore researchers were country folk to whom he spoke: The notes I kept informed of work by other gathered are undoubtedly very incomplete, partly members of the Folklore Society through articles published in by reason of the short time available for enquiries the Societys journal. during my visit, but chiefly from the difficulty Publication began in 1878 and continues to the present day. of getting those who still believe in charms and (FLS)

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magic to own up, and to talk about the practices in which they still indulge.4 The following text sets out to discuss some aspects of the cultural context from which many of the people who came to Australia before the 1930s originated. Examining their original culture provides us with important keys to understanding how these people lived and behaved in the Australian colonies. Taking England as an example, we can glimpse some of the beliefs and rituals that survived there until the early 20th century as a result of research by members of the Folklore Society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Established in London in 1878, the Society sought to discover and record beliefs and customs that were in danger of dying out at a time of rapid social change in England and elsewhere in the British Isles. Members fanned out across England to seek surviving examples or memories of rural customs and rituals that they believed were about to be lost. These were intelligent, sophisticated and well-travelled people, skilled at research and observation. They were seeking to define the essence of Englishness by understanding the belief systems of their people. If they could be said to have weaknesses, the principal failures would be in their readiness to see ritual where others might see tradition and to believe that rituals survived in the countryside rather than the city. The material that follows analyses the backgrounds and possible belief structures of arrivals from England in Australia prior to circa 1930. The technique has been to cut a slice through cultural practices and beliefs by means of close examination of research conducted by members of the Folklore Society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as reflected in the records and collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University. The Museum has a reputation for the quality of its record-keeping and documentation of the objects that have been gathered since its foundation in 1884. Many of its researchers and collectors were simultaneously members of the Folklore Society. Since the Society did not maintain collections of its own, folk magic objects acquired during the course of field research were often donated or sold to the Pitt Rivers or other museums. Links between the Folklore Society and Pitt Rivers Museum were strong. A number of Museum staff members was involved in the Folklore Society and Augustus Pitt Rivers, founder of the Museum, was a member of the Society from 1885 until his death in 1900.5 The source of much of the information that follows is the excellent records and finds database maintained by the Pitt Rivers Museum and now available on the Internet at the website entitled England: The Other Within.6 The site is the result of a three-year project, concluding in 2009, in which the 44,015 artefacts in the Museums English collections were subjected to intense study and research. Researchers involved in England: The Other Within gathered and analysed information scattered through catalogue records, examined objects in the collections of the Museum and assembled related background information from a variety of published and private sources. This text focuses on the period before about 1950. It examines research conducted and collections gathered in the English countryside, a village in Somerset, and in London

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in the period from 1870 to 1930. These views of country, village and city provide us with an overall picture of the place and the environment from which so many of our people came in the period before the 1930s. This sixty-year period marks the decline of many ancient rituals and beliefs and the beginning of the modern era when these practices faded away. It was therefore a crucial time for research into folklore practices. The stories of some of the people involved in this research are also part of this enquiry. The intention is to establish that Australias settlers and convicts, especially those arriving in the period before the decline of magic-based rituals in their home areas, came from places that were richly endowed with cultural values in which folk magic, ritual and non-scientific belief systems were still important elements in the lives of the people. While the examination that follows is focussed on England, there is no reason to believe that the information it provides in terms of the generality of ritual practice and belief would differ from the situation existing at that time in Scotland, Wales or Ireland even though individual rituals and beliefs varied from place to place. As a result of emigration, the mindset and pattern of belief that existed in England in the 19th and early 20th centuries exerted a powerful effect on the situation in Australia in the same period. Folklore rituals that survived in the English countryside, village and city into the 20th century are examined here. The examples chosen include a custom that was widespread in rural areas in a number of counties, an occasion in a Somerset village when an eminent anthropologist was confronted with an example of an ancient practice that had survived into modern times, and the results of research and collecting by a folklore enthusiast in early 20th-century London.

2.1.1 the countryside: the spirit in the corn

Folklore Society members observed that numerous rituals thought to be of ancient origin had survived in rural communities in many of the counties of England. Some were fading towards the end of the 19th century while others continued strongly into the early 20th century, although subject to a lessening in intensity of belief and a distortion in practice. One of these rituals, that of the harvest trophy or favour, continued until well into the 20th century. These were symbolic and decorative figures, made from the last sheaf harvested in summer. They were known by a variety of regional names including corn dollies, kernbabies, ivy girls, mell dolls, kim maidens and other names.7 The practice of making these figures in the period before harvest mechanisation was thought to derive from a pagan belief that the spirit of the corn (or grain) lived amongst the crop and that the harvest made it effectively homeless. As a result of this belief a hollow shape made from the last sheaf left standing would be taken into the farmers house to provide a home for the spirit during the winter. In Spring, the corn dolly would be taken into the field and ploughed into the first furrow of the new season to ensure the fertility of the next crop.8

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Corn dollies: ritual objects or craftwork? Left, a harvest queen made by Charlie Style of Harrietsham, Kent, 1949. Above, an elaborate corn-dolly made by L.G. Bishop of Conderton, near Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, 1941. (PRM Nos. 1949.10.95 and 1941.9.3)

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Ellen Ettlinger, a Folklore Society member who was familiar with the Pitt Rivers Museums collections of harvest trophies, in 1943 explained what she understood to be their purpose: The protective influence ... is attributed to the fertilization spirit which they are believed to embody. This is most obvious in the harvest-amulets made from the last handful of corn left standing on the field, in which the fertilization spirit, here called the corn-spirit, was believed to be present. With the cutting of this last handful of corn the spirit is caught and carried joyfully home. The corn-stalks of the last sheaf are plaited into different ornaments or formed into puppets and kept in the farmhouse from harvest to harvest. The intention no doubt is, or rather originally was, by preserving the representative of the corn-spirit, to maintain the spirit itself in life and activity throughout the year in order that the corn may grow and the crops be good. Beyond it the cornspirit is supposed to exert fertilizing influence over vegetation, cattle and even women. Ettlinger suggested that the ritual of the corn dolly had lost at least some of its original purpose, surviving as a shell into an age that no longer fully believed in the existence of the corn spirit.9 Allison Petch, one of the team of researchers involved in the England: The Other Within Project, found a number of descriptions of the harvest trophy ritual in the Museums records and from other primary and secondary sources.10 The records included descriptions of the ceremony at the end of the harvest and the making of dollies by people who participated in the festivities. The Pitt Rivers collection contains trophies from a number of English counties including Somerset, Kent, Cornwall, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.11 There is no information on the date of origin of this practice in England but pagan overtones suggest a pre-Christian period. The earliest English reference to these objects dates from circa 1598.12 The fact that the ritual was widely known in Continental Europe, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and England is suggestive of a long history in which there was ample time for numerous regional variations and patterns of associated belief to occur. Hutton, citing his own and European research by the Swede Carl von Sydow, is less convinced of the animist theory in which the spirit of the corn was said to be embodied in the harvests last sheaf.13 A diligent search of pre-1850s newspapers in Hobart, Sydney and Maitland, using the Australian National Universitys on-line newspaper research site (http://newspapers. nla.gov.au) failed to produce any accounts of festival activities such as those that took place in England at that time. In the second half of the 19th century harvest festivals are reported as church news with the celebration firmly grasped in clerical hands. Typical of newspaper accounts of this period was that in the Maitland Mercury on 21/6/1892 in which it reported that St Pauls Anglican Church was decorated with produce and hymns such as Come, ye Faithful People, come, Raise the Song of Harvest Home were sung.

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2.1.2 the village: the curious case of the bewitched onions

The collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum include objects relating to folk magic rituals conducted in various parts of England. One of the more unusual objects is an onion, one of four that fell from the chimney of an inn during a gust of wind. The incident was witnessed by Edward Burnett Tylor (1832 1917), a member of the Folklore Society, who was among a group of men gathered around the fire at the Barley Mow Inn in Rockwell Green, near Wellington, Somerset, on 14 April 1872. Sitting down for a companionable drink with some of his village neighbours, Tylor witnessed an event The Barley Mow. that revealed the survival in late-19th century (Chris Wingfield) England of ancient magic rituals: In a low cottage ale-house there, certain men were sitting round the fire of logs on the hearth, during the open hours of a Sunday afternoon, drinking, when there was a gust of wind; something rustled and rattled in the wide old chimney, and a number of objects rolled into the room. The men who were there knew perfectly what they were, caught them up, and carried them off. Tylor was no village-level amateur but a magistrate and a man who in 1871 was already well embarked on a distinguished career as an anthropologist, academic, archaeologist and museum professional. As such, he was the perfect witness to an event with quite extraordinary resonances. In 1871 Tylor had been elected Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1875 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Laws from Oxford. He was appointed Keeper of the Oxford Museum of Natural History in 1883, and, as well as serving as a lecturer, held the title of the first Reader in Anthropology from 1884 to 1895. In 1895 he became the first Professor of Anthropology at Oxford and he was knighted in 1912.14 Tylors description of the event at the Barley Mow Inn, recorded in a letter to his uncle in 1872, also notes that the finds came as no surprise to others in the village:
Edward Burnett Tylor, circa 1880. (PRM 1998.267.88.3)

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. it being well known among the cottagers that to stick pins into objects identified with persons, and to hang them to dry up a chimney is a way of working harm by magical sympathy to the person who is thus pricked & dried up in effigy.

One of the onions from the chimney at the Barley Mow Inn. (PRM 1917.53.776)

The objects in question were onions, each bearing a paper label with the name of a resident of the village written upon it and each pierced with numerous metal pins. A length of wire had been passed through each onion and this had been twisted about at one end to enable it to be secured in the chimney. It was thought that the victims would be harmed by the act of stabbing the onions and then roasting them in the chimney. Tylor wrote that he secured two of them, having to say something next week in a lecture in London about magic arts. I intend showing them there as proof how the old sorcery of the darkest ages still lingers in England. Both the magician and his victims have been identified as a result of recent research by Chris Wingfield for the Pitt Rivers Museum and which is set out in considerable detail in the England: The Other Within website. The innkeeper was Samuel Porter and the name on the sole surviving onion is that of John Milton, a shoemaker who circumstantial evidence suggests may have run up a bill at the Barley Mow before absconding, thus incurring the wrath of its publican. Another onion bore the name of Joseph Hoyland Fox, a magistrate and temperance campaigner who had been associated with the opening in 1869 of a Temperance Hall in Rockwell Green. The Hall featured a Coffee Room that was frequented by twenty to thirty people each evening and which was thus in direct competition with the Barley Mow. Tylor displayed his finds at the International Folklore Congress in London in 1891 and on his death in 1917 one of the onions was donated to

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the Pitt Rivers Museum.15 The Museum recorded the object as an example of sympathetic magic a ritual in which the perpetrator uses the magical principle of like affects like to cause harm to an enemy.16 Crucial for Tylor was the fact that the onions were discovered by accident. This, he suggested, proved the authenticity of the matter and also provided a clear case of bewitching with a belief in its effectiveness, rather than as a means of intimidation. A previous discovery of animal hearts stuck with pins had demonstrated that such practices had been practised until recently in the neighbourhood of Wellington, but Tylor wrote that this was the first time of my having ocular proof of such things being still done in England.17 The curious case of the bewitched onions fitted neatly into Tylors concept of survivalism in which he held that outmoded cultural practices lingered on into more modern phases of society. The concept, influenced by Darwins views on biological evolution, developed the theory of an evolutionary, progressive relationship from primitive to modern cultures. This theory was set out in Tylors most important book. Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art and Custom was published in 1871 the year in which the onions fell out of the chimney in the Barley Mow. In the book, Tylor asserted that when a society evolves, certain customs are retained long after they are no longer necessary. His definition of survivals was processes, customs, and opinions, and so forth, which have been carried on by force of habit into a new state of society different from that in which they had their original home, and they thus remain as proofs and examples of an older condition of culture out of which a newer has been evolved.18

2.1.3 the city: rituals of london

In the early 20th century, the Folklore Societys most dedicated collector and researcher in London was Edward Lovett (1852 1933). Born in London, he joined the Folklore Society in 1900. A senior clerk in the Bank of Scotland in the City of London, Lovett seems an unlikely candidate for the role of field collector of amulets and folklore but his activities over many years indicate that his main interest in life was the collection of objects and descriptions of ritual practices associated with folk magic. By day he was the respectable banker but in the long summer evenings he sought out sailors, street hawkers and elderly residents of the citys slums in search of talismans, amulets, charms and information.19 In an article published in the Folklore Societys journal in 1909 he wrote: . for the seeker after amulets, there is no better hunting ground than the hawkers handbarrow in the poorest parts of slums of such dense aggregations of people as London, Rome, and Naples. ... For many years I have been in touch with some of the London street dealers in unconsidered trifles, and am

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much surprised to find how much they know as to the reasons for carrying certain amulets.20 Lovett walked through the streets of Edwardian London, buying strange objects: amber charms and left-handed whelk shells from sailors and barrow men. In chemists shops in the East End he found young girls buying powdered Pterocarpus Draco (Dragons Blood) for love spells. Second-hand shops near the London docks offered cauls used as protection from drowning. These were charms that were much prized by sailors. Lovett observed steep increases in the price of cauls with the commencement of submarine warfare during the First World War.21 South Devon provided a rich harvest of objects, including a sheeps heart stuck Edward Lovett with nails and pins for breaking evil spells, twigs of Ash tied (CM) together with red wool and carried in a mauve silk bag as a cure for fits and a dried frog in a small cotton bag, worn by children as a cure for fits. From the Suffolk coast came a piece of amber carried in a fishermans pocket as a cure for rheumatism. Lancashire provided a hag stone a naturally perforated flint that was tied to the stable door to protect the horses from being ridden at night by witches. In Sussex he found a fossil sea urchin or echinus, locally known as a shepherds crown; placed on a windowsill outside the house it was said to keep the Devil away.22 During his many years of folk magic research Lovett collected information and charms from throughout London and elsewhere in the United Kingdom. He was recognized as a national authority on folklore and superstition after a series of exhibitions of his findings in England and Wales. His first major exhibition was held in Cardiff in 1914, generating media interest in his work which spread as far afield as Adelaide where The Advertiser published a description of a visit to the researchers London home: In a ground-floor study in a London villa, Mr. Edward Lovett, a well-known member of the Folk Lore Society, has set out, so far as room permits, some of the fruits of thirty years investigation into the popular beliefs and superstitions of many kinds. Mascots and amulets in a hundred different woods and metals crowd the walls. Cabinets are packed with specimens collected from every country in Europe. Shelves strain with volumes on folk-lore and anthropology; and rows of manuscript books record the result of their owners research. Among them all Lovett moves quickly to and fro, laying now on this treasure, now on that, the unerring finger of the connoisseur. Here is a tray filled with charms bought solely from London hawkers barrows; here a dried toad skin hung round the neck as a cure for fits; here, again, a set of moles feet warrants

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to protect the possessor from cramp and rheumatism. A drawer yields a bullocks heart stuck with scores of pins.23 The Cardiff exhibition was moved to Southwark Central Library and described by The Times in 1917. The exhibition, it said, included: ... details of folk rituals and superstitious charms, amulets, dolls, cures, and mascots carried for the purpose of averting misfortune, ensuring good luck, and curing specific diseases. Folk wisdom and medical lore also combined with more overt expressions of folk superstition....24 At least some of the objects displayed in the exhibition were donated to Southwarks Cuming Museum in 1916.25 Some items with a medical or healing aspect went to the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in Cavendish Square.26 Lovett also dealt with the Horniman Museum, Imperial War Museum, Pitt Rivers Museum and Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood.27 Many of the objects acquired from Lovett by the Pitt Rivers Museum were donations. Lovett was a familiar figure at the Wellcome Museum and over a period of thirty years sold 400 objects to its curators. The Museum, then at 54a Wigmore Street, London, featured exhibits of charms, amulets, representations of witch doctors, displays of fetish figures and exhibits related to physical anthropology and The Wellcome Museum, pathology as well as archaeology in 54a Wigmore Street, London, circa 1919. (WL the Hall of Primitive Medicine, a space L0021132) through which all visitors had to pass. After 1914 European folk material in the form of charms and talismans was included in a display which consisted of 37 cases of charms, talismans, amulets and so-called divining fetishes arranged into geographical or cultural groupings. Of these, one included amulets, charms and talismans from throughout Britain excluding London. An additional four cases were required to display the collection of numerous specimens from London, most of which had been provided by Lovett.

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The Wellcome Historical Medical Museums Hall of Primitive Medicine, Wigmore Street, London, circa 1913-1932, where Lovetts collection of English charms and talismans was exhibited in five display cases. (WL L0029861)

Lovetts role as an important contributor to the Wellcome Museum was confirmed when he provided 237 objects for an exhibition held in October 1916. Collected from throughout London, these provided the core of the exhibition which sought to reveal the Folk-lore of London, consisting of medical charms, amulets The item above appeared in the British Medical Journal, 30/9/1916. and other objects used to avert disease, to ward-off evil, and to bring good fortune.28 Lovett hand-picked the objects, arranged the cases in the Museum and wrote most of the notes for the pamphlet accompanying the exhibits, recycling large sections of this material from his own publications. After the exhibition the Museum purchased most of the objects for retention in its own collections.29 The Museums Library retains a map drawn by Lovett in 1914 to illustrate locations within greater London where he had collected blue amuletic necklaces which were then thought to provide protection from bronchitis. This map, with its dots distributed across the landscape of the city, suggests that magical practices not only had survived but continued to thrive in 20th century London, co-existing in the same city as Wellcomes Museum where amulets, charms and mascots from other cultures were displayed in cabinets as scientific specimens.30 The contrast was extreme and dramatic: in the terraces and tenement flats of London, amulets and charms were coveted and treasured.

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Lovetts map of 27/8/1914 shows areas where he had found blue amuletic necklaces in and around London. Dots indicate the number of necklaces collected from various locations. The cluster in the City of London suggests collecting activity close to his place of work. (WL WA/HMM/CO/Ear/532)

Collected by Lovett, the very same objects went into museum cases for academic study and for public information and amusement. The Wellcome Museum guidebook of 1920 confirmed the impression conveyed by Lovetts research and the Museums own displays of folk magic objects from throughout Britain: This belief in the occult effect of certain objects exhibits the lower stages of the human mind in seeking for the principles of natural action and is found not only in the most barbaric tribes, but also among the highest civilized peoples of to-day . . ..31 Lovett published the results of his research in Magic in Modern London in 1925, a privately commissioned work that was printed by a local newspaper office at Croydon, where he lived. I have previously referred to the fact that Lovett was aware of the practice of concealing cats in cavities in buildings. His undated, but post 1918, leaflet to promote his lecture on The Folklore of the Cat announced that cats built up alive in the walls of houses would be discussed.32 Although Lovett wrote nothing further about concealed cats and there are regrettably no transcriptions of his lecture the leaflet does place knowledge of

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cat concealments on record as at circa 1920. Lovetts leaflet appears to be the first published account of this practice. Lovetts principal achievement was to demonstrate that folklore and magical ritual survived and continued to thrive in one of the worlds great cities in the first quarter of the 20th century. The objects that he found and collected, although ordinary in the extreme, provided tangible demonstration of the fears and beliefs of working class Londoners. His artifacts are not examples of the work of craftsmen, of goldsmiths or silversmiths, or of jewellers setting rare and precious stones in extraordinary A printed copy of the text of one of Lovetts many lectures on English folklore. (WL) talismans. Lovett found instead hand-made and home-crafted objects fashioned from natural or commonplace materials. However meagre, crude or apparently unsophisticated, their power as magic, protective objects was intrinsically linked to their material construction, often in combination with their particular form or shape. The shape of a moles foot, curved to form a scoop and armed with sharp claws, was thus deemed to be directly related to its power as an amulet. Lovett described this belief in Folklore in 1909: There is a quaint form of superstition which has been described as sympathetic magic . . . It is the front feet, or digging feet as they are called, which are selected Now this permanent curve is regarded by the folk as due to cramp and therefore as like cures like it must be a cure for cramp if carried in the pocket or in a bag around the neck.33

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Moles feet were personal amulets, in the same category as the necklaces of blue beads that he found throughout London. Lovett scoured a large area of London in his efforts to determine the extent of the use of blue beads as charms. He travelled from Hackney in the north to his home suburb of Croydon in the south and from Barking in the east to Acton in the west. A printed copy of a lecture delivered by Lovett to a meeting of the London Society on 14 November 1919 and entitled The Folk One of the necklaces collected in London by Edward Lovett Lore of London has survived in the second decade of the 20th century. (WL A630910) in the Wellcome Library. In the following text copied from the script of the lecture, Lovett describes his research and explains the purpose of the beads:

The Wellcome Museum has many of these necklaces. Other personal talismans include examples of First World War soldiers charms such as spent bullets and fragments of shrapnel or shell casing which have been provided with attachments or clips to enable them to be fastened to clothing, belt or braces for protection in battle.

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British and German military charms from World War One. Top, shell fragment charm, German (A79871); Far left, King Edwards hand amulet, worn by a member of a London regiment (A 79870); Left, amuletic brooch in the form of a black cat carrying a jewel, once worn by a member of the Royal West Surrey Regiment. (A79904) (WL)

Other military charms included brooches formed in the shape of black cats and clovers. Sailors had their own charms, such as cauls and the heart-shaped pincushion carried as protection against drowning which Lovett bought at the London docks in 1917. The pincushion is included in another major collection of Lovetts dedicated fieldwork at the Cuming Museum which holds approximately 170 charms and objects of superstitious power. In an examination of the the Wellcome Museums Lovett collection Jude Hill noted that: The Lovett examples have a unique sort of beauty, fragility and symbolism; they generally appear fairly home-made or makeshift, and most had been fashioned out of natural, in some cases, fairly commonplace materials.34

Hill also pointed out that ritual objects were not inanimate: they had to be activated to release their power: The connections between objects and everyday public and private rituals were crucial as a means to release their power. Certain objects were stroked against diseased parts of the body as a cure.35 Household charms collected by Lovett included horseshoes, the power of which was derived from their symbolic shape and the iron from which they were made. These were placed at strategic points, most typically the front door, to guard access to the house. Lovett also collected, as a label records, a quantity of snail shells once strung up behind a door of a small house in east London to ward off evil.36 Without the story of their purpose, objects such as these would have been meaningless. In collecting such artifacts and their legends at a time when folk magic was considered to be centred in the rural backwaters of the English countryside Edward Lovett demonstrated the continuing power of these beliefs in the city. Lovett was the pre-eminent researcher of folk magic rituals that not only survived but thrived in the 20th-century English metropolis.

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2.1.4 discovering the discoverers

Lovett was but one of the nineteen Folklore Society researchers actively and diligently looking for folklore rituals in the half century after the Societys foundation in 1878.37 None of them appears to have considered building tradesmen as keepers and practitioners of secret rituals associated with shoes, garments or cats, or to have realised that houses and other buildings were repositories of the artefacts of a secret and ancient practice. Concealments were being found but no-one seems to have realised that there was something very odd about the finds and their locations in the buildings in particular. Allan Fea wrote in 1904 of an unusual find in Bromley Palace, Kent: ...in a small aperture below the floor, was found the leathern sole of a pointed shoe of the Middle Ages!38 Feas report was in the context of curiosities found in Above, John Lea Nevinson. (SoA) Below, Nevinsons letter to The Times, secret chambers in old buildings and a 23/1/1934. (News Ltd) shoe such as this barely raised an eyebrow. But some people eventually began to suspect that there may have been more to this sort of find than was at first apparent. The first person to ask questions in print appears to have been John Lea Nevinson (1905 1985), a distinguished member of staff at the Victoria and Albert Museum. His obituary on the Museums website describes him as an historian who made outstanding contributions in the field of 16th and 17th century dress and embroidery. During the 1930s, while a member of staff at the V & A, Nevinson compiled the Catalogue of English Domestic Embroidery of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries which remains the standard work on that subject. He came from a talented family; his father

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was an architect, while other relatives included the war correspondent H. W. Nevinson and the cellist B. G. Nevinson who is commemorated in the Enigma Variations.39 Nevinsons work at the V & A took him to many old houses and exposed him to enquirers who brought objects into the Museum for identification and explanation. It was perhaps during the course of these enquiries and the site visits that he made that he became aware of finds of old shoes in odd places. Nevinson wrote to The Times as a result of a find at an unidentified house in Sussex where a pair of 17th century ladys shoes had been discovered under a staircase. His letter, published in January, 1934,40 recorded the find but made no Nevinsons second letter to The Times, comment on the position in which the published on 5/2/1934, raised questions about shoes were found. In a second letter, concealed shoes in buildings and tentatively suggested a reason for the practice. published less than a fortnight later, he (News Ltd) cautiously expressed suspicions of a superstition associated with such finds and in doing so implied that he may have been aware of other such discoveries: ...is there any reason or superstition to account for the placing of old worn shoes (usually womens) in walls or under floors?41 A perceptive and sophisticated researcher, Nevinson was clearly alert to the possibilities of what he seems to have suspected was an unknown and highly unusual practice. I attempted to trace the house that Nevinson visited but his diary for December 1933 January 1934, held at the Society of Antiquaries in London, does not identify the building.42 The shoes are not recorded on Northampton Museums Concealed Shoe Index or on the database of the Concealed Garments Project and they are not held by the Victoria and Albert Museum where Nevinson worked.43 Nevinson does not appear to have pursued this matter and there do not seem to be any further references in print to it for the next twenty years. It was not until 1955 that a letter appeared in Folklore, drawing the attention of the Society to the discovery of shoes concealed in a house at Devizes, Wiltshire. The letter came from Mr. F. K. Annable, curator of the museum at Devizes which had recently acquired a collection of shoes and other objects from a 15th-century house, Great Porch House, at No. eight Monday Market Street, Devizes. The objects were discovered in the roof cavity during renovations and appeared to consist of a cache built up over three centuries:

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Above, Frederick Kenneth Annable (1922 2002). Left, Great Porch House, Monday Market Street, Devizes, Wiltshire. Bottom, the shoes from Great Porch House. (WHM)

Four shoes, one of late seventeen-century date, the other three, of which one had belonged to a child in arms being early nineteenth century. There were also fragments of two pottery bowls, and a third, though also broken was complete, the three dating respectively to late seventeenth, late eighteenth, and mid-nineteenth centuries. Finally to complete the deposit were fragments of an eighteenth-century clay pipe, a wine glass stem, late eighteenth-century, a small iron file, broken at the tip, and the remains of what looks like a hat box along with a small length of corduroy cloth. Annable also reported similar finds in Bedfordshire and elsewhere, citing examples of old shoes found in houses and placed in the Salisbury Museum. He appears to have been aware of garments discovered in similar circumstances. He suspected these to have been the clothing of deceased residents of the

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buildings: The discovery of old shoes, often bricked up into old houses seems also to be a common occurrence as instanced by examples in Salisbury Museum. Annable concluded his report with an appeal for further information from anyone else who was aware of similar finds: As a result of this discovery at No. 8 I have become interested in this question of ritual deposits and am anxious to obtain further information.44 This request contains the first known published reference to concealments being made for ritual purposes, although Nevinson had clearly suspected something of the sort. There were no responses to Annables request in Folklore. June Swann, who had started work as an assistant at Northampton Museums and Art Gallery in 1950, could have contributed to this discussion had she been aware of it.45 In an article published in 1996, she described her growing awareness during the 1950s of odd finds of shoes: ...it was about 1957, in conversation with John Thornton, (then Head of the Boot & Shoe Department, Northampton College of Technology) that we realised simultaneously that the six or seven shoes we had each received for identification, could not be coincidence. They had come mostly from chimneys, and I recall being particularly puzzled by a small pair of childs boots, found in the thatch of a cottage in Stanwick, Northamptonshire, and wondering what sort of people allowed a child so small to lose its boots on the roof.46 Swann says she was not aware of Thorntons interest in shoes found in buildings until he visited her office at Northampton Museums and the conversation recorded above took place: Thats when we realised simultaneously that with a dozen or more finds, there was more to it than shoes getting lost. So whatever the date was in the 1950s, thats when we both registered superstition. As with others who have visited houses where shoes have been found, Swann listened to a variety of often wildly improbable tales as householders struggled to make sense of the finds they had made: You should read the range of explanations I record, from large items that slipped through cracks between floorboards, boy chimney-sweeps losing their shoes, cats getting stuck, not to mention the multiple objects carried by mice and rats.47 Some background about Swanns colleague is relevant at this point. Thornton edited the Textbook of Footwear Manufacture, published by National Trade Press in 1953, and collaborated with June Swann to write A Glossary of Shoe Terms published by the Museum Assistants Group in 1973. I cannot establish when he became suspicious about shoes found in buildings as he does not appear to have published anything about this. June Swann said in her 1969 paper, Shoes Concealed in Buildings, that Thornton had been listing these finds for many years.48 Thornton was a recognised expert on the history of footwear and in 1956, together with A. B. Goodfellow, was called in to examine and report on shoes found during the excavation of the South Corner Tower of the Roman

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One of the record cards from the Concealed Shoe Index at Northampton Museums and Art Gallery, Northampton. (NMG)

Fortress, part of which survived at No. seventeen, Feasegate, York. Complete shoes, and fragments, for both adults and a child had been found in a post-Roman layer.49 Swann began Northampton Museums and Art Gallerys card Index of Concealed Shoes some time in the period from circa 1957 to 1959 in order to organise the information she was getting. Cards were headed with the name of the town or village, the address where the shoe or shoes were found, dates the building was constructed and altered and the position of the object/s in the building. There were also fields for comments by finders and a record of any associated finds such as garments, artefacts, bones, chickens and cats. Records included descriptions of the shoes and their date of manufacture, their condition and any references from literature or catalogues.50 Swann thus became the first person to keep a comprehensive record of finds of concealed shoes. She had been named as Keeper of the Museums boot and shoe collection in 1960 or 1961, a position she held until her retirement in 1988.51 But the time available for trying to make sense of the steady stream of shoes that arrived at Northampton Museums was very limited. Up until 1961, when extra staff came on board, the organisation ran two museums and an art gallery with

An extract from Swanns 1990 inventory of concealed shoes and other objects. (NMG)

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a professional staff of just three people. Swann described the situation: I always said I did ten peoples work, but when I added up all the jobs some considerable time after leaving, it came to seventeen. I was not developing any theories on the shoe finds, just accumulating and very occasionally analysing evidence, usually only when I had to for some talk or paper.52 Swann appears to cede the first understanding of the reason for the concealment of shoes in buildings to Annable, although it is possible that awareness was virtually simultaneous. She rightly points out that everyone who finds a shoe, in effect, discovers the practice. Understanding it is another matter altogether. She believes that there are many reasons for concealments and that each find should be assessed from the evidence it provides. While Annable was the first to apply and publish the term ritual in relation to concealed shoes it does not prove that he was the first person with full realisation of what had been discovered. Nevinson clearly had strong suspicions in this area. Annable made the announcement to Folklore before Swann began recording finds and before she went into print but not before she was aware of this custom. Swann is very cautious about expressing views on a field of research where facts are hard to come by. She wrote in 1969 that the pattern of concealment did not begin to emerge until after some years work and until the right questions were asked.53 Differences in approach to the categorisation of concealed objects arose very swiftly after recognition of the practice. Researchers from the Folklore Society were quick to describe it as a ritual while archaeologists were very reluctant to use this term. Swann recalls being roundly criticised when she failed to use the prescribed term in a letter to the Folklore Society in about 1990. Archaeologists took the opposite view. She remembers that Ralph Merrifield was scoffed at by archaeologists when he suggested that shoes were concealed as part of ritual practice.54 Swann says that she first became aware of the June Swann, right, with the owner existence of concealed shoes in old houses of The Old Malthouse, Earl Soham, Suffolk, inspecting the large mid-19th in January 1950, shortly after she had started century hoard recovered from above a cupboard adjoining a fireplace. working at Northampton Museums. During Objects were deposited by members the routine of checking display cases every of the Rice Family at various times in the 1850s, forming what is morning, she noted a womans shoe of circa now known as a spiritual midden. 1790 that had been found under the floor at (Timothy Easton, 1989)

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Upton Hall, Northamptonshire, which she thought was odd. When other such finds came to her notice she drew back from thinking about why they might have been placed in buildings because of her aversion to superstitious beliefs: I, like so many others I was in contact with, tried not to think about the implications, myself for many years, and merely recorded what came my way (which was quite a lot), hoping that answers would thus emerge. Swann kept her thoughts to herself for a considerable period of time before she felt able to express them in writing or conversation. Even now she is extremely cautious about conjectural expressions of points of view on concealments: I have yet to cede any one reason for concealments, even if others want to term them ritual deposits.55 Annable and Swann appear to have come to much the same conclusion about concealed shoes at much the same time. The number of finds brought to museums for identification was steadily increasing. Some of these were taken into collections such as those held by Salisbury Museum at the time. This meant that the circle of people who might begin to wonder about such finds was also increasing. John Nevinsons suspicions about shoes in buildings do not appear to have been pursued. Shoes were at the periphery of his interests and he does not refer to concealments of them in print again. It appears that the discovery of the practice of concealing shoes in buildings was independently made by several people and in at least one case without awareness of the work of others in the field. Swann knew Nevinson as a result of referrals of Northamptonshire costume finds to the Victoria and Albert Museum and they were both foundation members of the Costume Society in 1965. She joined a trip to France in 1973 to see the Bayeux tapestry, an event that Nevinson organised. They became friends but she cannot remember when she became aware of his letters to The Times.56 Swann also knew Annable, albeit not well, probably as a result of studies undertaken through the Museums Association for a museums diploma. The requisite course of study extended over three years from 1955, during which period she met people who, like Annable, worked in both archaeology and museums. She cannot now remember quite how she came to know of him.57 Swann was not aware of Annables letter to Folklore, which she first saw when I sent her a PDF of it in September 2009. She described it to me as a revelation. Nor was she aware of Annables interest in shoes found in old buildings.58 Her 1969 paper, Shoes Concealed in Buildings, does not have a record of the Devizes cache59 but in 1990, two years after leaving Northampton Museums, Swann prepared a new summary of discoveries of concealed shoes which lists the Devizes find.60 It thus appears that she became aware of the find Annable had made without knowing that he had grasped the concept behind the objects discovered in Monday Market Street, Devizes. The deaths of Nevinson and Annable, two of the people involved in the discovery of the deliberate concealment of objects in old buildings, and the passage of time which has erased some memories on the part of another precludes a definitive analysis of the roles played by those involved in unearthing one of the most durable and secret practices

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in the entire catalogue of folk magic practice and belief. Annable published nothing further about shoes in old buildings. To Swann, now an author of several standard works on shoes and shoemaking and an international consultant on the history of shoes and shoemaking, the concealment of shoes and other objects in buildings is a matter of ongoing curiosity and research. Swann continues to contribute to the Northampton Museums Index of Concealed Shoes, dropping completed cards with details of her latest finds into the Museum letterbox during visits into the centre of the town where she still lives. She received the MBE in 1976 for her work as Keeper of the Boot and Shoe collection at Northampton Museums and Art Gallery. The first book to describe shoe and other concealments in old buildings was Ralph Merrifields Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, published in London in 1987 and in New York in 1988.61 Born in Brighton in 1913, Merrifield gained a degree in Anthropology in 1935. His studies gave him a lasting academic interest in the archaeological evidence for past religions and witchcraft in England. After intelligence work during the Second World War, Merrifield worked in museums in Brighton and London and pursued his interest in Roman London, publishing The Roman City of London in 1965 and London City of The Romans in 1983. When he retired in 1978 he was Deputy Director of the Museum of London. Merrifield was then able to pursue his interest in ritual and magic, concentrating for a time on witch bottles. In two articles in The London Archaeologist in the winter of 1969 Merrifield gave detailed descriptions of finds in Roman and post-Roman London of objects associated with ritual and magic. In the second article he referred to numerous instances of the discovery of old shoes, usually odd ones, concealed in or immediately adjacent to chimney breasts.62 He died in 1995.63

Dr. Ralph Merrifield (1913 1995) at Cutcheys Farmhouse, Long Thurlow, Suffolk, 1988. The chimney on the right had two spiritual middens on the first floor. These had begun in the later 17th century with materials being dropped into the void from the attic over the parlour chamber. Deposits continued into the 18th century. (Timothy Easton)

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The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic was a seminal work, opening the way for discussion and further research on a field that had long been neglected. There is a suggestion in the book that Merrifield, who had an association with the Museum of Leathercraft, may have been put in touch with Swann. The Museum had been receiving enquiries from people who brought finds of shoes in to ascertain their age. Merrifield writes that he first became aware of the practice of concealing shoes through an association with the Museum of Leathercraft.64 The Museum was established in 1948 by John Waterer, a leathergoods designer, and Dr. Claude Spiers, a leather chemist. Its purpose was to collect examples of fine craftsmanship through the ages, and to preserve them for the benefit of the public and of young people entering the leather trades. For a number of years parts of the collection were housed at the Guildhall Museum and at Leathersellers Hall, both of which were in London. For some ten years from about 1970 the collection was housed at Walsall Borough Councils museum. The collection moved to Northampton in 1978 under an arrangement with Northampton Borough Council. The Keeper of the collection until 1979 was Philip Green. He was followed by Victoria Gabbitas who remained until 1985 when Alison Hems took over. Hems was still at the Museum when Merrifields book was published. I located both Gabbitas and Hems, as well as another former Museum of Leathercraft employee, Simon Davies. None of them can recall any dealings with Merrifield but all were aware of Swanns dossier on concealed shoes.65 It is likely that Annables letter to Folklore alerted a number of people to concealed shoes and that awareness of the practice was reasonably widespread among academics and folklore enthusiasts. Gabbitas believes that she first heard of it as a post-graduate student in the now-defunct department of Folk Life Studies at Leeds University. But Swann appears to have made her own separate discovery and understanding of this practice and was the first person to begin the systematic recording and analysing of finds. Merrifield relied largely on the work of Swann in describing the concealment of shoes in old buildings. He noted there are few local museums in southern England that do not possess a few shoes, mostly dating from the 17th to the 19th century, that were found hidden in old houses, usually in a wall, roof or chimney breast, or under a floor. Merrifield also discussed other objects found in building voids including the bodies of cats and chickens as well as garments and domestic artefacts. But he said that by far the commonest charm to protect a building in post-mediaeval times, however, was an old shoe.66
2.2 present and future research

There appears to be little doubt that many concealed objects remain to be discovered in old houses and other buildings in all of the countries where this practice has been recorded. No concerted, large-scale research has yet been undertaken in any of the countries where this practice is known to have occurred. Such research that does

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exist is the result of personal interest and enthusiasm by a variety of individuals who may be employed by universities or museums or who fund their activities by employment in a variety of fields. In Continental Europe research appears to be largely focussed on the objects found as examples of craftwork, materials and manufacturing techniques of their period. The intent of those who made the concealments is rarely addressed and the historical context which produced concealments is seldom explored. Most of the European research into this phenomenon is taking place in England where a number of people and organizations is involved. Details are in Appendix Three (page 419).
2.3 conclusion

The work of numerous researchers, many of them members of the Folklore Society, operating in rural, village and metropolitan areas of England during the 19th and early 20th centuries confirmed the survival of ancient customs and folk magic practices into the 1930s. Most surprising, perhaps, is the work of Lovett in establishing the role of folk magic in the lives of Londoners then and now one of the worlds great cities and the ancestral home of many Australians. In the late 19th century a quarter of all emigrants departing from Britain originated in London.67 Emigrants who left for Australia carried with them a rich and varied cultural pattern of thought and behaviour with which they established a new life far from home. But the survival of customs that they practiced in England varied greatly in Australia as a result of widely differing conditions and influences. Only those customs and rituals that were deeply embedded in the culture, whether as part of conventional religious practice or the result of a belief in folk magic, or which had been traditionally practiced for a very long time, appear to have survived the journey. Rituals that were not place dependent, as in the case of harvest ceremonies, or which relied on homogeneity of groups, had the best chance of survival if not in their original form and nature. The majority of the public rituals and customs that had been practiced in the British Isles for centuries were lost, often quite quickly, but a practice that had been secretly and silently observed for a very long time, without notice by the collectors of folk magic practices, made the journey to Britains most remote colonial outpost and thrived in Australia until at least the mid-1930s. It remained unknown here until 2004 long after its recognition in England. The people principally involved in the discovery of the practice of concealing objects in buildings include John Lea Nevinson of the Victoria and Albert Museum, F.K. Annable, curator at Devizes Museum, Wiltshire, June Swann of Northampton Museums and Art Gallery and the archaeologist Ralph Merrifield. Merrifield was the first to describe the concealment of objects in buildings as part of a ritual practice intended to provide protection for the occupants. Of these people only Swann remains to tell the story of her role in the discovery of an ancient practice that survived into the modern era.

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THREE: TRACING THE PAST

abstract

he intention in this chapter is to trace the history of the practice of deliberately concealing objects in old buildings before it arrived in Australia, to outline some of the people who may have been involved in either stimulating the practice or carrying out concealments and to describe other forms of magical practice used in Britain, and which raise the possibility of the transfer to Australia of rituals that are as yet not known here. 3.1 ancient roots Without the benefit of a written record, tracing the history of practices that were always secret is difficult in the extreme. This story begins in Europe and it appears probable but so far unprovable that it came to Australia with the convicts and settlers who began to arrive here in the late 18th century. The earliest shoes yet found in Australian concealments date from circa 1820 and we may find none from before that period: the slab-wall and bark-roofed buildings of the earlier years of settlement have almost all gone and there are no known records of concealments in them. Secreting shoes in voids in buildings was not a practice unique to the British Isles. The evidence from concealments in Continental Europe indicates that it was widespread there, as related in the following text. And in both Britain and the Continent there is also evidence that this practice had ancient roots. The Concealed Shoe Index at Northampton Museums and Art Gallery, located in the heartland of the 19th-century British boot-making industry, traces the history of concealed shoes from the objects that have been discovered in both the UK and continental Europe. What is purported to be the earliest concealment yet found is the sole of a supposed Roman shoe, discovered within the wall of the east tower at Lympne Castle, near Folkestone in Kent. The find was made during restoration work in 1905.1 Although commonly called a castle, Lympne is a fortified house and was formerly a residence of archdeacons of Canterbury. The building as it stands today was constructed in various stages in the 13th, 14th, 15th and early-20th centuries, with much earlier Roman and Saxon structures close by. The Roman attribution of the shoe sole found at Lympne is not substantiated and the date of the object is not known, but the find remains an interesting one although it has yet to be the subject of published research. According to English Heritage, the construction date of the east tower is now thought to be 13th century2 which, if correct, would bring the sole of the shoe found there close to the period of other early concealments. There is, however, the possibility that the tower wall was built on Roman foundations.

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The Concealed Shoe Index also records the discovery of an early-14th century concealment at Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire, where portions of two shoes of about 1300 were found behind the choir stalls in a concealment that pre-dates building changes of 1308. Other mediaeval finds have come from Czechoslovakia, where shoes of the 1350s 1360s were found at Kloster Emmaus, Prague3 and from Germany where large deposits were discovered beneath the floors of three adjoining houses at Kempten in Allgu. Known as the Muhlberg Ensemble, the houses are Nos. eight, ten, and twelve in the centre of the former Reichsstadt Kempten and were built between 1289 and 1354. The oldest cache was found within an upperlevel floor at No. eight. Documents in Some of the objects from a cache at 12 the cache date this concealment to 1470 Muhlberg, in Kempten, Algu, Germany. Trade 1530. It contained a large number of waste or a ritual concealment? (Atzbach 2001). items, including writing exercises, a love letter, playing-cards, wooden waste from a turnery and also about 600 leather and skin objects that included a large number of shoes, many of which are the ankle boots of infants. Garments were of sheepskin and wool and included hoods, mittens, gloves and accessories such as bags. Whether this deposit is a ritual concealment or the use of trade and domestic waste to sound-proof and stabilise the floor is not clear. The finds in the Muhlberg Ensemble are among a large number of caches, including cats and other animals, that have been found throughout central Europe.4 The English-language German newspaper The Local, published in Berlin but circulating throughout Germany, recently reported the find of caches of 18th and 19th century shoes within the walls of the Liedberg Palace in Korschenbroich in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. These were discovered during recent restoration work on the building.5 On the basis of records in the Concealed Shoe Index, June Swann wrote in 1995 that finds had been made in most of the counties of Britain and in Finland, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Spain, Italy and Turkey; in North America, from the eastern states and provinces, through Indiana to California.5 I receive occasional email messages from residents of North America, describing objects, including shoes, garments, cats and domestic artifacts, discovered in caches in old houses. The following email from Carol Smith, a Maryland resident, is typical of these accounts. In the email she describes how her brother, resident in their grandparents house in Crisfield, Maryland, found a cache while repairing flood damage to internal walls: Under the window, between the walls, he found an old sock that containedtwo horse shoes, a broken salt shaker, a large spent bullet and a large knife which has English insignia.6

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Another Maryland cache consisting of two 1850s childrens shoes found within a wall is now held by the Gatehouse Museum, Sykesville, not far from the find location at Flohrville.7 The discovery of objects concealed within a chimney void was witnessed by the San Diego archaeologist Ronald May at Fort Rosecrans, California, in May 1998. The fort was established in 1872 to protect the entrance to San Diego harbour. May was present to record work on the site when one of the chimneys at an obsolete barracks dating from 1904 was demolished: Amidst a billowing cloud of brick dust and flying debris, a cavity appeared concealed behind the finely mortared fire hearth. The construction team had just demolished 20-feet of chimney and began removing the yellow-tan firebricks, when the faade tumbled down. Vaguely familiar shapes slowly emerged as the dust settled. Pulling down the last of the faade, the workmen removed a scuffed old army boot and a Spanish-American War campaign hat.8

3.1.1 dates of shoe concealments Working from her own records in the Concealed Shoe Index at Northampton Museums and Art Gallery, June Swann published an article in Costume, the journal of the Costume Society, in 1996 in which she outlined the number of concealments found in a period that spanned eight centuries. The results are as follows:
TABLE 3.1

eight centuries of shoe concealments 13th century 14th century 15th century 16th century 17th century 18th century 19th century 20th century
Source: Swan, 1996

1 4 4 20 154 270 424 44

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The table includes the Czech finds from the 14th century but does not include the Kempten Algu finds from Germany which were not published until 2000 or reported finds from other countries which had not been verified to her satisfaction.9 Further statistical assessment of finds was made in 1997 by Fiona Pitt, at that time Assistant Keeper at Northampton Museums and Art Gallery, who prepared the graph below for an article in the Newsletter of the Archaeological Leather Group, working from records largely compiled by June Swann.10
table

3.2

Source: Pitt, 1997.

The same pattern of distribution over the centuries was noted by both Swann and Pitt: a steady, progressive increase from before the 17th century to the 19th century, followed by a steep decline in the 20th century. While this type of analysis is not possible for Australian concealments (as European settlement here did not commence until 1788) we may be seeing the same profile, albeit in fragmentary form, as a result of the apparent transfer of the custom to the Australian colonies just before and during the most intensive period of its development. The practice thus came to the Australian colonies in the period in which it flourished in the United Kingdom. The pattern here follows the British prototype with the same extensive record of concealments in the 19th century and the same rapid decline in the 20th century. This appears to suggest that the forces that produced this phenomenon in the United Kingdom and in other parts of the world were also at work in Australia.

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3.1.2 the devil in the boot The name of John Schorn, pastor at St Marys Church at North Marston, Buckinghamshire, from 1290 to the early 14th century has long been associated with a belief that shoes could serve as traps for evil spirits. The legend of Schorns feat in conjuring the Devil into a boot spread throughout southern England in the centuries after his death in 1314.11 The use of the word conjuring may be indicative of the reality of this supposed event at a time when the Church was known to be partial St Marys Church, North Marston to deceptive practices to persuade the gullible that they had just witnessed a miracle. At St Marys there is a small opening high on the north wall of the chancel that I saw when I visited the church in 2006. The hole in the wall opens onto a priests room above the vestry and it is thought this may have been the place where a mechanical Devil, or Jack, popped out to terrify members of the congregation. The story of the Devil in the boot may be the origin of the childs toy in which Jack, a clown or jester, jumps out of a box.12 Schorn had gained a reputation as a healer of various ailments, including the ague (malaria), and rheumatic and eye afflictions. He was also believed to possess the power to revive dead cattle and resuscitate the drowned. The waters of the spring which he caused to rise from the ground near his church by tapping the earth with his staff were said to have healing properties. The water was chalybeate (containing salts of iron) and was reputedly a cure for gout which in itself may have been the Devil in the boot. Scores of pilgrims visited Schorns burial place at North Marston in order to display piety, perform penance, and in the hope of gaining a cure or witnessing a miracle. The continued success of the Shorn cult for a century and a half after his death attracted the attention of the Dean of Windsor, Richard Beauchamp, who was impressed by the fame and profitability of the Schorn pilgrimage centre at North Marston. King Edward IV made the official appeal to Pope Sixtus IV for a licence to move Schorns well today the bones to Windsor Castle and the transfer took place in

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1478. Schorns relics were housed in a specially constructed chantry chapel in the southeast corner of St Georges Chapel with an iron money box, made circa 1480 for the purpose of collecting donations from pilgrims, conveniently standing by the shrine. St Georges Chapel subsequently became one of the most important pilgrimage centres in southern England, although this is perhaps because Schorn shared the space with the bones of Henry VI. In addition to acquiring Schorns bones Windsor appropriated his North Marston rectory (which probably refers to the benefice rather than a house), presumably to control the pilgrimage cult and maximise the profits. The Papal Bull authorising this takeover survives in the archives of St Georges Chapel.13 In an age before mass media, communication with large numbers of people was achieved by sermons, religious tokens and by images on rood screens inside virtually every English church. Rood screens were the mediaeval equivalent of the very large flat screens which are used today to televise major events to mass audiences in city squares and outdoor spaces. Rood screens, with their depictions of saints, apostles, popes, biblical characters and angels, presented a powerful message to members of the congregation and were the focus of intense devotion. The purpose of the rood screen was to divide the chancel, with its altar, from the nave, which was often used for secular purposes. It was an invariable part of the furnishing of every church until the Reformation. The screen was generally surmounted by a loft, upon which stood the rood, a giant figure of Christ crucified. The East Anglian historian Tom Muckley records that the Reformation saw the destruction of roods and the majority of lofts, though the screens themselves were often spared as they were a useful feature in the ordering of the church. Most figure sculpture and painting depicted thereon, however, was generally defaced.14 Roods consisted of three elements. The first was the screen which was set across the chancel arch, dividing nave from chancel, and standing at a height of say ten or twelve feet. Its lower section, or dado, stood about four feet high, was panelled and the panels usually decorated with painted images of the saints.15 As a consequence of the destruction of screens in the Reformation we do not know how many depicted John Schorns encounter with the Devil. His images survive today on 15th century screens at a small number of parish churches in England, among them St Agnes, Cawston, Norfolk, dated at circa 1450; St Helen, Gately, Norfolk, of 1480; St Margaret, Suffield, Norfolk, 1450; St Gregorys, Sudbury, Suffolk, circa 1500. Schorns image has disappeared from a number of churches in Rood screen images of John Schorn with the Devil in the boot. Left, St. Gregorys, which it once appeared, including St Michaels, Sudbury. Right, St Helen, Gately. Alphington, Devon, St Onolaus, Portlemouth, (Simon Knott, norfolkchurches.co.uk) Devon, St Pauls, Wolborough, Devon, and

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others, including St Marys, North Marston.16 The latter was destroyed in 1537 after John Stockesley, Bishop of London, a commissioner for pulling down superstitious pictures, reported to Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to Henry VIII, that he had found an image at North Marston of Mr. Johan Schorne blessing a boot, whereunto they do say he conveyed the Devil.17 Schorn, the charismatic provincial pastor, celebrity doctor and one of Englands unofficial saints, became a star of the mass media of his time. In his appearances on rood screens he is dressed in the cap and gown of a Doctor of Divinity, gesturing at the Devil peeping from the tall boot held in his hand. It is difficult to tell from the images whether the Devil is entering the boot or popping out, like the jack-in-thebox that the Schorn legend is thought to have inspired. The story of John Schorn, the boot John Schorn and the Devil in the boot. and the Devil, was delivered to audiences The painting, by Hamlet Watling, 1889, is a copy of a window from Bury St Edmonds Abbey, across England for centuries. Images Suffolk. (V & A: D304.1889CG73) of Schorn also appeared on leadlight windows in churches. A painting survives of the decorative window from Bury St Edmonds Abbey (now in ruins), on which the familiar tale was depicted. Pilgrim badges and devotional aids displayed the image of Schorn and his accompaniments. The Museum of London has a badge, recovered from the Thames in London in 1866, on which the priest, the boot and the Devil are portrayed. Several variations of this item, manufactured from lead and pewter, are known. The archives of Windsor Castle hold the gloriously-illustrated Schorn Book of Hours, The Schorn pilgrim badge used by a wealthy pilgrim on his journey to the shrine at
from the Thames: plate 13 North Marston, at some time in the period from 1430 1450. in Wrights The Romance of The flyleaf contains a hymn, sung at Mass at North Marston, the Shoe.

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that appeals to Schorn to use his powers to heal a variety of ailments: Hail, help of the sick / medicine of those harassed / by the pain of fevers Hail, light of the eyes / liberator of the weak / from the toothache Hail, since the ox / restored to life / gives witness of your miracles Hail, thou who art the / rescuer of all the drowned / by thy prayers.18 On another level altogether are the numerous inns named The Devil in the Boot, at least six of which were dotted around the Buckinghamshire countryside until the 1970s.19 The last of these, in Granborough Road in the village of Winslow, five kilometres from North Marston, has now either closed or succumbed to the fad for renaming pubs. If John Schorn was not in fact the inspiration for the use of shoes and boots as a kind of spirit trap in houses and other buildings throughout Britain he certainly did the movement no harm. It hardly seems likely that the connection between boots or shoes and the Devil would have passed without The circa 1900 inn sign from Winslow, Buckinghamshire. notice by the many people in late-mediaeval England who (NMG) were made aware of the legend of John Schorn.

3.1.3 masonry and freemasonry Masonry is the craft of working in brick or stone to construct buildings. Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation whose membership has shared moral and metaphysical ideals, and whose origins are sometimes erroneously claimed to have ancient roots in the craft of the mason. But those who sought ancient records of the craft found the documented history of the organisation sparse indeed. J.O. Halliwell-Phillips wrote in 1839 that:

A cathedral carving of a mason, reproduced in The Builder, January 1924.

We possess no series of documents, nor even an approach to a series, sufficiently extensive to enable us to form any connected history of the ancient institutions of Masons and Freemasons.20 In fact, freemasonry originated in late 16th and 17th century Scotland as a brotherhood of men bound together by initiation ceremonies, by rituals and forms of identification all of which were secret and organised into lodges. The lodges at Edinburgh and Aitchisons

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Haven have minutes of meetings surviving from 1599. New lodges appeared throughout Scotland in rapid succession throughout the early 17th century, including Kilwinning, Stirling, St Andrews and many others.21 At first one of the principal purposes of the lodges was to regulate the working lives of stonemasons but social and ritual functions gradually subsumed the original purpose. In England, where freemasonry spread in the 17th century, members were largely drawn from the gentry and the army.22 As a result of its various private rituals Freemasonry has long been regarded by outsiders as a highly secretive and rather controversial organization. A more welcoming and open attitude has been adopted by Masonic lodges throughout the world in recent times. The result is that some secrets of the past are no longer secret. A significant number of finds of concealed shoes in Australia appears to have been associated with members of the building trades and craftsmen in masonry (which includes bricklaying) in particular. These are apparent in the Catalogue of Finds elsewhere in this thesis. It was therefore considered appropriate to attempt to ascertain whether there is any link between concealed objects and Freemasonry. Stonemasons have for many centuries chiselled symbols onto building stone for reasons that are locational, with marks that indicate where the block was to be placed in a building, and as signature marks that identify the work of a individual craftsmen. As Freemasonry gathered strength, lodges assumed the task of recording and registering the marks used by various stonemasons, thus ensuring that duplication did not occur.23 The first lodges were often constructed adjacent to great cathedrals, churches, substantial houses or other buildings as a form of site office in which meals were taken and the work discussed. It was also common for masons to shape and carve the stone in the lodge, often a lean-to against the wall of the building in which they were working. The lodge protected them from Early masons marks from heat, cold and rain. It also served as a tool store and as a the mark book of the Lodge place where men working away from home could sleep.24 of Aberdeen, 1670. (Grand Lodge of Mark Master These lodges were eventually moved offsite and used to Masons of South Australia unite members to provide a regulatory framework for issues and the Northern Territory) associated with the craft of masonry and moral and ethical questions. Restricting membership to working, or operative, masons was not possible at that time. The reasons for this dilution of the membership were described by H.L. Haywood, editor of The Builder, who offered an early 20th century view of traditional practices as he understood them at the time. Haywood noted that lodges were necessarily permeated by religious authorities and local corporations for whom cathedrals and churches were being built and by clerks employed to keep the account books and records of the work.25 For these reasons, the membership of lodges was progressively diluted by

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non-operative, or so-called speculative members. As a result, steps were taken to restrict trade secrets to operative members of lodges. Haywood notes that lower expectations were applied to speculative members: .such a brother could not take oath to keep the trade secrets about which he was to learn nothing; neither could he be required to produce a masters piece, as regular apprentices were, because he would not possess the skill.26 There is a clear inference in the above that not all of the secrets of the operative members of a lodge were freely shared within the lodge itself. Secrets of the trade and the lodge were also closely guarded from other tradesmen employed on a project: At every fabric many workmen not members of the lodge were necessarily employed, of which we have abundant records; they were known as rough masons, cowans, rough setters, masons without the word, wallers, plasterers, etc. It was strictly prohibited for any master mason to lay out plans or otherwise employ his trade secrets in the presence of these men, who were looked upon as profane or outsiders.27 The extent and nature of this culture of secrecy is very difficult to determine now. The question arises as to whether operative masons had a tradition of oral history in which secrets that were never recorded or revealed to outsiders were passed on through the generations of this trade. The control of lodges by operative masons began to wane in England after the Reformation as great churches and cathedrals were no longer built. The craft of masonry faded and Masonic lodges were controlled by speculative masons.28 Individual stonemasons appear to have been left to fend for themselves for more than 150 years but in the 18th century gilds of Mark Master Masons began to be formed, the first being recorded in a set of minutes made up in Portsmouth in 1769.29 A grand lodge of Mark Master Masons was formed in London in 1856. Mark Master Masons were active in Australia in the 1850s with the Adelaide lodge of Mark Master Masons being formed on 11 July 1854. Other lodges were formed in the various Australian colonies at different times during the 19th century. A pre-requisite of membership of these lodges was that A brother must be a Master Mason in Craft Masonry before he is eligible to become a Mark Master Mason.30 In the long period of time in which lodges were controlled by speculative masons craftsmen in stone continued to mark their work with the designs that identified individual members of the craft. Such marks are widely seen on 19th- and 20th-century stonework in Australia, indicating the transmission of a practice that occurred in Britain and elsewhere in Europe for many centuries. Trade knowledge and secrets thus continued to be passed on,

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as they had throughout history, from ageing masters to the younger men who had attained rank in their trade. One practical reason for the use of marks as personal identifiers is the very low level of literacy of tradesmen and other members of the community in the period before 1800 and even afterwards. For example, letters and requests, known at the time as memorials, from convicts to colonial officials in early 19th-century New South Wales were often prepared by scriveners with the person who initiated the document signing with his or her mark. There are many examples of this in the records of the NSW Colonial Secretary, 1788 1825.31 Because the concealment of objects in buildings pre-dates by many centuries the establishment of Freemasonry there appears to be no reason to associate concealments with it. It is likely, however, that the construction of many Australian houses and buildings was supervised and managed by men who began their life in the building industry as stonemasons and who at some time became Freemasons. If, as I suspect, these men as part of their tradecraft became privy to the ancient custom of placing shoes and other objects in building voids they would have been the keepers of two different and distinct sets of secrets. The practice of concealing objects in buildings was not the exclusive rite of stonemasons but, as is evident from the Catalogue of Finds, was also observed by bricklayers, carpenters, plasterers and roof slaters. It appears to have been endemic among the building trades. Freemasonry and the concealment of objects within houses and other buildings are not, in my view, necessarily linked. It is, however, possible that the more ancient practice of concealing objects was adopted by some lodges and disseminated as part of their own individual secret traditions. Between 2004 and 2009, my research into deliberately concealed objects in old buildings was the subject of considerable publicity throughout Australia in the electronic media (including one television programme that was screened nationally on two occasions and other local interviews and reports), as well as national, regional and local radio interviews and numerous articles in the printed media. Several tradesmen, including bricklayers, made contact as a result of this publicity and were aware of the practice of concealment solely because they had discovered objects in the course of their work. They had no knowledge of the history of this practice, and prior to my explanation of it, did not understand the significance of the objects they had found. There were no telephone calls or any other form of contact from stonemasons or Mark Master Masons in regard to this matter. Stonemasons were involved in the concealment of shoes and other objects in old Australian houses and buildings but while the association of individual tradesmen with Freemasonry is probable, and indeed highly likely, it cannot be said that the practice of concealment was part of any Masonic tradition.

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3.1.4 who concealed? A particular group of folk magic practitioners first attracted my attention as possible suspects in the concealment of objects in Australian houses. In England, they were frequently known as cunning folk but the names were subject to regional variation. Conjurers, wizards, wise man or wise woman and white witch were some of the titles attached to them. The services offered by individual members of this craft varied as widely as their titles. They claimed to be able to locate stolen property, identify thieves and future husbands, procure love, heal the sick, provide protective charms, cast horoscopes and unbewitch the bewitched. Cunning men and women were folk magics A 19th-century cunning woman, seen at work in this general practitioners, operating at a re-creation at the Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle. rural, village, town or suburban level for many centuries until the early 20th century.32 Among the many tasks performed by them were the identification of witches and the preparation of witch bottles, the process of which is discussed later in this chapter. Writing of cunning folk in 2003, Owen Davies said: a century ago everyone in rural society would have been familiar with the term and two hundred years ago the majority of the population, in both town and country, would have known of at least one cunning man or cunning woman.33 Davies recounts the story of Ann Tomlinson of Oldham who, having asked Clayton Chaffer to tell her fortune, was informed that her husband had been having an affair for six years. A charm prepared by Chaffer would make him one of the best of all husbands. For seven shillings Chaffer gave her a written charm sealed with different coloured wafers which she had to place next to her heart under her stays. There were herbs to put in her husbands tea and she was advised to burn his urine in the fire while saying the Lords prayer and reading certain parts of the Bible.34 Cunning folk employed a variety of methods to impress the gullible, extraordinary and outlandish garb being but one such device. A Yorkshire cunning woman of the 19th century used a stuffed lizard and papers and herbs strung from the ceiling. During consultations she wore a conical hat and a sheet scrawled with magical signs.35

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Other cunning folk, such as the several generations of the Harries family of Pantcoy, Wales, impressed and even terrified their clients with their extensive libraries of occult books. A book of spells, sealed with seven large padlocks, was said to give members of the family great power.36 The number of cunning folk operating in Britain at any time is not recorded although Thomas in Religion and the Decline of Magic suggests that at the turn of the 16th century they were comparable in number to the provincial clergy.37 It seems probable that some cunning folk would have been transported to Australia for one Dr. John Harries (18281863) of the well-known family of reason or another. If so, they appear to Welsh cunning folk in a circa 1855 ambrotype. (NMW) have vanished from sight when they reached here. The Norwich cunning woman Sarah Whisker, sentenced to transportation in 1846 for providing a potion to procure an abortion, died before she could be shipped to Australia.38 While no other cunning folk have yet been identified as candidates for transportation to Australia or as practitioners in this country, William Allison of New Norfolk, Tasmania, left a written record confirming that certain aspects of magical practice were known here. His notebook and almanac, now in the Tasmanian Archives, records the use of remedies that blend folk medicine and charms and suggest some acquaintance with magic.39 The almanac was Vox Stellarum by Francis Moore, Physician, published in London in 1811. Allison was overseer at the property of Lieutenant Arthur Davies, RN, and had accompanied his master to Australia. Both men arrived in Hobart from London aboard the Lang on 28/12/1828.40 By 1830, Allison was at the Davies property, The Lawn, five miles from New Norfolk.41 He appears to have been a client of cunning folk rather than a practitioner, recording the recipes in his book. One of these, provided by an apparent cunning man named Moses Jewell, was said to cure Streans, Bruises, sore Brests, Scalds, Burns, Cuts, Bruses, Rhumaticks, Pains, foot rot in sheep, Strains in Horses legs or wounds By hunting. This consisted of a gill of Neach foot oil (neatsfoot), an ounce of Oile of Camile, (camomile) and half a gill of Oil of Turpentine. The maker was instructed to heat the potion over a slow fire, bottle it warm & cork it Close. There is a faint echo in the heating and corking of this potion of the witch bottle recipe of Joseph Blagrave (see

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page 96). Another remedy, said to be a Sacred Charm for the Ague or Fever involved the recitation of the words Good Lord, deliver us thy Servants who putteth their Trust in the(e) Amen. This concluded with the standard invocation of the cunning man or woman: So be it. From Benjamin Knopes of McGills Marshes, Van Diemens Land, on 16 May 1832 Allison obtained a recipe to cure a Burn or Scald. This required: One Tablespoon of Slickd (slaked) Lime finely sifted Put in half a Pint of Linseed oil spread on cloth put on the Part.42 While there is an apparent lack of evidence to connect cunning men and women with Australian concealments, there are clear connections to building tradesmen in a number of concealed shoe discoveries. At Bathurst, NSW, a pair of late 19th-century boots found beneath the front room of a cottage in Russell Street are dusted with lime mortar and plaster, hinting at a concealment by either bricklayers or plasterers. In this case, the collusion of the carpenters who laid the floor over these boots is also indicated. The boots would have been in plain view of the carpenters engaged in constructing the floor or were perhaps placed there after the joists and bearers were in place but before the floor was laid. In either case, the concealment, and others like it, could not have been carried out without the full knowledge of the carpenters. These boots have the block heels that are typical of those worn by 19th-century stockmen, providing a glimpse into the pattern of employment in rural Australia at that time. Just as in the present day, it appears that rural workers of the period had to take employment where they could find it. Other shoes and boots suspected to be those of building tradesmen have also been found and can be readily identified from the images in the Catalogue of Finds (page 224). Larger-sized rugged and battered boots splashed with lime mortar, paint or plaster are probable indicators of trade work. Another indicator of trade concealments comes from the finds made in public buildings such as courthouses and police stations where the incentive and opportunity for outsiders to make the concealments would appear to be very low. An outstanding example of this is the childs boot found embedded in original fill in the southern approaches of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. (page 277). In spite of this link to building tradesmen, the majority of concealments do not have an apparent connection to the building trades, although this may be deceptive. In the absence of any contemporary documentary information, or indeed any other evidence, it is reasonable to surmise that at least some of these concealments may have been carried out by the people in residence in the houses where objects were placed. In the UK, other folk magic practices overlapped the concealment of objects in buildings. Among these was the use of apotropaic marks which, it appears, shared a common purpose with concealments. The principal investigator of these marks was, and remains, Timothy Easton of Suffolk.

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3.1.5 mysteries in the materials Careful examination of scribed and painted marks on stone, timber and plaster in a variety of old buildings in Suffolk and elsewhere in England from 1982 resulted in the independent architectural historian and artist Timothy A selection of building marks recorded by Timothy Easton. Easton concluding that he Some may be tally marks but most appear to be apotropaic in was looking at a record nature. These marks are common in old buildings throughout of belief in witchcraft and East Anglia and elsewhere in England. (Easton 1988). malevolent forces from the spiritual world. He set out his views on this matter in conversations during my visit to Bedfield Hall in 2006. Easton states that examination of a substantial number of buildings revealed patterns in the repetition of certain marks and their placement on the structures. Marks such as these are found in the same general areas as concealments. Some of these symbols have been deciphered but others retain their mystery. Eastons interest in old houses began at Meare Close, Tadworth, Surrey, a 17th century house in which he spent the first thirty years of his life. A previous owner, William Friswell, a landowner and gentleman farmer, had carried out a mid-19th century makeover in which crosses were carved on all of the doorways, fireplaces and cupboards. Easton was later to conclude that the marks had an apotropaic function and began to explore this phenomenon when he and his wife, Christine, bought their first home in Suffolk in 1972. This was a condemned row of three cottages, said to be 17th century, but which turned out to be one 14th-century house with an attached shop.43 The process of researching and restoring this structure confirmed Eastons decision to continue his research into old buildings. Further recording of marks on many other houses, including the one in which he currently lives, resulted in a steady accumulation of knowledge and insight into both the construction of ancient buildings and the lives of the people who had once lived in them. Among his discoveries were the mysterious marks found on his own houses and on other buildings in Suffolk and elsewhere in England: When we bought the house in the old market town of Debenham I was on the lookout for archaeological material and began to discover this in abundance. During the 1970s I recorded many of the buildings being restored in the town and in 1979 80 put on an exhibition called Behind the Facade in the 17th century Market Cross building. Much of the evidence of superstitious practices that I had observed was shown here.44

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Timothy Easton with the contents of spiritual middens, Cutcheys Farmhouse, Long Thurlow, Suffolk, 1989. The objects were recovered from two middens found next to a chimney in the parlour chamber. The middens were topped up by accessing the attic space over the parlour. Easton is holding the lid of a small 17th-century barrel bearing John Cutcheys name. Objects in the middens date from the 17th and 18th century. (Timothy Easton)

Easton has conducted research into the history and material culture of folk magic in East Anglia during the past four decades. In visits to old houses in the area since 1972 he has inspected a large number of concealment caches. In the process of this work, Easton has reached conclusions about the role of various groups of people in the numerous manifestations of magical practice that are found in East Anglia. Some of the groups identified by him are as follows:

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Professional practitioners

Semi-professionals

Tradesmen

Lay practitioners

Magicians who may have practised as doctors and who had an interest in alchemy. They may be responsible for the elaborate candle-smoke marks found in East Anglian houses from the second half of the 17th century. These ceilings generally appear in the houses of the lower gentry, which indicates that either the fees were not affordable for smaller house owners, or that these tasks were only performed for clients who were considered worthy. Cunning folk. Their role in rural, village and town life was to act on behalf of clients in all manner of problems that required supernatural power. Their tasks included the production of love potions and amulets, finding lost or stolen property, the preparation of witch bottles, the creation of charms and the casting of spells. Sometimes when their work misfired they found themselves accused of witchcraft by an aggrieved client. Carpenters, stonemasons, bricklayers, plasterers, thatchers etc. Tradesmen were responsible for the safety of the buildings they constructed by providing protection against lightning, weather, fire and supernatural forces. Householders who were one or more adult members of a family group who had acquired an understanding of the use of folk magic to protect their home and family. They secreted objects in sealed voids (as did the builders), or continually added personal items to open voids over several generations (usually from the roof area) as a lure into spirit traps. These areas could also contain dead animals, dead birds or skeletal material which had been deliberately selected to act as a sacrifice or for their protective powers.45

This categorisation helps to identify the groups of people who were involved in concealments and in the variety of protective practices found in Britain. Easton coined the term spiritual midden to describe that category of concealment created by householders over a period of time: It is necessary to distinguish the spiritual midden, which was an offering by the householder, from the builders deposit. The latter usually have only a few objects collected together, which perhaps represent what was to hand when the boards of an inserted floor were nailed down. These objects appear to have been deposited out of self-interest rather than for the occupiers wellbeing.

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Verbal evidence from builders working in small family firms in the 1950s records that this was a tradition passed from father to son and kept secret from customers and their own labourers. The term spiritual midden has been misunderstood and wrongly applied to all types of caches, such as those under floors and plastered in walls. These can be done by workmen or the householder and possibly by a collusion of both groups acting together. The spiritual midden is very specific in that it refers to an access point where large numbers of objects can accumulate over many years, s ometimes over generations, that is not closed off at the top. It is a sort of rubbish pit, but with a very specific ritual and spiritual purpose. The great advantage of analysing these over other sorts of depositions is the chance to give a clearer idea of who was doing what, because the builders secretions were necessarily a one-off action at the time of construction and so had fewer items. The spiritual midden therefore had to be a spirit trap which was ever open and so purely for the use of the occupants.46 The use of the terms spiritual midden and apotropaic marks stimulated interest in practices of which very few people were aware until comparatively recently. These terms were first promulgated in England by Easton in about 1990 and have since gained a place in the language. Easton ties the introduction of both terms to a talk he gave twenty years ago, at a time when architects, historians and others in the heritage community focused on buildings as artifacts but neglected the lives of the people who built and occupied them: It was at the winter conference of the Vernacular Architecture Group before 1991, shared with the Regional Furniture Society, that I first coined these terms and which led to a new interest amongst members in looking out for apotropaic items, marks and concealed objects. When I used the term apotropaic in conjunction with illustrations of scribed and painted symbols it was as if a light bulb of 1000 watts had been switched on. There were several curators of National Trust Houses and Museums who began to quote and illustrate this word (using newly discovered symbols of their own), which was new to most of them, despite it having been around since the ancient Greeks.47 In discussions during visits to his home at Bedfield, Suffolk, in 2002 and 2006 and in a number of articles published since he began this research, Easton described the two main categories of apotropaic marks he has found. One group of marks is related to Christian worship, and often linked specifically to the Virgin Mary, and the other makes use of marks that originate in magic rituals. These two poles of belief are called into

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play in houses and other buildings in many areas of the United Kingdom. These marks have been found on joinery, masonry, plaster walls and ceilings and on furniture. The period in which they are found dates from as early as the 14th century through to the 18th century. They also occur in the United States.48 Christian marks are usually based on invocations to Mary and persist until well after the Reformation was supposed to have quelled Catholic belief and worship. It is surprising to find these marks in East Anglia as it has long been considered the seat of Puritan sympathy and sentiment. The marks in question include interlinked double Vs, for example V V . In these, the central upright arms of the letters cross over one another. This mark is believed to represent the Latin words Virgo Virginum which translates as Virgin of Virgins. The popular Marian prayer, the Memorare, attributed to Father Claude Bernard (1558-1641) contains the phrase I fly to thee, Mary, virgin of virgins, mother of Jesus Christ in the edition of the Coeleste Palmetum of 1741.49 While it cannot be said whether this text was generally available in England, the letters VV were widely used on buildings in that country during the 17th and 18th centuries. It is now apparent that this symbol had an even older origin. Together with other marks of an apotropaic nature, it appears on the wall outside an entrance to the chapel at Krak des Chevaliers, a Crusader castle of the Knights Hospitallers Apotropaic symbolism at the entrance to the in Syria. I saw and photographed this and chapel at Krak des Chevaliers, Syria. From the top, the VV mark, the words Ave Maria other apotropaic marks during a visit to and a pentagram. The daisy wheel symbol the castle in May 2010. Because Krak des was also used in this building. Chevaliers was abandoned by the Crusaders in the 13th century and thereafter was occupied by members of the Muslim faith until the 1930s the double V and other marks would have been inscribed on the entrance to the chapel prior to the Crusader withdrawal on 7 April 1271.50 A full 200 years after the Reformation began, someone scratched two interlocking Vs at the entrance to John Schorns Church, St Marys, at North Marston, Buckinghamshire, and then placed the date, 1737, next to them. I saw and photographed An apotropaic mark of 1737 at the entrance to St Marys these marks in April 2006. The Church, North Marston, Buckinghamshire. use of the double V indicates

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that the old religion had survived in the heart of the country despite efforts to erase it from England. In the same category as the interlocking Vs are the letters AMR which it is suggested stand for the Latin Ave Maria Regina which translates as Hail, Queen Mary. It is not clear whether the people who used religious marks are also responsible for those marks which stand apart from literacy and which appear to invoke entirely different forces. Among these are the stylised outline forms of spectacles that have been scribed into timbers in roof cavities in such a way that they would be visible only to spiritual beings passing over the landscape. Spectacle marks have been interpreted by Easton as an effort to deflect the evil eye. The most widely used of the non-literary marks is the so-called daisy wheel which consists of a circle scribed onto the surface of timber, plaster or stone. Within the circle is a group of arcs resembling the shape of petals. These are often Elaborate daisy wheels, Litcham, incomplete and so are believed to make a statement Norfolk. (Matthew Champion). on the imperfection of the nature of man and by inference of the beauty and perfection of God and his work. This deferential attitude by itself can be seen as another form of invocation to the Creator. Other marks are less transparent in their nature: runic shapes, circles and scratches which are not yet understood.51 Many of these marks have been visible for centuries, others have been revealed during the course of recent building work in which later layers of materials were removed. In both cases, seeing Two overlapping marks on roof the marks is not the same as understanding them. It cavity timbers, Kew Palace, is clear, however, that their purpose has puzzled and London. (HRP). intrigued people for a very long time. Charles Godfrey Leland wrote to Folklore magazine in 1897 from Florence to ask about the marks he had initially noticed being scratched by women supplicants on ancient buildings in Egypt. These, he was told, were made by women hoping to become mothers. But he found something equally puzzling on his return to Europe: I often found similar markings on stones, and they were invariably on buildings, market crosses, and similar monuments which had been erected previous to the fifteenth century. I found them in England, Germany, and Normandy. His curiosity aroused, Leland closely examined the European marks and noted some distinguishing characteristics:

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It is specially to be observed that these marks all have a generic character or family likeness, that they generally occur in groups, and, thirdly, that they are only found on ancient buildings. Leland called for research into the use of marks on old buildings: What is of equal importance will be to ascertain whether there exists in written or oral records any proof of such a custom or belief in Europe, and what details or circumstances are connected with it.52 The readers of Folklore offered no response to Lelands enquiry and it was not until the late 20th century that serious notice was taken of this phenomenon. As a result of research conducted since the early 1970s, Easton and other British researchers have concluded that the purpose of the marks was to provide protection from evil. These marks are now described as apotropaic and most commonly occur in the same location patterns within buildings: at doorways or windows, on chimney breasts and in roof cavities.53 There is an echo in the placement of the marks, and in the location of concealed objects, in the ancient Greek and Roman regard for the god and goddess of the threshold, crossroads and other liminal spaces from which it was thought that danger might spring. These were Janus, the two-faced god of entrances and beginnings, and Hecate, who protected borders and crossroads. To the ancient Greeks and Romans these were places that possessed supernatural power and therefore required divine protection. Spirits hovered around these places because they were voids in the continuum neither in one place nor the other. W. Warde Fowler in his Religious Experience of the Roman People refers to the belief that the door of a house was a danger zone: because evil spirits or the ghosts of the dead may gain access to the house through it.54 S.I. Johnston in Crossroads says that magic was often performed at thresholds as these were places where souls or ghosts gathered.55 Apotropaic marks occur in the same positions on buildings as do concealments of shoes, garments, cats and other items in old buildings in the United Kingdom and in old Australian buildings. It appears that the use of these marks was limited in Australia. While no systematic investigation of Australian buildings to determine whether apotropaic marks are found in this country has yet been carried out, they do not appear to have been used here in any significant number. At the present time, I am aware of four locations where these occur. A form of the daisy wheel was found in the foyer of the old Windsor Council Chambers on The mark above is on the Brisbanes north side. The mark appears to be a purposewall, inside the entrance to made rendition of this motif, created in cement render just the former Windsor Council inside the entrance. The building was constructed in 1897 Chambers, Brisbane.

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by William Parsons, of whom nothing further is known.56 I found another, with a clear resemblance to English marks, in the 1851 stables at Shene, near Bagdad, Tasmania. Others occur at Lewisham, Tasmania, and at Collingwood, Victoria. Other categories of marks that have been interpreted in Britain as apotropaic include burn marks made with rush lights on fireplace lintels, and candle smoke marks on ceilings. Easton believes the The daisy wheel mark in the stables at Shene, candle smoke marks were made by Tasmania. (Steve Watts). taking a candle to the village church, lighting it from the holy flame and carefully carrying it to the house where the smoke from the candle was used to draw symbols on the ceilings.57 Apotropaic marks are found at perimeter entry points to a house and in those places in or near the building where food was stored, prepared or consumed and in buildings where farm animals were housed. Marks have been found Rushlight burn marks on a fireplace lintel at the old on kitchen ceilings, in Guildhall, Lavenham, Suffolk. barns and on dairy doors. Many of the marks are quite faint and can only be distinguished with the aid of an oblique light. Others have been gouged out with a rase knife. These have a blade which has a scoop or hook at the end and are commonly used for marking outlines of patterns and designs. Rase knives are used by carpenters and shipwrights, providing yet another link between building tradesmen and a practice which is not connected to anything that makes logical sense to the third millennium mind. But while most people now scoff at ancient beliefs relating to witchcraft, the thread of fear survives to the present day in parts of rural England. In East Anglia, Easton found a man and wife whose house concealed a secret: Rase knife. (Wynn Timmins)

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The couple who found the witch bottle in their hearth allowed a TV programme to be made (with contributions from Professor Ronald Hutton, Brian Hoggard, myself and others) but would not themselves appear. When all was completed they filmed a back view of the couple, desperately holding hands as a robed priest exorcised the unknown spirits while surrounded by lighted candles. The bottle was cemented in with the distinct intention that it should not be recovered. I could tell you countless stories like this.58

3.1.6 protection: d.i.y. or call in the professionals? A network of legislation and social welfare protects individuals in western societies today but life was very different before a raft of safety nets was created by government and community organisations during the 20th century. As a result, we have laws that protect us from fraud, defamation, libel, assault, sexual harassment, stalking and many other practices that were common for centuries. We can telephone for an ambulance, the fire brigade or the police at any time of the day or night and be sure that they will respond. None of these safeguards to our lives, security, health and welfare existed until comparatively recently. Before then, individual members of society and families were at the mercy of a variety of forces that threatened them. Self-reliance was essential for survival.59 In latemediaeval and early modern Britain people employed a variety of methods, devices and practitioners of magic to protect themselves from the supernatural and evil forces that they believed swirled around them in the invisible underworld where spirits, witches, demons and devils colluded against them. One of the devices used for personal protection against evil forces was the witch bottle. These objects were supposed to work by means of a sympathetic connection between the urine in the bottle and the contents of the witchs bladder. With the bottle stopped up and subjected to heat the power of the magic would rebound against the witch who had sought to do harm. He or Witch bottles from Abbotts Inn, she would suffer excruciating urinary tract Hampshire. (HCCMAS). pain. The use of a witch bottle was believed to be a way of identifying the person who had cast a spell on you. Unlike garments, shoes and other personal items concealed within buildings which, it seems, were intended as passive decoys to lure evil forces away from the occupants, witch bottles were designed to mount a counterattack, making them an offensive weapon in the war against witches.

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Joseph Blagrave of Reading (1610 c.1682), an astrologer and herbalist, wrote in his Astrological Practice of Physick in 1671 that the intention was to afflict the witch, causing the evil to return back upon them. Unlike other objects found in building concealments, witch bottles have left their mark in the documentary archive. At a time when levels of literacy were very low, many centuries passed without a single written word about the placement in buildings of shoes, garments, domestic artifacts or cats.60 But the witch bottle comes complete: this object has an explanation of its purpose and a description of the process of manufacture. There are also numerous eyewitness accounts of events that surrounded the use of witchbottles. The best-known description of the purpose and manufacture of a witch bottle was Joseph Blagrave, a portrait from provided by Blagrave who outlined what to do when Blagraves Introduction to Astrology, 1682. (WL) an illness was thought to be due to witchcraft: ...stop the urine of the Patient close up in a bottle, and put into it three nails, pins or needles, with a little white salt, keeping the urine always warm: if you let it remain long in the bottle it will endanger the witchs life, for I have found by experience that they will be grievously tormented, making their water with great difficulty, if any at all, and the more if the Moon be in Scorpio...61 It is not difficult to find evidence of these instructions being put into practice. Jason Semmens, assistant curator at the museum at Horsham, Sussex, a graduate student in history at the University of Exeter and the author of several books on Cornish folklore, has recorded a description, clearly based on Blagraves instructions, of the use of a witch bottle in Cornwall in 1701. At St. Merryn, near Padstow, Thomasine Leverton had consulted a local cunning man about her fears that illness during her pregnancy was being caused by someone who wished ill of her. The unknown local conjurer wrote the following prescription which is now in the Cornwall Record Office: For Thamson Leverton on Saturday next being the 17th of this Instant September a ny time that day take about a pint of your owne Urine and make it almost scalding hot then Emtie it into a stone Jugg with a narrow Mouth then put into it so Much white Salt as you can take up with the Thumb and two forefingers of your lift hand and three new nails with their points downwards, their points being first made very sharp then stop the mouth of the Jugg very

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close with a piece of Tough cley and bind a piece of Leather firm over the stop then put the Jugg into warm Embers and keep him there 9 or 10 days and nights following so that it go not s tone cold all that mean time day nor night and your private Enemies will n ever after have any power upon you either in 62 Body or Goods, So be it. A century later witch bottles were still used to deal with suspected cases of evildoing by witches. In 1808 when several young women in Great Paxton, Cambridgeshire, fell ill with convulsions the father of one of them used a witch bottle to identify the person who had caused the harm: He filled a bottle with a particular kind of fluid, stuffed the cork, both top and bottom, with pins, set it carefully in an oven of a moderate heat, and then observed a profound silence. In a few minutes the charm succeeded; for, he saw a variety of forms flitting, before his eyes, and amongst the rest the perfect resemblance of an old woman who lived in the same parish.63 The use of witch bottles was not limited to the provinces. The Old Bailey in London also heard similar accounts based either on Blagraves writing or on what may have been knowledge shared by cunning men and women of the time. When Jane Kent, a woman of about 60, appeared on 1 June 1682 on an indictment of witchcraft, she was said to have caused the death of a five-year-old girl. The girls father had sold her two pigs but refused to hand them over until payment had been received. When his daughter became ill he went to see Dr. Hainks of Spittle-Fields who advised him to: ... take a quart of his Wives water, the pairing of her Nails, some of her Hair, and such like, and boyl them, which he did, in a Pipkin, at which time he Swore he heard the Prisoners voice at his door, and that she Screimed out as if she were Murdered, and that the next day she appeared to be much swelled and bloated.64 Another Cornish example, dating from the early 20th century, was found at Padstow in 1934 during renovations to the kitchen of a shop. Builders discovered a cod-liver oil bottle, with a label that dated it to the early years of the century, in the chimney. Eight slightly bent pins had been stuck in the cork and the bottle contained a malodorous brown liquid, thought to have been decayed urine.65 An account of village use of a witch bottle, also seemingly based on Blagraves description of the manufacturing process, is recorded in the journal of the Folklore Society in 1905. The Misses Beatrix Wherry and Hermione Jenkins reported on an interview with an anonymous woman who described how the illness of her niece had been dealt with by her brother in a Cambridgeshire village, also unnamed. The article is entitled A Cambridgeshire Witch:

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There was my brothers little girl Florry as was very ill. They lived over at T. There was a witch there, Miss. Well, they put the childs illness down to her. So my brother he got a bottle and filled it with water and put in some of the childs hair and a lot of other things as I cant remember, then they corked it up and put it on the fire to boil. Then when the bottle burst that would hurt the witch.66 Other texts on witch bottles are by Cotton Mather (1663 1728), New England Puritan minister, in his Late Memorable Occurrences of 1691 and Joseph Glanvill, (1636 1680) the English writer, philosopher and clergyman, in Sadducisumus Triumphatus in 1681. Several witch bottles have been found in the United States. Dr. Marshall Becker of West Chester University of Pennsylvania has recorded six in the northeastern states. Dating from the 18th and early 19th centuries, the bottles were in areas originally occupied by British settlers. The finds were at Essington and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Lewes, Delaware, Horn Point, Maryland, Providence, Rhode Island and Virginia Beach, Virginia. Four of the bottles appear to date from the 18th century with two possibly falling into the early 19th century.67 In making a witch bottle, the container of choice in 17th century England was a stoneware jug of a type known as a bellarmine. Commonly used to serve ale at inns, most of these originated in Germany and Holland and were decorated on the neck with a stern image said, perhaps erroneously, to be that of Cardinal Roberto Bellarmino (1542 1621), the interrogator of Galileo. After about 1700 glass bottles of various shapes and sizes were more commonly used. The folk magic researcher Brian Hoggard surveyed 661 museums, galleries, archaeological units and individuals throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2003 and found that in England alone 187 witch bottles were held in collections. The total found is now thought to be more than 200. Their distribution is largely concentrated in the south-east, particularly in East Anglia, London, and from Hampshire to Kent. They are also found in Cornwall, as we have seen, and in Worcestershire and as far north as Yorkshire.68 In London, witch bottles have been found in the Thames, in the bed of an old mill stream and in ditches in what were then rural or semi-rural locations. Most of these date from the midto late 17th century, although dating these objects is an uncertain science. There is an apparent difference between witch bottle placements in the capital and those found in, for example, East Anglia. There, witch bottles are commonly found buried, often quite deeply, beneath the hearth rather than in rivers, streams or rural locations. Most witch bottles are buried upside down, presumably to keep the cork moist and prolong the life of the spell. When found, the contents are generally an aggregation A bellarmine witch of rusted and decayed objects, clustered around the neck of the bottle. (BA) bottle.69

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Some of the more recent witch bottle finds have been examined by Dr Alan Massey, a retired lecturer in chemistry at Loughborough University. The discovery of an intact witch bottle beneath a shop at 52 Greenwich Church Street, Greenwich, in 2004, on a site owned by the Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College, provided Dr. Massey with the opportunity for thorough examination and analysis of an object of a type that had often been dealt with by amateurs. In those cases, the cork is removed, the contents tipped out to provide immediate satisfaction of the finders curiosity and the dirty bottle washed for display to friends and acquaintances. The Greenwich bottle, when shaken, rattled and sloshed. Computed tomography scans showed it to be half-filled with liquid, which later analysis proved to be human urine. The bottle also contained bent nails and pins, a nail-pierced leather heart, fingernail clippings, and what may have been navel fluff and hair. The presence of iron sulphide in the mixture suggested that sulphur (i.e. brimstone) had been added.70 The magazine British Archaeology described the study of this bottle in an article published in 2009: Liquid was drawn through the cork of the Greenwich bottle with a longneedled s yringe. Complex chemical studies that included recording a proton nuclear m agnetic resonance spectrum, and then gas chromatography/mass spectrometry a nalysis of organic acids by Richard Cole (Leicester Royal Infirmary) and inorganic analysis by Helen Taylor (British Geological Survey), allow Massey t o say that the liquid is unequivocally human urine. P ast claims for urine in witch bottles have rested solely on inorganic material.

Above left, the well-manicured fingernails found in the Greenwich witch bottle. Above right, the contents of the bottle immediately after it was opened. (BA, Dr. Alan Massey and GF: also image on following page).

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A scan of the Greenwich witch bottle reveals some of the contents.The cluster in the neck of the bottle is the result of it being buried upside down, thus keeping the cork damp.

Cole identified cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine: the urine had been passed by a smoker (probably of a clay pipe). Acting on a hunch, Massey tested a black solid in the urine, and showed it to be iron sulphide. It is virtually certain, he says, that sulphur in the jar had reacted with the iron nails. In other words, the bottle contained brimstone, recalling the passage in Revelations when the beast and the false prophet were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. Scientists then removed the cork, which disintegrated, and the rest of the contents: 12 iron nails, eight brass pins (one very severely corroded), quantities of hair, a piece of leather pierced by a bent nail, which might just be described as heart-like (paralleling cloth hearts found in other witch bottles), 10 fingernail parings (not from a manual worker, but a person of some social standing) and what could be navel fluff.71 It would be astonishing to find a bellarmine witch bottle in Australia but one made from an ordinary bottle or glass jar would be within the bounds of possibility. There is more than a centurys overlap between the European settlement of Australia and the witch bottles found in England in the early years of the 20th century. Knowledge of witch bottles would have been carried here with convicts and settlers but we have no evidence that they used this information in Australia. The bottle found at Brooklyn, NSW, and now unfortunately lost, is perhaps an example of a more recent occurrence of counterwitchcraft. Other, earlier, witch bottles may await discovery in Australia.

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The profusion of descriptions of the manufacture and use of witch bottles contrasts with the secrecy and dearth of documentation associated with concealments in building voids, the implication being that the concealment ritual carried great fear.

3.1.7 putting it in writing: charms and curses Charms and curses employ the written word and symbols that are thought to have magical power to provide protection or to attack an enemy. If a societys instruments of justice could not be employed on behalf of its citizens an appeal to divine patrons might offer better hope of redress. The powers of magic were available to all, sometimes with the assistance of people who provided a service by invoking spiritual forces from the other world. The motives are usually malign and their expression violent. They may seek, for example, to wreck an opponents chariot in the circus, to compel a person to submit to sex or to take revenge on a thief. Curse tablets, written on paper or scribed into small sheets of lead or alloys, were known as defixio in Latin and katadesmos in Greek.72 Defixio derives from the verb defigere which is to fix, to fasten or to nail down, thus expressing one of the functions of the curse, to fix its victim and prevent them from carrying out certain tasks or physical functions. Katadesmos derives from the verb katadein, to tie up or bind down. These objects appear in contemporary texts, including those of Pliny the Elder, who wrote in the first century AD: there is no one who does not fear to be spellbound by imprecations.73 Such fear extended to the highest levels of ancient society. In AD 19 Germanicus, adopted son and heir to the emperor Tiberius, died in suspicious circumstances. Germanicus himself, according to the historian, Tacitus, believed that he had been put under a spell. Examination of the house revealed evidence of the magic that slew him: ... explorations of the floor and walls brought to light the remains of human bodies, spells, curse tablets, leaden tablets engraved with the name Germanicus, charred and blood-smeared ashes and others of the implements of witchcraft by which it is believed that the living soul can be devoted to the powers of the underworld.74 Curse tablets are thought to date from 600 BC or earlier. Many Roman tablets have been discovered in Britain. Major finds have been made in the City of Bath, Somerset, where more than 100 have been discovered at the sacred spring of Sul-Minerva, and at the village of Uley, in Gloucestershire, where 80 curse tablets were discovered during excavations of a temple dedicated to Mercury. Others have been found at Lydney, Gloucestershire, Brean Down, southwest of Bristol, Pagans Hill, south of Bristol, Caerleon, Wales, Chesterton, Warwickshire, Leintwardine, Herefordshire, Leicester, Leicestershire, and in London.75

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These objects have been investigated by the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents at Oxford under a research project initiated by the British Academy and the results placed on the Internet. Curses were originally for the eyes of gods alone, but digital publication now disseminates them more widely, allowing a large group of people to study the ancient world through their evidence. Curses were typically scratched on very thin sheets of lead or lead alloy that were then rolled, folded, or pierced with nails. The piercing was intended to fix or set the curse. The finished tablets were usually placed beneath the ground: buried in graves or tombs, thrown into wells, springs or streams, or otherwise nailed to the walls of temples. Many of these objects have survived because they were scratched onto lead, a durable material under the right circumstances, and then placed in tombs or an underground location both factors that contribute to their survival and make them liable to discovery by archaeologists. Graveyards were seen as points of intersection between this world and the underworld and tombs were regarded as postboxes where messages could be conveyed to the dead. Although lead has a long life in ideal conditions, its location in wells, tombs and other subsurface locations can result in severe deterioration. Tablets recovered from these sites are often in poor condition with the surface of the lead having oxidised, corroded and fissured. Usually the ends of the folded sheet and the outer surfaces are worst affected, but the poor condition of the main written surfaces can make the curse illegible. The tablets are difficult to unfold or unroll without causing irreversible damage to the brittle, corroded metal. As the corrosion products are toxic and can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin, curse tablets contain a noxious power above and beyond that which was originally intended.76 Unlike many historic documents which have recorded the names of the great and the musings of ancient philosophers, curse tablets bring to life the troubles of ordinary men and women. They give us the words of people on the margins of ancient society women, provincials, and slaves. Somewhere in the period AD 150 to AD 275 someone named Honoratus scratched an appeal to the god Mercury into the surface of a lead tablet found at Uley: I complain to your divinity that I have lost two wheels and four cows and many small belongings from my house. I would ask the genius of your divinity that you do not allow health to the person who has done me wrong, nor allow him to lie or sit or drink or eat, whether he is man or woman, whether boy or girl, whether slave or free, unless he brings my property to me and is reconciled with me. With renewed prayers I ask your divinity that my petition may immediately make me vindicated by your majesty.77

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The Roman curse from Telegraph Street, London, requests unpleasant consequences for Tretia Maria. Seven nails were used to pierce it a procedure which may have been intended to increase the power of the curse. (BM P&EE 1934 11-5 1).

Another, undated, Roman curse was found in Telegraph Street in the City of London in 1934. Now in the British Museum, it invokes a curse which may have been intended to silence a blackmailer: I curse Tretia Maria and her life and mind and liver and lungs mixed up together and her words thought and memory thus may she be unable to speak the things that are secret. The tablet is pierced with seven nails, driven through from the reverse.78 Many centuries after this curse was made, someone at Wilton Place near Dymock, Gloucestershire, put a curse on one Sarah Ellis. Her name is written backwards, as is sometimes the case with Roman curses, on a lead tablet found in 1892 in the cupboard of an old house. The curse is adorned with astrological symbols associated with the moon and invokes the Supreme Daemon of the Moon, Hosmodai, and other spirit names, before cursing Sarah Ellis: make this person to Banish away from this place and countery amen to my desire amen.79 The use of text in a mixture of Latin and Greek links this tablet with those made by Romano-British people more than 1,500 years before. These often drew on a magical vocabulary or voces mysticae and mystical symbols resembling letters, series of repeated vowels, the writing of the alphabet and names of deities and terms for divine attributes from the religions of the eastern Mediterranean. This magical gibberish, replicated on the Wilton Place curse tablet, served to lend the text a mysterious or arcane aura, but it was perhaps also thought that the gods and spirits understood this language.80 The fact that the Wilton Place message was scratched onto a tablet of lead is another link to the ancient rituals practiced in the Roman period. While Roman gods are no longer invoked, an appeal is made to other supernatural forces in a world beyond human reach or understanding. Astrological symbols were also used on charms written on paper which, rather than calling evil upon an enemy, were intended to provide protection often for a farmer, his cattle and farm. Charms on paper reflect the same reliance on mystical and mythical beings and astrological symbols as curses. Clearly

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the product of a professional in their field, written charms often mingle Latin and Greek text to impress gullible clients. They may be found where they were slipped into gaps in masonry or the timbers of a barn or farmhouse, or placed in bottles within the walls. Some charm texts are enciphered and reading them requires cryptographic skills. Merrifield, in The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, describes rites performed in rural areas of Wales in the early 20th century by cunning men who specialized in providing charms for local farmers.81 Charms and curses of the modern period, with their conjectural links to the magic of the Roman invaders of Britain, raise the possibility of an ancient lineage for other ritual practices that survived in that country until well after the European occupation of Australia. As grudges and enmities were as much a part of life in 18th and 19th century Australia as anywhere else it is possible that written curses and charms may have been used here although none has yet been recorded. 2.2 conclusion Deliberately concealed objects have been widely found in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, North America and, more recently, in Australia. The pattern of concealments elsewhere adheres closely to the situation uncovered in Australia: shoes are well-worn, most commonly singles, often the footwear of children, and typically found in association with fireplaces, chimneys and liminal spaces such as doors, windows, subfloor areas or roof cavities. They were placed beyond the reach of daily household life. This close adherence to a formulaic process of concealment, without evidence of any contemporary document, appears to suggest a powerful and durable oral tradition. Finds of concealed shoes date from the 13th century through to the 20th century. The 13th century English cleric John Schorn appears to have given this practice impetus with his legendary feat of casting the Devil into a boot. While the custom has been associated with building tradesmen and folk magic practitioners of various kinds there appears to be no known connection with Freemasonry. Other devices associated with evil spiritual forces include witch bottles and apotropaic The interior of the former Crusader chapel marks. Apotropaic marks have been widely at Krak des Chevaliers, Syria, after conversion to a mosque. In The Monuments found in the United Kingdom and Ireland of Syria, page 187, Ross Burns dates this building to post 1171. and, notably, in a Crusader castle, Krak des

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Chevaliers, in Syria. Because the Krak was taken by Islamic forces the apotropaic marks found on the wall adjacent to the entrance to the chapel can be dated to before the date of the fall: 7 April 1271. Apotropaic marks and text thus shown to have been extant before this date include the so-called daisy wheel, the linked double Vs representing Virgin of Virgins, the pentagram and the words Ave Maria. While the mark now commonly known as the daisy wheel is an ancient Syrian motif its use in traditional architecture of the area is very different to that seen at the Krak des Chevaliers. Apotropaic marks are now beginning to be The mark generally known as the daisy found in Australia. wheel one of a cluster of marks found at Witch bottles have been identified at various locations, notably the south-east of England and in the north-eastern United States. None has yet been found in Australia.
the entrance to the chapel, Krak des Chevaliers, in northern Syria. The occupation of the Krak by Islamic forces in the late 13th century indicates that the marks were in use prior to this period.

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FOUR: SECRETS IN THE VOID

abstract

he following text closely examines the circumstances of a concealment in Dawes Point, Sydney, as a case study to determine how much information can be derived from objects and the environment in which they are found. The role of cats in concealments is analysed and oral history dating from circa 1917 provides an understanding of the purpose of concealments taking place in Devon at that time.

4.1 case study: analysis of a concealment

I have closely examined the concealment of a shoe and part of a lace collar in an 1830s

masonry house of Colonial Regency design on the western side of Lower Fort Street, in the Sydney suburb of Dawes Point. These objects were tucked behind a lath and plaster wall, thus making this a possible plasterers concealment. The discovery of the objects by the student son of the owner during the course of cleaning up after builders had been at work in the attic space gave me my first example of an Australian concealment. A close look at this find also serves to demonstrate the information that is available from objects that are ostensibly mute. The information available No. 37 Lower Fort Street, Dawes is of two types: that which is embodied in the Point. The arrow indicates the location of the cache. (Ray Stevens) material, manufacture, form, style and quality of the object and that which is embedded in it by the processes of wear and tear, use and misuse, and by the effects of the environment in which it was placed and the period of time in which it occupied that space. Embodied information may suggest when, and possibly where, the article was made and indicate the status and income level of the owner. Embedded effects on an object can suggest the length of the period in which it was used before concealment. Although far from being a precise measuring aid, wear and tear and repairs may serve as a guide to the prosperity or otherwise of the person or family involved and to the socio-economic circumstances prevailing. Garments, shoes and artifacts are often dateable objects. Fashion and style are great aids to the researcher as they provide an indication of the period in which an item

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was manufactured. Other stories can be derived from the materials from which the objects were made. By cross-matching this information with land title data and, where available, census returns, directories of residents and other documentary sources, it is sometimes possible to identify the family in residence at the time of the concealment. Thus, old shoes can be said to encapsulate the biographies of their wearers. The records that can be consulted are more numerous in the period 1850 1930 but this research is still possible for the earlier period, particularly in Australias larger cities. In some cases the names of individual members of a family can be ascertained, raising the possibility of identifying the person who first owned a concealed shoe or garment. The small cache at 37 Lower Fort Street was found in a void shaped like a rightangle triangle. The location of the find was in the front northeastern corner of the building, close to the front wall of the house and to the party wall between No. 37 and the adjacent house on the northern side. The base of the void consisted of the lath and plaster ceiling of the room beneath, with part of the The construction of a lath and plaster wall. from Advanced area being the top of the front Building Construction, plate 359, p212. Wet plaster is pressed into the gaps between the laths as it is spread over masonry wall and the timber the surface, creating keys that hold the material in place. lining to the overhang.

PLASTERED BRICK PARTY WALL

STUB WALL (LATH & PLASTER) BREACH

The storeroom near the corner of the roof cavity where the cache was found. This room has a hatch that opens into the roof cavity. The ceiling slopes down towards the Fort Street frontage of the building and is now timber lined. The lath and plaster stub wall was breached on the right-hand side and it was through this aperture that Nicholas White entered to vacuum out the residue of more than 170 years of dust and soot. The cache was in the left-hand corner behind the stub wall. (Michael McCowage)

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PARTY WALL

CACHE

The area of the building beyond the lath and plaster stub wall. This image was taken in the north-east corner of the house. The shoe and lace collar were buried in a thick layer of dust and soot which had infiltrated the roof cavity, rising almost to the top of the joists. (Michael McCowage)

The upright length of the void standing at right angles to the base was formed of a lath and plaster stub wall that sealed off an otherwise useless and confined space at the perimeter of the roof cavity. The upper part of the void the sloping plane of the triangle consisted of the corrugated galvanized steel roofing. Both objects were in a space between two of the joists from which the ceiling of the room beneath depended. The shoe from this cache is the ankle boot of a small child and dates from before 1850. It was made for the left foot and measures 130mm long. The lacework is half of a womans lace collar and is of a style popular in the period from 1850 to 1865, according to Lindie Ward and Rosemary Shepherd, curators at Sydneys Powerhouse Museum.1 Narrowing down the date of this collar is difficult as styles remained constant for some years. Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey (1981) by Alison Gernshein has two photographs of similar collars, including one of Queen Victoria with the Prince Consort by J.E. Mayall in 1861.

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ANATOMY OF A CONCEALMENT

Sketch by Michael McCowage

RAFTERS

PARTY WALL

HATCH ACCESS TO ROOF CAVITY: 915 X 330MM CACHE

BACK OF LATH AND PLASTER FRONT WALL

JOISTS

LOWER FORT STREET

In this view, the roof covering has been removed to show the north-east corner of the house as it was when the objects were concealed. The site of the concealment is indicated. Entry to the roof cavity was through the hatch. The person who made the concealment, assuming it was not done during roof replacement, had to balance on top of the joists, then stoop down and crawl across the top of the joists through a very confined space. The red line shows the way from the hatch to the cache. Stepping onto the surface of the lath and plasterwork would have been a risky and probably a damaging move. Headroom in the location of the cache went from a maximum of 500mm to nil. The cache was in a cavity that, while accessible to a degree, was not welcoming to human visitors. The find of half of a pair of shoes and half a lace collar raises interesting questions which cannot be answered at this time. It is possible that the other half of the collar may have been concealed but was sucked into the vacuum cleaner unrecognised. Equally, it may be that only half of the original whole collar was concealed, the other part being retained and thus forming a contract.

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The boot is nicely made of woollen fabric with a toecap of patent leather or kid. June Swann believes that it dates from 1830 to the early 1840s.2 Three loops, trimmed with a fabric that may once have been green, have holes through which faceted buttons of black Bohemian glass provided fastening over the small foot inside. This is a smart and wellmade item, crafted for the middle-class market, and it would not have been cheap. There is nothing to tell us if it had been manufactured in the Colony of NSW or whether it made the long voyage from England. But it does say something about the people who bought it and their lives in the Sydney of the 1830s and 1840s. This is not a concealment initiated by a laborer or junior clerk. The boot is suitable for a child of eighteen months to two years old or perhaps a little older as people were smaller then. At that stage of life a childs feet grow quickly and shoes did not fit for long. But this particular The Dawes Point boot: well-worn and much-used, item is well worn, suggesting useage by it may have a poignant history. a number of children. It was therefore either passed down through members of a family or else, as still happens today, handed on to the children of friends or other family members. Handing down is not something that necessarily happens immediately the first child stops wearing a pair of shoes. When shoes are kept within the original family, passing down from one child to the next, the process can take a number of years, perhaps to be then repeated in another family until the shoes are beyond the use for which they were made. Concealment is the ultimate end use for an old shoe, which in the process of repeated family connections, may have been considered to have gained in spiritual power. It follows from all of this therefore that the family to which this particular shoe belonged was not so well off that it could afford new footwear for a child who would not be wearing it for long. These were people who were aware of the value of their money and were certainly not reckless with it but who, in the very first place, bought a stylish pair of shoes for a child who was very precious to them. The quality of this object suggests a child who was loved, cherished and cared for. This shoe was from a family somewhere in the reasonably comfortable middle zone of Sydney society. The house in question was built in 1833 on an allotment of land overlooking a substantial stone wharf, three-storied warehouse and offices completed in 1829 by Timothy Goodwin Pitman, an American settler, who arrived in the colony in 1824 and established business as a merchant.3 The warehouse served as a retail store where Pitman invited the public to purchase goods, straight off the ship, that included:

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Gunpowder, Imperial, Hyson, Hyson Skin, and Souchong Teas, White Sugar, Sugar Candy, Preserved Ginger, Slop Clothing, Yellow Nankeens, Grass Cloth, Grass Cloth Hankerchiefs, Black Silk and Colored Satins, Crape Dresses, Ladies and Gentlemans Black Kid, and Norway Doe Gloves, Cider, Liquers, Champagne, Negrohead and Brazil Tobacco, Tar, Pitch, Bengal Twine and Lamp Cotton. Tea, Coffee, sets Elegant China, Camphor Wood Trunks, Anchors Various Sizes.4 Pitman married Eliza Foster, another free settler, in 1826.5 The Pitmans did not have any children and Eliza died in 1830, aged 20.6 Pitman himself was seriously ill by 1830 and died before 1834.7 His Fort Street properties were sold, including the vacant allotment on which a house was constructed for Thomas Dyer Edwardes and Matthew Dysart Hunter.8 While it has not yet been possible to identify the house from several descriptions of properties built in this part of Lower Fort Street in the early 1830s the beauty of the location is a common thread among advertisements of the time: The situation is most desirable and healthy, commanding a view of Darling Harbour, and the port of Sydney.9
The parcel of land in Lower Fort Street on which the house now known as No. 37 was built for Thomas Dyer Edwardes and Matthew Dysart Hunter. The illustration is from Section 90 of the City Survey Plans, 1833, held in the Archives of the City of Sydney. Later information has been written onto the plan in red. (CoSA)

No. 37: Edwardes and Hunter

Adjoining house built by Jeffrey, 1834, now No. 35. Lower Fort Street

By about 1840 it becomes clear that the house was associated with the bonded stores constructed on the roadway near Pitmans wharf and occupied at that time by Thacker Mason & Co.10 A gangway led from the rear of the house, occupied by Mashfield Mason, partner in the firm, to the two-storey sandstone warehouse below.11 The house was in Masons name by 1842.12 He had taken up residence there some time before August 1840 when he married Ann Moore, the daughter of one of his neighbours.13 The Masons had three children between 1841 and 1844 and all appear to have survived infancy.14

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Judging by appearances, Mashfield and Anns life in Fort Street was comfortable. Not long after the marriage, Ann sought domestic help via an advertisement in the Sydney Herald for a man accustomed to wait table; also, a woman as cook.15 In June, 1841, she required a butler.16 The house was well furnished with furniture imported from London, an oblique pianoforte by Sebastian Erard of Paris, valuable oil paintings, and a cellar of choice wines. We know this because all of the contents were advertised for sale before Mason and his wife left the Colony for London in 1845.17 The house was transferred to his partner, John Thacker. The chain of ownership for the period 1845 1860s No. 37 Lower Fort Street today. appears to show rapid turnover but those recorded as owners, including A.C. Daniel and William Fane De Salis, were directors of the trading company conducted from the house. It had been established by Thomas Edwardes as an agency of the major Asian trading firm of Jardine Matheson and continued to operate under various names for many years. After returning to England, De Salis became chairman of the P & O Company and other major banking and commercial organisations.18 While they were in business in Sydney, Edwardes and De Salis were taking their first steps towards serious success in commerce. Both left large estates.19 A description of the eastern side of Lower Fort Street in 1839 stated that ...a number of respectable dwelling houses have lately been erected having a fine appearance from their uniformity of build and William Fane De Salis, aged 49, by Camille Silvy, London, 1861. are mostly occupied by opulent persons.20 (De Salis family archives) The roof on No. 37 at present is old corrugated metal, almost certainly dating from some time in the second half of the 20th century. The roof was shingled until after 1856 but in 1861 was of slate, probably imported from Wales. Slate was the preferred roofing material of the time but was significantly more expensive than hand-cut local shingles. A good slate roof could serve for more than a century but shingles were much less durable.

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This 1840s view of Lower Fort Street, Dawes Point, and Sydney Harbour has been attributed to Joseph Fowles. It shows the area in the period a few years after No. 37 was built. An arrow points to the location of the house which has not been illustrated by Fowles. (SLNSW ML 66)

3 4

Part of a plan of Sydney in 1880 by the surveyor Percy Dove. Arrows show, 1, the waters of Darling Harbour; 2, the wharf built by Timothy Goodwin Pitman in 1829; 3, the gangway at the rear of the house used by Mashfield Mason in moving between the house (which was then No. 29 Lower Fort Street) and the stores below; 4. the house where the objects were concealed. Numbers on the house plan indicate that it had two levels and was No. 31 on an allotment plan. There is a WC and a small shed in the back yard. The verandah was not original. (CoSA).

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Despite the appeal of slate, by 1891 No. 37 had been re-roofed with corrugated galvanised iron.21 It is possible that the objects found tucked in a corner of the roof cavity might have been placed there during one of these conversions. The concealments in this house could be attributed to one of the following: Tradesmen involved in roof replacement in the 1850s or later in the century Tradesmen who constructed the lath and plaster walls in the attic space One of the residents of the house (who might also have colluded with tradesmen) The shoe and piece of lace were found by Nicholas, son of the then owners, Keith and Margaret White, in a space opened up by building tradesmen who had breached the lath and plasterwork during renovations in 2003. Nicholas removed dust and soot that had filled the interstices between the ceiling joists to a point almost level with the tops of the joists. This is detritus that would clearly have taken many years to accumulate as the particles drifted in through gaps in the roofing system, gradually covering the objects that had been placed there. The soot would have come from steamships in the harbour and from steam trains passing across the adjacent Harbour Bridge before the railway line was electrified. If, as appears likely, both objects were concealed at the same time, the concealment could have occurred as early as 1850 if the lace was made at that time or as late as post-1865 if the suggested later date is correct. Identifying the family group or individual associated with this concealment has not been a simple matter and it is by no means certain that this has been achieved. Occupants of the house for much of the period in which the concealment is most likely to have occurred are noted in the following table: TABLE 4.1 RESIDENTS OF No. 37, LOWER FORT STREET 1834 1840 1840 1845 1845 1850 1850 1858 1859 1862 1860 1863 1863 1871 1872 1873 1877 1880 1880 ? Thomas Edwardes & Edward Dysart Ann and Mashfield Mason Not known Rev. Alexander Salmon Caroline, Edward & Siegfried Franck Edward Campbell George and Mary Hurley Charles Tiffin Walter Church Edward Dawson

Source: Fords Sydney Directory for 1851, Sands Sydney Directories 1858 1880, Sydney City Council assessment books 1845 1880 and personal and government notices in the Sydney Herald and Sydney Morning Herald 1830 1880s. Later occupation was not researched.

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This investigation of the concealments at No. 37 Lower Fort Street will focus on the occupants of the house with the longest tenancy and the people who had the most reason to fear from supernatural attack. It has not proved difficult to identify suitable candidates. Those who best fitted the above criteria were George and Mary Hurley, residents of the house from 1863 to 1871.22 The first record of Hurleys presence in Sydney appears to be that in which the birth of his son, George, was registered in 1852.23 There is no trace in the NSW State Records of the birth of George Hurley or his marriage to Mary. He is perhaps the George Hurley, born at Alveston, Warwickshire, in 1823 and who married a Mary Ann, surname unknown, at Leaming or Leamington, Warwickshire, in 1848.24 David Vincents Literacy and Popular Culture: England 1750 1914 (1989) makes it clear that although literacy was steadily increasing in the period in which the Hurleys grew up, belief in magic and the supernatural was still rife at this time. While around half of the population could read and write, superstitious practices covering all aspects of the uncertainties of life still held fast among a great many people. The majority of these related to health and the preservation of life. Cures associated with whooping cough, to provide a single example, included passing the afflicted child three times before breakfast under a forked blackberry bush, or nine times under the belly and over the back of a three-year-old donkey, carrying it through the smoke of a brick kiln or making the child wear a string with nine knots, a caterpillar in a bag or a spider in a nutshell.25 There were a great many other equally efficacious remedies. It would have been extremely unlikely if Hurley and his wife had arrived in New South Wales with no knowledge of magical practices of one kind or another. They would have found in Sydney an environment in which folk magic permeated aspects of daily life to an extent which is suggested by Maureen Perkinss examinations of almanacs in Visions of the Future: Almanacs, Time and Cultural Change (1996) and The Reform of Time: Magic and Modernity (2001). While the overt record of folk magic and superstition in 19th-century Australia is scant indeed, the widespread popularity of almanacs suggests a very different cultural milieu and one in which supernatural forces were believed to influence or control many aspects of everyday life and health. Perkins states that although almanacs containing astrology were published in Australia historians have presented a picture of a colonial culture anxious to shake off all taint of superstitious cultural baggage. She asks: Is it, then, a fruitless task to look for examples of popular belief amongst the early settlers and convicts? The existence of almanacs closely modelled on the English genre suggests otherwise.26 In Sydney, Hurley soon revealed himself to be something of a huckster, an ambitions and energetic young man with civic, commercial and religious affiliations. But his hopes for success were curtailed by personal tragedy which must have struck deeply and perhaps provided the motive that impelled him to seek aid from the other world.

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Misfortunes inflicted on George Hurley and his wife, Mary, in the late 1850s made me suspect that the Lower Fort Street concealments were precipitated by trauma and fear. Dating of one of the objects appears to provide an association with the Hurleys. The boot, which according to June Swann, could be as early as the 1830s could equally date from the 1840s. But the lace collar, with its period of possible use ranging from 1850 to the mid-1860s, suggests a later concealment, using a contemporary piece of lacework and an old shoe that may have had some nostalgic link with either Mary or George Hurley and could then have been passed on to their children before being put to use in averting evil. George and Mary took up residence in Lower Fort Street in 1863 and stayed until the 1870s.27 The house in that period was owned by Alexander and John Campbell. The Hurleys are the only tenants with a reasonably large family known to have lived there in the forty years after the house was built. Since a number of children had worn the boot it appears that it may have been connected to a family with numerous children. The children of George and Mary Hurley and the dates of their births were:28 TABLE 4.2 George Charles Louisa (1) Louisa (2) Joseph Francis Edward Mary Cecil

1852 1854 1856 1858 1859 1861 1863 1866 1874

Source: personal notices in the Sydney Morning Herald 1852 1885; NSW Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

During his residence in the house Hurley was the proprietor of a wholesale drapery store at 85 York Street, Sydney, an importer of fancy goods with a store at 410 George Street and an auctioneer. He was also for some years, an alderman of Sydney City Council, elected after a campaign in which his slogan was Vote Early! And for Hurley. Hurley appealed to voters in the Councils Brisbane Ward with an advertisement in which he posed a question and provided the answer: If you wish to be represented by a man of sterling worth of integrity of purpose whose character, both morally and socially, is unquestioned and unimpeachable by one who possesses the manners, ability, and education of a gentleman, and one who will be a credit to your choice, then vote for Hurley.29

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Hurley was clearly a civic-minded citizen and as such was a member of the laity that supported the Catholic Church in Sydney. In 1859 he was one of a number of prominent businessmen on a committee formed under Church auspices to raise money for the completion of St Marys Cathedral.30 The house in Dawes Point to which he moved with his family, despite its elegant appearance, was not large internally. Additional living space was obtained by creating bedrooms with lath and plaster walls in the roof cavity. Access was by a steep and narrow staircase. While it is not possible to accurately date this work the lining of the attic space would have been the result of a decision to provide acceptable housing for human habitation. Lining would not have been necessary in a space used to store goods and chattels. If the Hurley children, or those of any other occupants, were required to sleep in the attic space their parents may have felt nervous about exposing them to the risk of evil forces passing across the harbour which was so very close to their home. George and Mary Hurley had good reason to be fearful for the lives of their children. Before moving to Lower Fort Street from George Street they had sustained a string of deaths in their family. Their first child, George, born 1852, died in March 1854, aged just eighteen months, after an illness of a few hours. Twelve months later their second and only child, Charles Henry, died at the age of three months of bronchitis. In December 1857, Louisa, their only and beloved child died of convulsions, caused by the intense heat of Saturday at the age of one year and nine months.31 By the time they moved to Fort Street, Mary had given birth to six children, of whom only three had survived. At least one other child of the Hurleys died: Mary, born 1866, had a twin brother. The births of these children on 12 August in that year were announced in the Sydney Morning Herald but I can find no official record of the life or death of this Hurley son.32 Mary Hurley bore nine children of whom I am aware. Five survived to maturity. This was not an unusual story of family life in the 19th century. The risk of death, especially of children, was ever-present in life. This is not to diminish the pain and grief of this family by saying that their loss was ordinary or commonplace, but to point out that they moved to Lower Fort Street against a background of concern for the survival of their children. The fear of further infant deaths must have been very much on their minds. A cough, a chill, runny nose, a thorn, or any one of a number of common conditions that barely cause a ripple today could mark the commencement of a decline that might take a child from this world. The house, poised at the top of a rocky prominence overlooking the harbour and with waterviews to the east and the west, was much more exposed to the elements and the sky than their previous residence in the busy commercial hub of 1830s Sydney. Concealing personal objects in a building void at the top of the house to decoy evil away from their children, at a time when this was widely believed to be an effective prophylactic against harm, may have given the Hurleys an increased sense of security and comfort, knowing that they had done all they could to provide for the safety of their family.

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While the precise nature of their fears and the evil in which they may have believed remains obscure, a description of the theoretical basis of misfortune caused by beings from the spirit world provides a possible clue. There is an account, originally 17th century in origin, in a popular magazine, The Supernatural Magazine for 1809, in which the imagined creatures that inspired fear in people at that time were described. The account came from the case of Dr. John Pordage (1607 1681), rector of Bradfield, Berkshire, astrologer, alchemist and mystic, who was charged by a church authority with entertaining a conjurer, having conversations with angels and with describing apparitions of spirits. In his defence, Pordage said there had been strange and wonderful apparitions at his house in 1650. These, he said, had been sent by the Devil, with the consent of the Lord, to test his faith. Pordage described his belief in the existence of two spiritual worlds extending and penetrating throughout this whole visible creation and which sought to influence the material world about us, the one to do good and the other evil. The dark world John Pordage by William had its princes who were attended by fearful spirit Faithorne, 1683. (NPG D22902) servants: Concerning the shapes and figures of the Spirits, you must know that they are very Monstrous, Terrible and Afrighting..appearing in the shapes of Lions, Dragons, Elephants, Tygers, Bears and suchlike Terrible Beasts. Besides, the Princes and those that attended them, tho all in the shapes of men, yet represented themselves monstrously misshapen, as with Ears like those of Cats, cloven Feet, ugly Legs and Bodies, Eyes fiery, sharp and piercing.33 There is no way of knowing whether the Hurleys knew of this magazine, or whether it was available in Sydney in the 1850s, but the re-publication of Pordages description of evil spiritual beings may have given a new and sharper focus to the practice of secreting objects in houses and other buildings, especially among those more impressionable members of society who passed on folk beliefs from generation to generation. There was, it seems, a view of the spiritual world and its connection with the material world that caused shared concerns to flow through the daily life of the people, ever-present perhaps but rarely expressed. And with warnings about the Devil emanating from the pulpits of the various denominations it was little wonder that people were afraid of danger originating in the world of the spirits. If the concealments at No. 37 Lower Fort Street were made with the knowledge of George Hurley, as seems possible, he appears to have found no conflict with his Catholic faith.

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Hurleys presumed resort to folk magic to protect his home and family, while maintaining his life as an active and respected member of Sydneys Roman Catholic laity, may be better understood if viewed as part of a personal approach to religion which was not unusual at that time. As Christianity passed from the pulpits to the pews and from the churches to the cottages, it underwent many alterations and distortions to suit popular needs and tastes. James Obelkevich in Religion and Rural Society: South Lindsey 1825 1875 (1976) questioned whether the results of this process remained within the Christian framework or fell outside it.34 No distinction was seen between beliefs that are today regarded as mere superstition and those that are part of religious belief. Obelkevich points out that religious observance, by way of church attendance, could be combined on the same day with any one of a variety of folk practices and beliefs: Nor was there any inconsistency when a woman washing a tablecloth after a Methodist tea meeting was frightened at seeing a diamond shape in the folds a superstitious portent of death.35 Richard Godbeer, paraphrasing Jon Butler in Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianising the American People (1990), says: ..... people who used magic tended not to see their behaviour as antagonistic to Christian faith. Instead, they saw the two as complementary: in order to satisfy their spiritual needs they turned sometimes to one, sometimes to the other.36 The beliefs of a great many people thus remained a mixture of religious belief and superstition, not surprising when so many of Christianitys festivals and saints had been superimposed on long-standing pagan traditions. Superstition drove the need to interpret the events of everyday life through a prism of fear and suspicion. Thus events which would today be viewed as random, innocuous and innocent of any significance or diabolical origin were scrutinised for possible malevolent instigation. At the time that Hurley occupied his house in Lower Fort Street even the collision of a bumblebee with a window pane was likely to be viewed as an omen of bad fortune. No event was too trivial to be unrelated to forces which lay beyond rational explanation: Frequent discussions were everyday gossip about the powers possessed by some of the neighbours who had an evil eye and who could produce bad luck among others by simply wishing it to happen. Bad omens were plentiful and too serious to go unnoticed.37 There is another possible reason why Hurley, if indeed he was the concealer, may have

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turned to magic to protect his family. The consecutive deaths of three infant children may have resulted in the conclusion that prayer was ineffectual and that an indifferent God was paying no attention to the series of tragedies in this family. Organised religion, whether Roman Catholic or any other faith, was based on a reliance on the fatherly hand of a God who ruled all people and all things. Prayer was an appeal for the indulgence of a supernatural being who might or might not be inclined to help. After the deaths of his children it may have seemed to Hurley that as a supplicant he was not being heard. But magic offered the prospect of taking charge, of reaching into the world of the supernatural to alter the course of events in this life. Magic placed the power of the universe in the hands of ordinary people. Godbeer described the divergence between the two forces thus: Magical skill enables people to harness supernatural power and use it for their own purposes: they can predict the future, protect themselves against harm, heal the sick, and strike down their enemies. Religious belief assumes the existence of a supernatural authority (usually personified) that controls the world accrding to its own will; people can attempt to influence this divine power through prayer and other devotional exercises, but there is no guarantee that their desires will be fulfilled or their requests granted.38 I have investigated the lives of the people who resided at 37 Lower Fort Street in the period from 1834 1880 and there is no-one else who suffered to the same extent as George and Mary Hurley. It is difficult to envisage the energetic young men, busy making their fortunes, who occupied the house before 1850 or the Reverend Salmon who followed them as being responsible for this concealment. Caroline, the wife of the merchant Siegfried Franck, gave birth at the house to a son, Harry, in 1859. Ten days later Caroline was dead, probably of complications following the birth.39 This was a very sad time for Franck and his brother and sister-in-law, who shared the house with him. But Carolines death was an unfortunate single event, with no resemblance to the curse that seemed to hover over the Hurley family. Some people who made their mark on Australian architecture lived in this house for a time. The Reverend Salmon is notable for instigating the importation from Scotland of an iron church and its subsequent erection in Macquarie Street.40 Charles Tiffin, formerly Colonial Architect of Queensland, died in the house in 1873.41 At a time when birth and death took place in the home, the house at No. 37 Lower Fort Street saw its share of entrances and exits from this world. There were numerous births, more than a few deaths and even a marriage42 at the house but nothing that appears likely to cause as much pain as fate inflicted on the Hurleys. While the objects found in concealments such as those at No. 37 Lower Fort Street are mute and not accompanied by any explanation of their purpose or intent they may nevertheless have provided us with a glimpse of a story of birth, life, death and belief in 19th-century Sydney.

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4.2 the cat in the cavity

The practice of concealing cats in voids in buildings is known to have taken place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe for at least five centuries. Domestic cats originated from an ancestral wild species, Felis silvestris,the European and African wild cat. The domestic cat is now considered a separate species, identified as Felis catus. In appearance, domestic cats are similar to their wild relatives, and many of their behaviours such as hunting and other activity patterns remain essentially unchanged from their ancestral form. Cats were first domesticated in Egypt around 2000 BC. As a revered animal and one very important to Egyptian society and religion, the cat was afforded the same mummification after death as humans. Some elements of Egyptian beliefs may have been associated with cats when they began to spread throughout the Mediterranean. The Romans are said to have introduced the domestic cat to Britain by AD 300, possibly with knowledge of the religious and magical status of the animals in the Egyptian society from which they had come.43 Cats have long been associated with magic and with witches. Their aloof and somewhat other-worldly nature, as well as the fact that they roamed about during the night when witches and evil spirits were thought to be at large, gave them a reputation that resulted in the death of a great many cats. They were believed to be the familiars of witches and to act on their command to carry out evil missions against humanity. A familiar was a creature such as a cat, rodent or insect that could gain easy and unnoticed entry to a house, there to do the witchs evil bidding. Cats were also used in magic rituals.44 Witches and their familiars, confronted In the late Middle Ages cats fell on hard by Matthew Hopkins, a contract witch times. They were burnt on Shrove Tuesday in the finder in a village in East Anglia. (Glanville 1681) Vosges and at Easter in Alsace. In the Ardennes, they were thrown into bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent or roasted on the end of long poles or in wicker baskets. In Transylvania and Bohemia, a black cat was buried under a tree to stimulate its growth. Black male cats were killed and buried in the fields to prevent evil spirits from harming the crops. These accounts indicate that in the Middle Ages cats were regarded as animals with a highly charged magical value, able to enrich the harvest and protect crops and herds from evil.45 By the 15th century, if not earlier, cats were being concealed in building voids in Austria and Germany. The German academic, Dr. Petra Schad, working with the Institute of

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Archaeology at the University of Bamberg, has recorded finds of concealed cats in houses in both Germany and Austria. A particularly interesting series of finds took place in the district of Ludwigsburg in 1999 after carpenters renovating a half-timbered house in the town of Markgroningen discovered the bodies of two cats in separate voids in the building. They lay beneath One of the concealed cats recorded by Dr. Petra Schad in the Ludwigsburg district of Germany. the floorboards on different levels of the This one is from a house in the town of Bonnigheim. (Petra Schad) building. Both corpses lacked the left paw: one cat had the broken paw placed beside it. Newspaper publicity produced a flood of similar finds from throughout Ludwigsburg. In these, caches of cats were found in seventeen houses. The total number of cats discovered was twenty-three. In the state of Baden-Wrttemberg fifty-four finds were reported from thirty caches in twenty-eight houses. The dates of the concealments (which are generally later than the construction dates of the houses) ranged from the 15th century to the second half of the 19th century. In a paper on the finds, Dr. Schad attributed the concealments to a belief in the need for protection from witchcraft: Many proverbs and sayings refer to cats in a superstitious way, quite often branding their deceitfulness. Black cats are regarded as harbingers of bad news. It was only in 1940 that children in the Spessart were reported to believe in the imminent metamorphosis of an old woman into a cat. The idea of lycanthropy has been around for ages in many different civilisations. A great number of witch trials of early modern history testify to it. Throughout the districts of the Duchess of Wrttemberg 450 women were accused as witches and 116 of them finally executed from 1497 to 1750. The apparition of witches or the devil under the guise of a cat is often mentioned in witch trials. In 1615 Barbara Henz (from Markgrningen) was accused of having entertained the devil in feline shape. At Marbach/Neckar, where there was also found a mummified cat in a house dating from 1707, fellow prisoners claimed in a witch trial of 1740 that the accused woman had been repeatedly visited by a black cat.46 X-ray examination of the bodies of two cats revealed that their necks had been broken. Other finds made in the buildings examined included a number of afterbirth pots containing placental material which Dr. Schad described as a mediaeval tradition.47 The location of the finds in the Ludwigsberg houses, either beneath the floor or behind ceiling panels (depending on how you consider their position) suggests association with building tradesmen. All were beyond the reach of everyday life in the buildings.

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Above, a concealed cat found during renovations on the 400-year-old house at Ugborough, Plymouth, which Richard Parson and his family occupy. A large number of concealed cats has been found in British buildings but there are no figures available on these finds. (Plymouth Herald) Left, Edward Lovetts leaflet promoting his lecture on cats in folklore. It is clear from the leaflet that he was aware of the practice of concealing cats in building voids but Lovett made no other written reference to this matter. (CM)

Concealed cats in British buildings are also well known and the practice has been on record there for a considerable time. Edward Lovett issued a leaflet to promote a lecture entitled The folklore of the cat in circa 1920. The topics listed for his talk included cats built up alive in the walls of houses.48 Margaret Howard of the Institute of Archaeology at the University of London published an article entitled Dried Cats in 1951 and recorded finds in England, Ireland, Scotland, Gibraltar and Sweden. Howards article lists a total of twenty-five cats. Since then a great many more has been found in the UK although no reliable and comprehensive figures are available. The earliest English find Howard records is that of a cat discovered in 1950 by the Ministry of Works in a house built by Christopher Wren between 1666 and 1672 at the Tower of London. The body was found in a subfloor location, lying against a joist beside a fireplace in an upper-level room. Howard attributes cat concealments to the ancient ritual of foundation sacrifice in which tribute was paid to the gods or later, the Devil, in propitiation for the disturbance that a building caused to the earth.49

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It was hardly to be expected that a traditional cultural practice carried out in Europe from at least as early as the 13th century would make its way to Australia but the fact that this custom traveled around the world became apparent soon after I began intensive research in 2004. The first cat concealment reported to me was the find made at Her Majestys Theatre, Ballarat, during renovations there in the 1990s. The most recent concealments of which I am aware took place in two adjacent terrace houses in Millers Point, Sydney, in about 1904 more than 450 years after those recorded in Germany. The earliest Australian finds that are dateable come from the Primitive Methodist Church of 1863 at Woodchester, South Australia, and from the 1866Anglican rectory at Birregurra, Victoria. Concealed cats in both Australia and in the United Kingdom may be posed so that they appear about to spring, as in the case of the cat found by Rob Thomas underneath the family home at 55 Upton Street, Launceston, some years ago: lying on its side, frozen in a very aggressive, quite ferocious pose. It had its mouth open with one paw up. It was as if it was about to kill something and had been frozen in time.50 Concealed cats found in the British Isles sometimes have a dead mouse in their mouth. The cat found beneath Her Majestys Theatre (page 339) was accompanied by a number of rats. Both the cat and its companions can be seen in a display mounted in the foyer of the theatre. Concealed cats are found in much the same locations as shoes. To date, however, while I have no record of a cat concealment within the structure of a chimney many have been found in close proximity to chimneys, either in the roof cavity or under the ground floor. Beneath a suspended hearth slab is a favoured spot but cats are also found under front or rear doors where they may have been posted as guardians of the entrances to a house. In recording finds of cats as concealments I disregard those where access was possible to a live animal. Cats are known for crawling under buildings when distressed or ill and seeking quiet places where they often die, hence
Australian concealed cats. Top, Ballarat, Victoria. Centre, Woodchester, South Australia. Bottom, Blayney, NSW.

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I have recorded only those finds where the animal could not have made its own way into the find spot. In one case I drove to Forbes, in central-western New South Wales, to investigate a purported cat concealment but access to the location of the cat was quite easy and the find was discounted. Because we have no contemporary documentary explanation of the rules relating to concealments we can only speculate on the reason for the choice of cats over shoes when concealments were being planned. Both appear to serve much the same purpose. But cats may have been used in situations where personal objects were not available. Tradesmen working on buildings where they were not aware of the identity of the future occupants, in rural areas where the owners were not on site, or in cases where they felt the owners would not be willing to provide shoes or other items for concealment, may have fallen back on the use of a cat. The cat found at Glengallan Homestead (page 414), near Warwick in Queensland, may be a case in point. In this example, we have tradesmen working at a location that was then quite remote, their employer a wealthy landowner and a family which was almost certainly not accessible to them for either social or geographical reasons. By concealing a cat under the floor of the drawing room at Glengallan their obligation to provide protection would have been fulfilled without the knowledge or cooperation of the future occupants of the house. Of the various concealed cats found since I began research the most intriguing by far is the discovery of two cats in sealed subfloor voids beneath the kitchens of two adjoining terrace houses in Argyle Place in the Sydney suburb of Millers Point (page 243). This find will be discussed in detail later in this thesis.

4.2.1 information derived from cat concealments

Unlike shoes, concealed cats can provide very little information to assist the researcher. Shoes can be dated but cats, as enigmatic in death as in life, tell us very little. There is, it appears, no way to date cat concealments other than by reference to the date of construction of the house or building in which they are found. This provides the earliest possible date for a concealment but nothing more. There may be information contained within the structure of a building that suggests a concealment at some time after the construction period. It is usually easy to tell if floorboards have been taken up. A find close to a flooring patch may be indicative of a concealment taking place some time after construction. But there is no way of accurately dating this or other forms of surface disturbance to walls, floors or brickwork. I have seen nothing to indicate that cat concealments occurred while the animal was alive; indications are that the opposite was the case. Cat corpses found to date appear to have been carefully positioned and some may have been posed in a seemingly watchful state. But more research is required on concealed cats in order to answer the following questions:

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How were they killed? X-ray examination of the bodies of concealed cats in Austria has revealed broken necks.51 The same practice may have been in use here but this has yet to be established. Drowning is another possibility. Were chemicals used to preserve the body? There is no information available on this. But it is perhaps worth noting that the original owner of the Richmond, NSW, house in which a concealed cat was found had some expertise in tanning hides.52 On balance, I believe that preservation was not part of the process.
4.2.2 a powerful tradition

There are remarkable features to the concealment of objects in old buildings. Despite the lack of any written descriptions of the purpose of this practice and the way in which it should be carried out its observance demonstrates a high degree of uniformity. So far, no variations in the custom have been detected in concealments between those carried out in the UK and in Australia the same time. Within the Australian colonies concealments so far investigated display no significant variations from region to region or within a considerable period of time. Those performing the concealments appear to have clearly understood the requirements and to have carried them out with considerable care. It is apparent that a powerful oral tradition was at work here. The conclusion is inescapable: we have virtually nothing in the way of contemporary documentary explanation contrasted with a practice that is widespread, ancient and durable. Also intriguing is the rapid disappearance of this custom in the period from 1930 to circa 1940. It is noteworthy that despite numerous radio interviews in which some means of contacting the author of this paper was provided I have not heard from anyone with inside information about this matter. Some of the interviews featured audience participation in the form of talk-back segments. I had hoped that sooner or later I would hear from an old carpenter, bricklayer or plasterer with memories of concealments being performed, perhaps when he was an apprentice, but no such person has yet come forward. It appears that this research has come a generation or so too late to find anyone with first-hand experience of this ancient practice. The alternative to this suggestion is the possibility, perhaps slight, that it survives among a few people who maintain the tradition of secrecy. Timothy Easton knows of at least one builder who continues to make concealments in England to the present day.53 There is a glimpse of the mindset at work among those who concealed shoes in a rare and perhaps unique document in the records of the Northampton Museum and Gallery. It is in the form of a letter from the folklore researcher Margaret Baker who wrote to the Museum in 1982 to pass on some literary references to concealed shoes. She had found these in the course of other research, and after receiving earlier assistance from June

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An extract from the letter Margaret Baker sent to Northampton Museums and Art Gallery, 16/10/1982. (NMG)

Swann at the Museum, was motivated to provide references which she thought might be useful. Baker recounted details of a conversation she had had on 30 September, 1973, with Bill Brown, a farm worker and hedger, at his home, Church Cottage, Stockleigh Pomeroy, Devon. Brown, it was said, was from an old Devon family with local connections dating back to Elizabethan times. He described his mother as a wise woman. This is a term that was also used to identify cunning men or women the practitioners of folk magic in the countryside, villages or towns of England. Browns mother, therefore, was one of these and the family would have been alert to evidence of magical rituals in their area. There was, according to Brown, great reticence on the parts of his parents to speak of anything connected with superstitious beliefs and practices. According to Bakers account, Browns parents were afraid to talk about such things lest some punishment be meted out to them. Brown was 73 at the time that Baker spoke to him. He told her that in about 1917 or 1918 he was hedging with his father at Compton Castle, Paignton, near an old windmill base, close to two old ruined cottages. At lunchtime they sat near the wall of one of these and poked among the stones. About three feet from the ground, where the stone foundation and the upper wall of cob were joined, they found an old half boot, tucked into what Brown called a crenellation. When he asked his father why the boot might be in such a place, Brown was told that it was something to do with witching and that the place was ill-wished. No further information on this matter could be extracted from the older man.54 The term crenellation is generally used to describe battlements, embrasures or loopholes surmounting the walls of a castle or stronghold but it can also identify a cavity or indenture. In the building context described, it appears that Brown is referring to a gap or recess in the stonework of the old cottages foundation wall.

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Born in Canada in 1928,55 Margaret Baker became the well-known author of a number of books on folklore including Folklore of the Sea, The Gardeners Folklore, Discovering the Folklore of Plants, Discovering Christmas Customs and Folklore and Folklore and Customs of Rural England. She also published under the anagram Kate Bergamar and some years ago was living as Margaret Gray on the south-eastern coast of England.56 Folklore and Customs of Rural England was published in 1973 and it was possibly during research for this book that she spoke to Bill Brown. Her letter conveys an impression of an organised, systematic and reliable person. It is likely, therefore, that Brown was a source that she considered authentic and trustworthy. His description of the shoe found in the cottage as connected with witching may be the only authoritative account of the purpose of concealed shoes that we will ever have. At the time of Browns conversation with his father, concealed objects were still being placed in buildings throughout Britain in significant numbers. The fact that the practice was still very much alive when Brown attempted to question his father about it gives this report an authenticity that derives from first-hand knowledge of a custom that appears to have no other known surviving witnesses or descriptions. And Browns account of the incident testifies to the oral characteristics of the practice and belief which had survived in his memory from circa 1917 until 1973.

4.3 conclusion

The discovery of so many objects in building voids throughout Australia, together with a background of similar finds in Great Britain, takes these finds beyond any possibility of innocuous or accidental placement. While there is no evidence to suggest that this practice began with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 it would be logical to assume that it was an early import to New South Wales. The survival of this ritual, even during its terminal phase, into a period when people were driving motor cars and listening to jazz on their wireless sets suggests that ancient beliefs retained some of their power well into the modern period. So widespread, so persistent and so consistent is this custom that it seems reasonable to conclude that this was a practice that was deeply embedded in the belief systems of Australians until the early 20th century. Other than Lovetts cursory mention of cat concealments, there appears to be nothing in the contemporary documentary evidence, whether in Australia or elsewhere, which explains, describes or refers to this behaviour. Historians, with a general professional tendency to rely primarily on archival sources, failed to notice it because the textural evidence was absent. Those professionals whose work is concentrated on the physical qualities of houses and other buildings and on the artifacts found in, under and around them also failed to see the pattern. Archaeologists missed their golden opportunity to make this discovery. In the

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past members of the profession opted for the convenient path of suggesting ritual purpose for obscure objects found during the course of excavations. Assigning a ritual purpose to inexplicable and enigmatic objects became something of a professional joke and as a result there has long been reluctance by archaeologists to ascribe function to such artifacts. And, to be fair, the majority of archaeological work is carried out on structures and sites where there is little prospect of finding and identifying concealed objects. Conservation architects, intent on the fabric of the buildings on which they worked, disregarded artifacts whose purpose was mundane, obscure or not relevant to the task at hand. Shoes, cats and old garments were and are regarded as inconsequential by these professionals whose gaze is focused on building structure and design. And, as charms, the objects selected for concealment are subtly indistinguishable from the more mundane contents of a house or any other building. The case study described in this chapter suggests that personal circumstances, particularly in situations where traumatic family experiences occurred, may have played a role in stimulating the concealment of objects that may have been thought to offer some protection from the possibility of unpleasant events. This research serves to underline the need for professionals in the fields of history, archaeology and building conservation to be aware of the fact that not all history is to be found in the documentary archive, and that careful consideration needs to be given to assessing the significance of artifacts discovered within the structure of buildings. Rigid adherence to previous research parameters has resulted in a blinkered approach to the study of buildings and their early occupants. Artifact-based research has now revealed that folk magic played an important role in the lives of a great many Australians in the period 1788 1930s, as it had in the British Isles for many centuries past. The case study conducted in this chapter has raised the possibility of child and family mortality as a precipitating factor in concealing objects in houses and other buildings. Other factors, including stress from a variety of causes, may be identified as a result of further work in a new field of research which is wide open to additional investigation.

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FIVE: ANALYSIS

5.1 site statistics

ince I began looking for concealed objects in old houses I have located caches of these objects at 119 locations throughout Australia. For some years I endeavoured to visit every site where finds were made. This resulted in trips to South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland. Extensive travel within New South Wales was made possible by a grant from the NSW Heritage Office (2007). I managed to visit fifty-nine sites but it eventually became clear that I would not be able to reach every one of them. Site visits are valuable research tools and are recommended for future research wherever possible. While the owners of buildings where finds were made are thoughtful and well-informed people they cannot be expected to have the insight that follows some years of intensive documentary and on-site research in Australia and the United Kingdom as well as personal communications with other researchers in the UK. Because many of the concealment sites contained more than one object the total number of objects in these concealments is considerably greater than the total number of sites. As in the United Kingdom, the base location of the researcher appears to influence the number of sites in the tally. This is apparent from the UK map on the next page. Areas with a high concentration of finds (shown in black) correspond with the locations of researchers. The ability of owners of buildings to reach the researcher because of proximity, ease of contact and economy arising from telephone calls over shorter distances all appear to contribute to this apparent collection bias. Proximity to the researcher may contribute to the reality of the appeal when it is made by radio interview or television news. In the Australian context, the greater representation of New South Wales sites is probably a reflection of these characteristics combined with the larger population base in that state, together with the NSW Heritage Office grant for travel within the State. The comparatively low number of finds in Queensland may reflect the different nature of the traditional houses of the State. The great majority are of timber and are commonly constructed on stumps, thus reducing the available voids in which concealments could be placed. Other voids such as roof cavities are accessed on an irregular basis but are more likely to have been examined and any objects found therein removed over the years. Subfloor and chimney voids are better long-term locations for concealments and these are less numerous than in the traditional timber houses of Queensland. The statistics for the locations of concealed objects of all types within buildings at all sites so far examined in Australia are on following pages.

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This distribution map is based on the records of the Concealed Shoe Index, Northampton Museums and Art Gallery, Northampton. Source: Pitt, 1997.

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ANALYSIS OF CONCEALED OBJECTS IN AUSTRALIA

table

5.1

locations of objects within buildings

Subfloor Roof cavity Wall Chimney Other Not recorded TOTAL

78 19 13 10 1 2 123

Source: Catalogue of Finds. Some buildings contained multiple deposits and these are counted separately. In some cases, objects had been placed in different locations in a building.

Locations in Buildings
Not recorded Other Chimney

Wall

Roof cavity

Sub oor

locational analysis

Source: Catalogue of Finds Many subfloor deposits were in close proximity to chimney bases and hearths.

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5.2 notes on positional issues

The figures for the location of objects within buildings add up to more than the total number of sites identified because some sites contained, as for example at Windsor, NSW, a cat under the floor and a shoe on the smokeshelf in the chimney flue (page 293). In the table (6.1) on the preceding page other locations refer to the childs shoe in the Sydney Harbour Bridge (page 277), the cache in the disused bread oven at Anthill Ponds, Tasmania (page 295), and the shoe in the verandah awning at Yarraville, Victoria (page 357). Not recorded relates to identified concealed shoes in public collections where no record of their placement in buildings exists. Of the comparatively small number of sites that contain shoes and boots which can be visually identified as those of tradesmen the judgement has been made on size, condition and surface layers of materials such as lime plaster, mortar and paint seen on the boots. Of these, eight were found beneath the floor, two in roof cavities, one in a chimney and one in an unrecorded location. Although exact figures are not available, many finds of shoes and some other objects are made today by building tradesmen who have been tasked to replace floors, carry out renovations, deal with rising damp or demolish old and unused chimneys. Others are made by pest exterminators or building surveyors. It should be noted that subfloor shoe concealments are often associated with chimneys in what appear to be placements made with intent. The figure for chimney concealments refers only to finds occurring within chimneys, either in the flue or in a void within the structure.

5.2.1 shoe finds: the breakdown

Shoes were the objects found in the greatest number of sites. The breakdown of shoe sites by state is as follows:
table

5.2

shoe site totals by state

NSW Tasmania Victoria South Australia Western Australia Queensland TOTAL

Source: Catalogue of Finds

36 20 13 8 15 3 95

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Total of Sites by State

breakdown of shoe sites by state

Queensland South Australia

Victoria

New South Wales

Western Australia

Tasmania

Source: Catalogue of Finds

5.2.2 gender/age analysis of shoe finds

Shoes found at the sites broke down into sexes and groups as shown in the table below. In this tally, pairs of obviously male or female footwear count as one find. Family groups of shoes were not sorted or counted by sex.
table

5.3

gender/age analysis of shoes

Adult male Adult female Child Group Uncertain TOTAL

24 10 39 17 5 95

Source: Catalogue of Finds

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Analysis of Shoe Finds

shoe finds by gender/age

Uncertain

Adult female

Group

Child

Adult male

Source: Catalogue of Finds

uk shoe finds by gender/age

Source: Pitt, 1997

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european shoe finds by gender/age

Source: Atzbach, 2007

Analysis of the gender/age balance of Australian sites and comparisons with similar studies in the UK and at Kempten, Germany, Bergen, Norway, and Amsterdam, Netherlands, suggests a distinct similarity of concealment practice in this respect. The outstanding characteristic of the charts on this and the preceding pages is that finds of childrens shoes comprise at least half of most concealments recorded in the studies under comparison. Shoes of men and women do not appear to have been given the same weight in selection for concealment. This may be the result of a cultural preference for the use of childrens shoes for this purpose, based on a belief in their greater efficacy as apotropaic objects, or a result of the larger families common during the period up to the early 20th century and a consequent greater availability of childrens shoes.
5.2.3 miscellaneous finds other than shoes

Australian finds of objects other than shoes resulted in the following breakdown of sites.
table

5.4

sites with objects other than shoes

Cats Garments Religious artefacts (marble bible, bible, rosaries) Animal bones Toys Miscellaneous* TOTAL

17 12 5 3 3 12 52

* Parasol, book covers, leather leggings, bottles, teaspoon, shoe last, cotton reels, gunpowder flask, coins, cutlery, baby powder tin, horseshoe, printed matter. Source: Catalogue of Finds.

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Object Types

breakdown of all objects

Animal bones Toys Religious artefacts Miscellaneous

Garments

Cats

Shoes

Source: Catalogue of Finds

Source: Pitt, 1997

The diagram above provides a visual breakdown of non-shoe artifacts recovered from caches in the UK where a larger base of finds provides a greater variety of objects.

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All Sites Total by State

all sites by state

Queensland South Australia

Victoria

New South Wales

Western Australia

Tasmania

Source: Catalogue of Finds

table

5.5

total of all find sites by state

New South Wales Tasmania Victoria South Australia Western Australia Queensland TOTAL

47 24 16 10 18 4 119

Source: Catalogue of Finds

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5.2.4 analysis: shoe sites

Concealed shoes are found in a number of typical locations, most commonly in a subfloor cavity, often near a chimney or the hearth. In some cases they have been built into the voids, often known as pockets, which usually exist on both sides of the flue and were therefore probably placed by bricklayers. Shoes are also found on a smokeshelf within the flue a location that raises the possibility of placement by an occupant of the house. An object on the smokeshelf is well out of reach of daily life but placement there may not require building skills of any consequence. The reason for this is that many of our earlier buildings had open hearths with a basket grate. Concealing a shoe within the flue would then have been a simple matter of crouching down on the hearth and reaching up inside the flue to find the smokeshelf at the back of the flue. Victorian houses were commonly fitted with cast-iron register grates after about 1850. In these, the smokeshelf is accessible by removing the mantelpiece and grate.1 This is a more difficult process than the one previously described. Shoes found on a chimney smokeshelf may have been placed there before the post-construction installation of a grate and mantelpiece as a response to fashion. Shoes may also be found resting on the earth beneath the floor, often close to the fireplace hearth, or tucked under the floorboards in an upstairs room. But proximity to the fireplace is common and shoes found in upstairs locations appear to respect this rule. In timber houses shoes may be found in wall cavities close to a fireplace. The space between the outer cladding of weatherboard and the inner skin of timber or lath and plaster provides a convenient hiding place in a timber wall. In this case, the concealment is most easily made during construction of the wall. Patterns of concealment gradually became apparent during the course of this research. Significant groups or categories were noted as the body of finds examined during site visits grew. These included the boots and shoes of tradesmen, the footwear of infants, children and adolescents, and the shoes of family groups. A strong representation of large, dirty and well-worn boots, some of them splashed with lime mortar or plaster, indicates the consistent involvement of members of several trades in this practice. Other concealments of shoes that are clearly not those of tradesmen point to concealments made by tradesmen. This can be deduced by the discovery during recent renovations of objects in voids that would have been accessible to members of building trades during the course of construction but not to the occupants of the buildings. An example is the well-worn and much-repaired childs shoe found in a pocket of a chimney demolished in Australia Street, Camperdown, NSW (page 236), by the bricklayer Darryl Webb. Finds with similar characteristics have been noted in several other locations. The pivotal role of chimneys and fireplaces in the concealment of objects within buildings, especially those that are domestic in character, has become apparent. The following pages contain sketches illustrating concealment locations in Australian houses with particular emphasis on chimneys and fireplaces.

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5.2.5 LOCATIONS OF CONCEALED OBJECTS: COTTAGES

Sketch by Michael McCowage

CORNERS OF ROOF OVER DOOR NEAR CHIMNEY

UNDER THRESHOLD OR FLOOR

CHIMNEY POCKETS OR SMOKESHELF WALL SUBFLOOR NEAR CHIMNEY BASE

This sketch of a 19th century cottage with its cutaway view of internal spaces shows some of the main locations in houses where concealed objects have been found in Australia. The locations of concealments correspond with ancient fears of evil forces threatening liminal spaces. There is no suggestion that any one house will have objects in all of the locations shown. The source of this information is the research conducted to compile the Catalogue of Finds in Appendix One. (page 224).

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5.2.6 LOCATIONS OF CONCEALED OBJECTS: TERRACE HOUSES

Sketch by Michael McCowage

This cutaway view of one of the houses in a row of 19th century terraces illustrates some of the secret voids that every house contains. The large letter F indicates fireplaces. Dotted lines rising from the fireplaces trace the course of the flues through the structure of the building. The letter V shows the locations of voids or pockets within the brick structure of the chimneys. In some cases, these are accessible from the roof cavity which is entered via a ceiling trapdoor. Voids that are open in this way are sometimes used to add fresh objects from time to time, thus forming a spiritual midden. The arrows indicate subfloor locations adjacent to the bases of the chimneys where shoes or cats are most often found. Concealed objects may also be found in the roof cavity, either close to the chimney stack or, in some cases, in the corners of the roof.

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5.2.7 LOCATIONS OF CONCEALED OBJECTS: FIREPLACES AND CHIMNEYS

SMOKESHELF: A SHOE OR SHOES MAY BE FOUND HERE

CHIMNEYPIECE OF WOOD OR MARBLE

HEARTH: STONE OR CONCRETE

FLOOR TIMBERS SHOES OR A CAT

NOT SHOWN: VOIDS (POCKETS) BESIDE FLUE

Above, a profile of a chimney and fireplace. This sectional view shows the construction of a typical masonry chimney and fireplace in Australia during the first half of the 19th century, before the widespread use of cast-iron register grates. The fire was set on the base of the hearth, often using cast-iron firedogs, or in a cast-iron basket grate. Following the introduction of register grates in the second half of the century, objects could be inserted through the flap at the top of the grate. Below left, a front view of the fireplace above. Below right, a typical fireplace of the second half of the 19th century. The flap, known as a register, through which objects could be inserted and dropped onto the back of the hearth is indicated by an arrow.

Sketches on this page by Michael McCowage

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5.2.8 IDENTIFICATION

After many site visits in widely separated areas of Australia I have been able to identify characteristics of concealments found so far: Liminal spaces were preferred locations for the placement of concealed objects. These include chimneys, hearths, doorways, windows, subfloor regions and roof cavities. Objects were positioned beyond the reach of normal household activity and most often are found in what can be described as a sealed void. Finding them may involve the partial demolition of the structure of the building, either by taking up floors, opening up walls, by gaining access to the voids within the structure of chimneys or by examining the interior of a chimney flue. Some objects may be placed in roof cavities to which access may be gained through a ceiling trapdoor, or located under floors and accessible, though usually with considerable difficulty, through trapdoors in the floor. Roof cavity and subfloor concealments are usually located well away from trapdoors. Subfloor concealments are often found close to the bases of chimneys. Concealed shoes may be singles or pairs but singles are more common. The shoes of children or young people are very common. Concealments may relate to one or more members of a family and in some cases the number of shoes found appear to relate to all of the members of the family in residence at the time. Such caches may contain adult shoes and the footwear of several children. I cannot be certain whether childrens shoes of different sizes may be those of different members of the family or shoes that have been placed over a period of years. The great majority of shoes are badly worn. In some cases shoes have been worn to the brink of destruction. Shoes have often been repaired, sometimes more than once. Repairs are frequently of an amateur nature. Shoes, garments, cats and other items (such as childrens toys and domestic artifacts) are all found in the places referred to in the liminal spaces listed at the top of this page. There is thus no pattern of placing different types of items in different voids or areas of the building. This statement is qualified only by the unsuitability of chimney smokeshelves, where intense heat often occurs, for the placement of either cats or garments. Laces are often removed from shoes, perhaps for reuse. There appears to be no particular pattern to the right - or left-footedness of concealed shoes in Australia or elsewhere, or to the colour of concealed shoes. Objects are found in a wide variety of buildings and in cities, provincial towns and rural areas throughout Australia (Catalogue of Finds, page 224).

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5.3 the story in the leather

The shoes that have emerged from dark and silent voids in old houses and other buildings since this research began tell a story of a very different Australia from the one that we inhabit today. Battered and, in some cases, hard-baked assemblages of leather, nails and laces, these are the shoes that Australians wore in all of the decades from the 1820s to the 1930s. They range in size from 130mm to 230mm, the shoes of the joyful young, of the women who struggled to care for their families and of the men whose lives were filled with hard, grinding labour. Most poignant, perhaps, is the footwear of children to whom walking on their own two feet was a wonderful novelty. These are little shoes and boots that were dragged through the dust and the mud, splashed in puddles and used to kick balls in streets and paddocks in every state of Australia. This is the footwear of children whose lives have long since been lived. There are also the boots of bricklayers and stonemasons for whom life was filled with constant, backbreaking toil. Tradesmen wore these boots on building sites that ranged from neat brick and stone cottages to the grand houses of the moneyed classes to which they would never belong. They worked ten-hour days, six days Top, childs shoe, Hartley Vale, NSW. 1859 1860; a week, fifty-two weeks above, workmans boot, Mudgee, NSW, circa 1860; a year. Shoes had to work below, childs shoe, Camperdown, NSW, circa 1890. harder then: walking to work, doing a long days labour and walking home again. You can see all of this in the sturdy boots of the tradesmen that have been found in houses and churches in many areas of this country. There are no messages with these boots and shoes: nothing to tell their stories but the evidence in the leather. It speaks of hard-scraped lives in an Australia where poverty was

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no stranger: home-done repairs with scraps of leather roughly sewn to the uppers of shoes that have burst at the seams, and of tiny little shoes that are so worn they must have been used by several of the children in a family. Money was tight and shoes were expensive, so they were worn to the very end of their days. With no more wear left in them, these shoes and boots were stripped of their laces and put to another use. The shoes listed in the Catalogue speak of poverty beyond the experience of most people today. The facts described above might point to concealments by people at the lower extremity of society at the time but many of the shoes found were expensive and wellmade. The shoes tell us that this custom was carried out across a broad band of Australian society. While many of the shoes found offered no Womans boot, 1840s, particular enlightenment, other than that they exhibited Battery Point, Tasmania. The tongue has become detached. the primary characteristics of concealed objects, a few stood out from the rest. These included the group of thirty-eight shoes and boots plus leather leggings, a straw hat, a mans Akubra hat, two parasols and documents discovered in voids at Woodbury at Anthill Ponds in the Tasmanian Midlands (page 295). The Woodbury cache is notable for the sheer number of objects concealed, making it the largest group yet found in Australia. The survival of this practice until well into the 20th century is confirmed by the fragments of a childs boot, found embedded in original fill in the southern approaches of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (page 277) during preparations for the Bridgeclimb enterprise. Other 20th-century finds include the womans shoe of circa 1935 found in the chimney at 121 Mitchell Street, Stockton, NSW (page 275), and the womans shoe of the mid-1920s found beneath upper-level floorboards at 16 Grantham Street, Burwood, NSW (page 235). All of these locations are discussed in more detail in the Catalogue of Finds (page 224).

5.4 quantifying finds

No attempt has been made to produce a tally of the total number of shoes found as this was considered unlikely to add to understanding of the practice. It is not always possible to be definite in stating the number of shoes found at a site. In some cases subfloor voids had not been fully explored. In others there is no way of knowing whether additional concealments exist without demolition of part of the building structure a research technique of dubious validity. In others, pilfering by tradesmen is known to have occurred. Numbers of shoes at the various locations where they were found, where this is known, are given in individual site records in the Catalogue. Whether there is one shoe or numerous shoes at a site does not alter the validity of the find.

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5.4.1 varieties of location: all finds

It was considered at first that a pattern might appear in terms of the type of building in which objects were secreted. This did not happen. While it is clear that the vast majority of buildings in which objects were placed were dwelling houses no further typology has become apparent. Buildings other than houses in which objects have so far been found are as follows: Asylums: Destitute Asylum, Adelaide, South Australia Bridges: Sydney Harbour, southern approaches, Sydney, NSW Churches: Catholic, Balmain and Temora, NSW, Perth, Western Australia; Primitive Methodist, Woodchester, South Australia Community halls: Goulburn, NSW Convents: Northbridge, Western Australia Convict Barracks/Immigration depots: Sydney, NSW Commercial buildings: Fremantle and Perth, Western Australia Commissariats (convict): Taranna (Port Arthur), Tasmania; Moreton Bay (Brisbane), Queensland Courthouses: Maryborough, Victoria, Banco Court, Supreme Court, Melbourne, Victoria Gaol: Richmond, Tasmania Inns/Hotels: Hartley Vale, NSW; Epsom, Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania; Stanley, Tasmania, Port Fairy, Victoria, Adelaide, South Australia Lighthouses/associated buildings: Geraldton, Western Australia Police Stations: Mitcham, South Australia Rectories, Anglican: Birregurra, Victoria Royal Mint, Melbourne, Victoria Schools:Watervale, South Australia; Horrocks, Western Australia (schoolroom on a country estate) Shops/shoe factory: York, Western Australia Theatres: Her Majestys, Ballarat, Victoria To date, sixteen pairs of shoes have been found a larger total than I had anticipated in the course of this investigation. Thirteen sites contained what appear to be the boots or shoes of building tradesmen. Other sites contained shoes of children or adults that had probably been concealed by building tradesmen. These were identified by the location of the objects in building voids that would not have been readily accessible to residents of the dwellings.

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5.4.2 mens work?

The hands of members of several building trades can be seen in many of the concealments I have examined. Among these was the (presumed) bricklayers boot discovered in the chimney breast in the library at Burrundulla, Mudgee, NSW.

Burrundulla

In this case, the instigators were the bricklayers who in constructing the chimney in the library left out a brick at a point where its omission would do no harm to the stability of the structure. The boot was squeezed into this cavity. Finishing off the chimney with three coats of plaster (scratch coat, float coat and set coat) was the task of a team of plasterers who must have been complicit in the concealment. They could hardly have avoided seeing the boot crammed into the gap on the side of the chimney breast and it would have been up to them to make good the irregularity resulting from the insertion of a boot into a void created by omitting a brick. (See page 272 for an image of the boot). We know that plasterers worked in the library, the site of the concealed boot, because the handwritten specifications that have survived in a bound volume kept in this room make this clear. Two trades were thus involved in this concealment. Designed by William Weaver for the Honorable H.G. Cox, the contract for the construction of Burrundulla was awarded to Henry and Robert Hudson, builders, of Redfern, Sydney, and signed on 22 January 1864.2 It is open to question as to whether the Hudsons laid the bricks used in the construction of such a large house. Builders at that time often started their careers as members of a trade before becoming entrepreneurs. The specifications for the If the Hudsons had been bricklayers earlier in their construction of Burrundulla.

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The library at Burrundulla.

working lives, the comparative remoteness of the site may have induced them to act as their own tradesmen or perhaps to lead a team of local laborers in the work. Burrundulla is notable for the fact that it has an unbroken line of ownership by members of the Cox family since its construction in 1865. Jeremy Cox, the present owner, is a member of the sixth generation of his family to occupy Burrundulla. If the family was ever aware of this concealment all knowledge of it had been lost by the time of its discovery in early 2004. Fittingly, the discovery was made by plasterers engaged to repair the ceiling close to the chimney breast where the boot was concealed. Other concealments have links to the plastering Petrine, Henry and Jeremy trade. At Lower Fort Street, Dawes Point, NSW (page Cox. Henry is a member of the 243), the childs shoe discovered by Nicholas White was 7th generation of Coxes to live at Burrundulla. behind a lath and plaster wall, close to attic bedrooms. The location behind this wall raises the possibility of involvement by the plasterers who constructed the wall and who, it would seem, could hardly have failed to notice the shoe and the lace collar that were eventually discovered there when the wall was breached in 2003. The position of the objects in the building was the north-east corner and was not associated with a chimney. But the location, high in the

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house and seemingly close to the sky, was between the main body of the Harbour and the children of the merchant who occupied bedrooms in the attic at that time. The circumstances of individual finds may provide distinct clues to the trade backgrounds of builders. At Elizabeth Bay House, Sydney (page 247), a team of slaters renewing the roof in July 1935 was photographed by the Sydney Morning Herald and the result published in that newspapers womens supplement on the 18th of the month. The men appear neatly dressed, and in the manner of the time, came to work in what were probably trousers from their second-best suits, waistcoat and a reasonably stylish pullover, all topped with felt hats. The house was not occupied at that time and was in the process of being prepared for use as a reception centre. From 1926 to 1940 the house was owned by Elizabeth Bay Estates and had been occupied for some years from 1928 by a floating population of artists, including John Longstaff, Wallace Thornton and Wolfgang Cardamatis. But these people were obliged to leave when the building was leased by a partnership of Mrs. A.A. Hall and Mrs. L.A. Minnett. Extensive repairs and repainting prepared the old house for its new role.3 The slaters thus had no residents available in the building to contribute a shoe or shoes. The discovery some thirty years later of a pair of very worn tan leather Oxford shoes of circa 1930 in the roof cavity of Elizabeth Bay House raises the possibility that they were placed there by the slaters. Certainly, the date and style of the shoes provides a fit with the clothing worn by the men and the date in which the work was performed. This is one of the two situations in which photographs were taken of the tradesmen who may have been involved in concealments. The other image shows stonemasons at work setting the final stones on top of the south-east pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (page 277). Remnant pieces of a childs shoe or boot were found in original fill of the Bridges southern approaches, not far from the pylon, during preparations for the BridgeClimb operation. The object was cut apart by a diamond saw slicing a passage through the fill. Pieces of the heel were collected and placed in storage at the BridgeClimb office while a small portion remained, buried in the mass of the fill beneath the roadway. The photograph showing the stonemasons involved in the final stages of work on this section of the Bridge, taken on 2 September 1931, may include the men who made this concealment in one of Sydneys greatest landmarks. Both the Harbour Bridge and Elizabeth Bay House finds, with the photographs referred to, are included in the Catalogue of Finds. Subfloor shoe finds include many that indicate placement before floorboards were fixed. One such find, in Bathurst, NSW (page 229), is splashed with lime mortar, suggesting that this was a concealment by bricklayers. The cooperation or involvement of carpenters would have been necessary in subfloor concealments made by other trades on a building site. The process of constructing a timber floor involves setting out the bearers and joists, levelling the joists and fixing them in place. This creates a great deal of movement within the space in which the work is being carried out. Shoes left on the

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ground, adjacent to a chimney or wall, by bricklayers or stonemasons the first men on the job after the excavators would have been considered a nuisance in the normal course of events. If the placement occurred before the carpenters commenced the construction of the floors, they could not have failed to notice shoes sitting on the earth, just below where they were working. It would be reasonable to expect that subfloor shoes would have been put in place after the carpenters set out and secured the joists and bearers. But the possibility of respect by carpenters for placements by members of the masonry trades cannot be ignored. Other finds linked to bricklayers include the childs shoe built into the structure of a late-Victorian chimney in Australia Street, Camperdown, Sydney (page 236). The circumstances of the find, by the bricklayer Darryl Webb who discovered it during the course of demolishing the chimney, were the exact opposite of the original concealment which must have been made by members of the same trade. The involvement of carpenters can be seen in a number of locations. At Elizabeth Street, Hobart, Tasmania (page 318), where five pairs of shoes were found immediately beneath the timber floor of a circa 1870s cottage, the carpenters who laid the floor could not have failed to notice the shoes which were immediately to hand and in clear view. Appropriately, this find was made by the carpenters who took up the much-deteriorated original floor. Other concealments can be linked to carpenters, including the sailors cap found within the wall cavity of a 1927 timber community hall at Goulburn, NSW

When the old kitchen floor was taken up in a 19th-century cottage in Elizabeth Street, Hobart, carpenters found numerous shoes. This photograph was taken by the owner of the house, Jennifer Earle, shortly afterwards. When this concealment was being made carpenters nailed down the floor over the shoes. Details are in the Catalogue of Finds, page 254.

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(page 254). It is sometimes members of the same trade who find these concealments but without exception the modern-day tradesmen say they know nothing of the reason for the practice, although some of them have found shoes in other sites. The Catalogue of Finds contains other probable trade concealments. Quite how this practice came to Splashed with mortar and worn to destruction are these the be connected to some of boots of one of the workmen who built the house at Bathurst, the principal trades of the NSW, where they were found under the floor? For details see the Catalogue of Finds, page 229. building industry is open to surmise and further investigation. This task is beyond the scope of this thesis and may involve lengthy and detailed research in the records of British guilds associated with the building trades. If, as is entirely possible, the concealment of objects is associated with the building trades, it appears to have spilled over into the general community. Many of the objects found have been concealed without any apparent connection with the building trades. This applies in particular to objects concealed within roof cavities and, in a number of cases, to those placed in subfloor voids. Almost every house is provided with a trapdoor in the ceiling of one of the lesser rooms or passages. These provide comparatively easy access to anyone brave enough to climb a ladder, venture into the darkness and scramble across the ceiling joists. But concealments in roof cavities can also be made quite easily by climbing a ladder to the trapdoor and flinging a shoe into the void. Access to subfloor areas is also enabled in those houses with a trapdoor in the flooring timbers. Trapdoors in floors may be covered with a rug or located in one of the lesser rooms of the building. Subfloor crawl spaces are even less inviting than roof cavities and entering them is not a pleasant experience. They tend to be confined and claustrophobia-inducing spaces, are often damp and may be occupied by spiders, cockroaches, rodents and occasionally snakes. To reach a number of voids beneath the rooms of a house is likely to require a difficult journey, often by crawling while struggling to hold a torch, through an unpleasant, unwelcoming and rarely-visited part of a house. A high level of motivation or necessity is required of anyone entering such spaces.

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5.4.3 concealment locations within buildings

There is a consistency in the locations of concealments within Australian buildings that reflects the situation found in the United Kingdom. This suggests the importation of an off-the-shelf custom, transplanted without significant change onto Antipodean soil. The locations of finds within a building also reflect the comparative ease with which individual concealments were made. This in turn can suggest whether concealments were made by the residents of buildings or by those whose occupation as a member of one of the building trades made concealments possible. By far the greatest number of concealments was found beneath nailed-down floors. The total of these was 70 from 119 sites recorded. To place objects beneath floors requires making the concealment before the floor is completed, accessing the subfloor area through a trapdoor, or by lifting floorboards. Subfloor voids fall into two main groups: 1. those beneath ground floors where the void is above the level of the earth below the building and 2. those which exist on upper-levels of buildings and are in the comparatively small cavities between floorboards and the ceiling of the room below. These voids are commonly about 150mm deep but may extend laterally for some metres. Concealments can occur within either of these subfloor void types. Placing objects beneath ground-level floors is comparatively simple if the building has been provided with a trapdoor for access to the subfloor region. Inserting trapdoors post-construction or alternatively simply lifting boards for the insertion of shoes or other objects is a task that requires skill and the use of tools that are not necessarily kept in many households. Chisels, saws, hammers, pinchbars and nail punches are tools commonly used in such processes. Floors that have been correctly laid are not easily pierced to insert trapdoors without significant damage to the floor timbers and leaving a permanent record of the process. Up until about 1870 floorboards in Australia were generally rectangular in profile and butted then cramped together and nailed. Specifications for carpenter and joiners work for flooring an 1865 house required the flooring to be: of Stringy Bark free from all imperfections to be 6 x 1 and to hold one inch thick full when delivered, to be well and carefully dressed, shot and wrought to a uniform thickness, laid perfectly close, and secured with two nails at each joist4 Lifting floors of this type was not an easy matter, particularly when the boards were of hardwood, two metres or more in length, butted up hard against their neighbours and well nailed down. But later in the 19th century, when tongue-and-grooved flooring became the norm, the task of breaking through a timber floor became even more difficult. A specification of 1883 for the construction of a house at Paddington, NSW, required the carpenters to lay the floor using: ... best 6 x 1 tongue and groove Kauri pine flooring with neatly mitred borders around hearths, lay down close & even with straight joints, with 2 inch nails to each joist punched & all floors cleaned off at completion

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of contract.5 In this system, each board is provided with a projecting tongue on one edge and a corresponding groove on the other. When laid, the tongues and grooves fit neatly together, locking individual boards into a whole. Tongue-and-grooved boarding provides extra strength and stability to floors. Lifting any one of these boards involves the destruction of either the board in question or one or both of its neighbouring boards. All of the preceding information suggests that many subfloor concealments would have been put in place before floors were nailed down over them. The logical conclusion from this is that tradesmen would have been actively involved, or at least complicit, in a large number of subfloor concealments. It is however possible that some concealments were made by the occupants and users of houses or other buildings who gained access to the subfloor area through existing trapdoors. While the constructing and laying of timber floors is a job for carpenters it would be a mistake to assume that every concealment under a timber floor was carried out by these tradesmen. Other trades, or indeed a member of the incoming household where a house is under construction, may have placed the objects on the ground and left it to the carpenters to lay the floors over the top. But a considerable number of subfloor concealments of shoes, cats and sundry other objects appears to be the work of one or other of the building trades. It has been suggested in the case of the objects concealed beneath floors at Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney (page 279), that these concealments were carried out by inmates people who had little or no building trade skills and questionable access to tools but who, nevertheless, managed to prise up heavy hardwood floorboards which had been firmly nailed down. The Barracks housed thousands of convicts between 1819 and 1848 and afterwards served as an immigration depot for Irish orphans and the wives and children of convicts. It later became an asylum for infirm and destitute women. The technique of lifting butt-edged Lifting butt-edged floorboards is a difficult task, even with the correct tools. The diagram is from Care and Repair of boards, the same as those at Old Floors, technical pamphlet No. 15, from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, London. Hyde Park Barracks, from a

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floor has been described in a technical leaflet issued by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, London, and reprinted in Australia by Heritage Victoria. The preamble to the description of the process makes it clear that this was no easy matter: Lifting the first board without damage is usually much more difficult than the remainder. It is not an operation which should be rushed into it requires ingenuity, preparation, care and patience! The Society suggested that the tools required were a six inch bolster (preferably two of these), wooden blocks of various thicknesses, a flat hardened steel plate, a hammer, a -inch batten about eight inches longer than the width of the board, nail punches, a hammer and a crowbar.6 The crowbar shown in the accompanying sketch is what would normally be described in Australia as a pinchbar. Not only is lifting such boards difficult, especially without the right tools, but it is also far from silent. The availability to the occupants of Hyde Park Barracks of the tools for this work needs to be considered in terms of the everyday regimen in force there when convicts were housed in this building. The Hyde Park Barracks Museum Guidebook, published by the Historic Houses Trust after considerable research, describes the daily routine: A bell called the men lodging at the Barracks to muster every morning at daybreak (Sundays and holidays excepted). They were delivered to their overseers and searched at the gate before being marched to their daily labours. Men required to work at the Barracks and invalids incapable of work remained behind. These men swept the yard and aired and cleaned the central dormitory building, shaking out the bedding and folding the blankets. Working hours were sunrise till sunset. During summer, there was one hour for rest from 8.00 am to 9.00 am for men working outdoors. The men were returned for their main meal in the middle of the day, typically fresh and salted meat and bread. After one hour in the mess-room, the bell was again rung and the men were mustered and marched back to work. Overseers ensured the men were returned to the Barracks before sunset. Day constables searched them at the gate for stolen or illicit items like liquor.7 The impression conveyed is one of a highly organised and regimented society. On the face of it, neither the tools nor the opportunity to use them would have been readily available to the convict inmates of the Barracks. The mainly female occupants of the later years of the 19th century would have been hard-pressed to lift or cut through hardwood flooring. But the ingenuity of confined men and women was considerable and the fact remains that a good many objects were placed beneath the floorboards of this building over a period of many years. The question of quite how the Hyde Park Barracks concealments were carried out requires further research which is beyond the scope of this thesis. But it may be a task for the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales which manages the Barracks

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on behalf of the State Government. Whether the boards lifted to make concealments were at Hyde Park Barracks or any other building in Australia there appears to be a strong possibility that this work was carried out by those who possessed trade or similar physical skills. In 19th century Australia the task in the great majority of such cases would have fallen to members of one or other of the building trades.

5.4.4 the missing shoe

The great majority of finds of concealed shoes in Australia are of single shoes. No particular pattern of left or right has emerged in these finds. Total numbers of left and right shoes are approximately equal. However, repeated discoveries of single shoes in Australian concealments suggest an indication of a purpose or methodology which is not so far apparent. The act of concealment requires a number of preceding decisions, the first being to perform the act. This would be followed by decisions on the location of the concealment, whether to conceal one or more shoes and in the case of a pair of shoes, which happened to be on hand at the time, to conceal one or both. If one shoe from a pair was selected for concealment was the other shoe discarded or did it have some other purpose? If a pair of shoes was on hand, which would presumably be the case, why choose to conceal only one? What was done with the other, now missing, shoe? Researchers in the United Kingdom and in the Netherlands have advanced two theories in an attempt to explain the missing shoe. June Swann, writing in Costume in 1996, provides an account of the investigation of a number of single shoes found in a well Childs leather ankle boot, recovered from the flue of an 1880 cottage, Winchelsea Estate, Lincolnshire. Inside the boot was at Chenies Manor, circa 1460 a miniature bible, published by David Bryce and Son, and 1526, at Chorleywood, Glasgow, 1901. As is often the case, this concealment consisted of a single shoe. Here, magic and religion intersect. Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. (Adam Daubney, County Archaeologist, Lincolnshire: Investigators of this find were Portable Antiquities Scheme) told by a local woman that the tradition in discarding worn-out shoes was that one should go to water and one to fire. Thus, if this ladys statement is correct, wells and chimneys would have been the preferred locations for concealments.8 This is one possible explanation for the distinct tendency for finds of single shoes, raising the question of the fate of the other shoe. In Australia, while household chimneys are extremely common throughout our history, wells and

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subterranean tanks are now very rare. From the early 20th century rural properties were frequently supplied with water from galvanised steel rainwater tanks but there is nowhere to conceal a shoe in these. A shoe sitting on the brick and timber tank-stand would hardly be concealed. A better possibility for concealment would be the subterranean tanks (often erroneously called wells) that were common in our cities and towns in the period before municipal water supplies. These were brick-built, frequently with a low domed top that is often all that is visible above ground, and were found in backyards close to the house. They were filled by rainwater piped from the guttering of the house. A cast-iron hand pump brought water to a tap, either outside the back door or in the kitchen, where it was collected in a bucket or other container. But very few of these tanks remain. The opportunity to ascertain if shoes were placed in wells or tanks in this country has thus largely been lost. Dr. Carol van Driel-Murray of the University of Amsterdams Archaeology Department has suggested another possibility for the use of single shoes in concealments. Driel-Murray has researched and written about Roman footwear and clothing for many years and in Stepping Through Time: Archaeological Footwear from Prehistoric Times until 1800 (2001) notes that shoes were often deliberately deposited in wells and waterholes during the Roman period. In prehistoric times, she writes, shoes were deliberately placed in bogs. Roman deposits in wells and waterholes show a distinct preference for the use of the left or sinistra shoes. The practice of placing shoes in wells, she believes, was: ... a form of signature accompanying requests to the gods, and it is possible that the right shoe was retained by the dedicant as a reminder of the contract. Wells generally have a better survival rate than ancient buildings. While early buildings are usually obliterated by the passage of years wells tend to be filled and may survive largely intact. Although it may be thought that anything found in a well would probably be the result of an impromptu form of rubbish disposal, Driel-Murray cites evidence for deliberate placement of shoes in wells which were considered to be entry points to the underworld. One such find, at Venray, Netherlands, was placed behind the structural timbers of a well, providing firm dendrochronological evidence of a concealment of exactly AD 230. Another Netherlands find, of the deliberate placement of a pair of shoes beneath a house at Midden Delfland, was undated but is thought to be 2nd or 3rd century AD. The find was made during excavation of the house terp an artificial hill or mound on which houses were constructed in the floodprone Netherlands. Driel-Murray believes that concealments of this type convey cultural messages and that footwear possesses a social function besides that of protecting the feet from cold and damp.9 Other possibilities on the purpose of the shoe that was not concealed have been suggested, in an altogether different archaeological context, by John Chapman in Fragmentation in Archaeology: People, Places and Broken Objects in the Pre-history of South-eastern Europe (2000). Chapmans research was on the ritual fragmentation of

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material culture in Mesolithic, Neolithic and Copper Age deposits in Balkan settlements. He suggests that broken pottery and other artefacts were deposited as part of a process he terms enchainment in which a link was created between individual members of a society: The two people who wish to establish some form of social relationship or conclude some kind of transaction agree on a specific artifact appropriate to the interaction in question and break it into two or more parts, each keeping one or more parts as a token of the relationship.10 If a form of this practice was involved in the concealment of shoes the idea relates back to van Driel-Murrays theory of a contract. In this, the person who concealed a shoe would hold the other half of the pair, the fragment of the whole pair, to seal the bargain. Chapman relates this theory to the Roman custom of tessera hospitalis, in which the two halves of a single object were kept by two parties to an agreement or a commitment.11 Applying this theory to the concealment of shoes raises an intriguing question: if the persons who made the concealment believed that they were thus entering into a contractual arrangement, whom did they understand to be the party with whom the contract was made? There remains also the possibility that splitting up pairs of shoes is akin to the ritual destruction of weapons which were thrown into rivers and bogs in Britain and elsewhere in Europe over many centuries. By killing swords and other weapons, they were sent into the other world where they would continue to be available to the warriors whose deaths had left the weapons without owners. Merrifield in The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic (1987) postulates that this destruction by irrevocably renouncing its normal use devoted the object to the intended supernatural purpose.12 There is therefore a possibility that the breaking up of pairs of shoes prior to the concealment of single shoes can be compared to earlier practices involving the destruction of objects with an intended ritual purpose.

5.5 concealments: a roman origin?

Shoes placed in wells and pits in the Western Roman Empire raise the possibility of this practice having been spread by members of the invading armies or the succeeding administration in the period between AD 43 and AD 410 when most of Britain was under Roman rule. Shafts that provided a means of depositing sacrificial objects within reach of the gods of the underworld are referred to by Merrifield who provides numerous examples of the practice in Roman Britain.13 However, archaeological or documentary reference material for the concealment of shoes in buildings of the Roman period, either in Britain or, as far as I have been able to ascertain, in Italy or elsewhere in the Empire, appears to

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be lacking. Driel-Murray has urged archaeologists to investigate possible concealment locations in Roman buildings, including hearths and chimneys. In a ground-breaking paper read at the eighth annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference at the University of Leicester in 1998, Driel-Murray urged her colleagues to pay close attention to shoes in the archaeology of Roman sites and to look for them under thresholds and in hearth constructions: There is something uncanny about feet, footprints and shoes. Throughout prehistory, foot vessels, foot amulets and footprints engraved on rocks attest the symbolic power of the foot and shoe. The foot is a liminal extremity, on the cusp between us and the soil from which it was so long believed that we sprang; it is no coincidence that metamorphosis begins with the feet, and it is in their feet that mermaids, centaurs, satyrs and the Devil himself are distinguished from humankind. Feet are on the frontier and it is around frontiers that rituals accumulate.14 Professor Michael Fulford of the University of Reading has carried out extensive excavation work at the site of Silchester, one of the few Roman towns in Britain that failed to flourish after the departure of the occupiers. Fulfords work has included studies of ritual behaviour of the residents of Silchester and other Roman towns and cities in the UK, including Neatham, Baldock, and Portchester. This study has been largely concentrated on pits and wells the evidence for which survives better than that of houses. In a paper entitled Links with the Past: Pervasive Ritual Behaviour in Roman Britain Fulford cites numerous cases of unusual underground depositions, including those of flagons, jugs, mugs, vases, dishes and the bones, skulls and skeletons of cattle, dogs, cats and humans both of children and adults.15 Fulford refers to inevitable ambiguities between rubbish and ritual and cites the work of Dr Simon Clarke of Shetland College, University of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Clarke has referred to shoes placed in Roman wells as personal votive acts, which might be symbolic of a journey either in prospect or successfully completed.16 The context in which he recorded this belief was an excavation carried out at the Roman fort near the present-day village of Newstead in the Scottish borders. The fort, known as Trimontium at the time of its Aerial view of the site of the Roman fort of Trimontium with construction, was occupied at the village of Newstead and the three hills that gave the site
its Latin name. (RCAHMS DP 050251)

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some period between the first and third centuries by Romes Twentieth Legion. The name Trimontium is a compound of two Latin words, the prefix tri- indicating three, coupled with the ending montium or muntium which means of the mountains. The name can be readily translated as the place of the three mountains, which can be identified as the Eildon Hills.17 Altars uncovered at Trimontium indicate that the gods worshipped there were Apollo, the sun-god and patron of music, his sister Diana, goddess of the moon and hunting, Jupiter, king of the Roman pantheon, the ancient Italian rural god Silvanus, and lastly, the Campestres, or goddesses of the parade-ground. These were all Roman gods, indicating that the defenders of the fort were Roman and thus a very long way from home.18 On the uncomfortable verge of the Empire, and facing an implacable foe, the men posted to the fort at Trimontium appear to have sought comfort in religion and ritual. The fort was first excavated in the early 20th century by James Curle and the results published in A Roman Frontier Post and its People: The Fort of Newstead in the Parish of Melrose (1911). Curles account of a very professional excavation is meticulous in its attention to detail and the scholarship recorded is of a high standard for the time. Curle knew a great deal about Roman military architecture and had studied and excavated forts in both Britain and Continental Europe. At Trimontium he carried out an excavation that, for the first time in Britain, investigated the purpose, structure and contents of numerous pits and wells found within and outside the perimeter of the ditches and walls surrounding the fort. This was partly the result of necessity. Very little was left of the buildings of the fort: ...the remains of their stone-work were so scanty as to make it almost impossible to recover any of their details. Long centuries of cultivation and systematic quarrying had well nigh brought about their utter destruction. Walls were in most cases reduced to foundations. Hardly a doorway of any

The site of the fort at Trimontium. (Curle, 1911, plate V)

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kind could be traced.19 Work began on 13 February 1905 and continued until 19 May 1909. Excavation resumed on 22 December 1909 and ran through until mid September 1910. A total of 107 pits or wells was excavated:20 From all of them, but more especially from those of considerable depth, there came a great mass of black earthy matter, having a curious well-marked smell. The same dark-coloured deposit was present at the bottom of the deeper ditches, especially those of the early fort on the west front. Vegetable fibres and animal bones entered largely into its composition. Branches, often with the bark undamaged, stems of heather, leaves of trees, fronds of bracken, reeds, and water plants were plainly recognisable. Bones of animals were almost invariably present, blue vivianite crystals gathering on them when they were exposed to the air. The soft damp mass, from which all air was excluded, had had a remarkable preservative power. Terra Sigillata preserved its brilliant glaze and brass its golden yellow, while iron tools and weapons, covered with a black oxide, seemed little the worse for their long immersion. Pieces of cloth, rope, and leather were recovered almost undamaged.21 Finds in the wells were puzzling. Skulls of men, women and dogs, the beak of a raven, numerous shoes, bent and broken swords, armour, parade helmets and rotary querns were among a great variety of objects found at various levels within the excavation.22 We know now, although Curle did not, that skulls, bent and broken swords, querns and other objects much the same as those found in the pits at Trimontium are regular finds in subterranean and watery deposits elsewhere in Britain and in Continental Europe.23 A parade helmet from The querns were particularly strange as a number of them were in a Trimontium pit. (NMS 000-100-036perfect condition. Curle hypothesised a calamity which had forced 815-C) the sudden abandonment of the fort but that hardly explained why querns would need to be dumped: It is easy to understand how many worn-out objects might find their way along with the broken dishes into what were naturally receptacles for rubbish. Odds and ends of value might have now and then dropped in accidentally. But there are circumstances that rather point to deliberate concealment. Among the objects which could hardly have found their way into the pits by chance are the querns. Fragments of these were of course among the rubbish. But in each of the Pits X, XIX, XXII and LXI there was a complete quern, lying with one stone above the other and having the iron spindles still in position. All four are of the volcanic stone from Niedermendig near Andernach on the

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The sword from Pit LVIII, Trimontium, dates from AD 80 100. Merrifield states on page 112 of The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic that the act of bending or breaking a sword was to transfer it from the physical to the spiritual plane. (NMS, X.FRA 139)

Rhine. Such things could not have been thrown away as worthless.24 In a pit, No. LVII, adjacent to the forts baths, Curle found further mysteries. These included: .a battered helmet mask, and four swords, three of which were bent and broken, while in Pit LVIII was another sword with the hilt doubled down on the blade.22 Grasping for an explanation, Curle suggested that a sudden retreat from the fort was the reason for the objects in the wells: Pit XVI held what can only be described as the contents of a camp smithy weapons and tools, hub rims for wheels, spears with blunted points, pioneers axes with worn edges, implements to be sharpened, old metal ready to be forged and welded into something new. It is hardly possible to apply any explanation other than concealment to this curious deposit.25 Modern archaeologists have found no evidence of a military or other disaster at Trimontium, although the fort was abandoned in circa AD 100 and again in circa AD 180. Although Curles use of the word concealment has a different meaning to the useage employed in this thesis it is possible that the two meanings intersect. Curle had encountered a mystery and was not able to interpret it with the theoretical tools at his disposal in the early 20th century. Pits and wells with much the same contents as those found at Trimontium have been discovered at a number of sites within the United Kingdom and in Continental Europe. These are now considered to have ritual purposes but on occasion to serve as rubbish pits. The same pit could, at different times, be the recipient of votive offerings or of objects with a protective purpose, placed deep within the earth as gifts to the gods, while on other occasions it provided a convenient dumping site for the detritus of a military camp or settlement.26 Many of these pits contain objects with which we are familiar in building caches created almost 1,500 years later. Numerous shoes were among the objects found in the wells of Trimontium. Some of these were the footwear of women and children rather than the men who made up the great majority of the occupants

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Roman shoes from the pits at Trimontium. Left, male, calceus, between AD 90 and 110. Right, probably young female, circa AD 100. (NMS, X.FRA 78 and X.FRA 114)

of the fort.27 In a bias towards the shoes of children, the Trimontium finds share one of the attributes of shoe concealments in building voids many centuries later a similarity which may provide a tentative link between the ritual practices of the Roman invaders of Britain and the concealment of shoes and other objects in the modern period. We know the shoes at Trimontium were Roman, not only from the context in which they were found, but also because they survived. In prehistory and later in those areas not conquered

Top, One of the shoes from Pit XXV at Trimontium and above the extract from Curles excavation report on this find. Curle, 1911: 122. The shoe is a calceus or caliga, and dates from between AD 80 and 180. The pattern of the hobnails left a decorative footprint in soft soil. (NMS, X.FRA 94)

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by the Romans, skins were treated with oils and fats or by methods such as smoking, none of which produced long-lasting and waterproof leather. But true tanning using vegetable extracts resulted in leather that survived well in damp, anaerobic conditions. The Romans introduced this technique to Britain, resulting in a sharp increase in the survival rate of leather goods. But shoes and other leatherware from previous periods, tanned by primitive methods, survived only in exceptional circumstances.28 The ritual use of shoes by Romans in Britain is confirmed by the circumstances of the Trimontium finds. There is as yet no distinct and confirmed link between prehistoric and Roman placement of shoes in bogs, pits and wells and those that began to occur in houses and other buildings of the British Isles from the 13th century onwards, although the circumstantial evidence is suggestive. Placement of these and other objects in the UK, both in bogs and wells (where they are considered to have a votive purpose) has been well documented.29 If the knowledge of rituals associated with shoes had faded from memory in Britain after the termination of Roman rule it would seem remarkable for these to be spontaneously revived a thousand years later. Tracing British shoe concealments in buildings back to the Roman period is a task that may be beyond both the available archaeological resources and the archaeological record itself. Even if concealed shoes could be located and identified, if indeed they exist, in the few surviving Roman structures in Britain (the baths at Bath, Hadrians Wall and the remnant portions of the London Wall) there would still remain the question of continuity throughout the many centuries after the departure of the Romans and the first confirmed finds of concealed shoes in Britain in the 13th century. The houses of the great majority of Britons until the 16th century were roundhouses or huts made from wattle and daub, combined with poles lashed together with coarse twine and thatched with turf, heather, bracken or straw. These buildings had a central hearth from which smoke escaped through a circular hole in the roof. Surviving houses in Britain that date back further than the 12th century are very rare.30 The possibility of a Roman ancestry for the concealments of shoes and other objects in buildings is nevertheless very intriguing, raising the question of whether Australian concealments are part of a tradition dating back 2,000 years or more. In order to consider all of the possibilities of the finds, both in the United Kingdom and in Australia, a strictly rationalist approach to the analysis of archaeological finds will clearly have to be modified. Clarke has argued that what we would call the supernatural did not exist as a separate sphere in the ancient world: Gods and spirits were not paranormal activity as far as Newsteads ancient population was concerned. They were part of the natural world, invisible perhaps, but as real to them as weather fronts, economic cycles and magnetic fields are to us.31 The placement of shoes and other objects in ritual pits at Trimontium, while it is tempting to attempt a link to the concealment of shoes in voids in Britain many centuries later, may not be connected other than as a common human response to crisis or stress by

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the invocation of measures aimed at exerting spiritual power. However, at least one ritual practice that is known to have occurred in Rome and Greece at least 2,000 years ago and which was taken into Britain survived there for many centuries after the departure of its initiators. It was still being practiced there until as late as the early 20th century. The text on charms and curses, included in Chapter Three, page 101, describes this ritual. If one Roman ritual survived in Britain until the 20th century others may also have done so. There is also an additional indicator of long-term survival of a very different ancient cultural practice, which while not of Roman origin, was contemporary with their occupation of Britain. I refer here to the building technique known as wattle and daub. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, 1965, states that the origin of the term wattle is obscure but its application is as a description for the practice of winding thin, supple branches of certain trees between upright posts set into the ground at intervals of about 900mm. This framework was then daubed with mud to which lime, dung, straw or animal hair was sometimes added. The resulting earthen surface was often plastered to a smooth finish and given a coat of whitewash. Vitruvius refers in disparaging terms to wattle and daub in Book III, 93, of his Ten Books on Architecture, written circa 25 BC. Wattle and daub came to Australia and was in use from the earliest days of European settlement until the mid-20th century. The acacia was found to be ideal for this form of building and as a result has been known as the wattle since it was used to provide housing for European convicts and settlers at Sydney Cove. This is a documented example of a process known to, and used by, the Romans and which, after arriving in Australia in the late 18th century, survived here for another 160 years.32

5.6 cats

After shoes, cats were the next most numerous find in Australian concealments. The total number of cat finds was seventeen. It has to be stressed that these were not strays that had crawled into voids and died there: the animals had been placed, most likely after a sacrificial killing, in cavities that offered no access. Further research on the carcasses, perhaps using x-rays and forensic methods, would be necessary in an effort to identify possible causes of death. These may include strangulation, drowning or, perhaps less likely, poisoning. The discovery of numerous dead cats in sealed voids in old buildings suggests that animal sacrifice for what appears to be ritual purposes took place in Australia until the early 20th century. This practice, in various forms, has a very long history. A collection of papyri acquired in Egypt in the early 19th century by Jean dAnastasi contained many documents describing magic spells now considered to be of Greco-Roman origin. One such spell describes how a cat should be killed in order to send it into the other world where the dead cat is capable of attracting a daemon.33 The cat

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was killed by drowning and while it was being placed in a tomb or place of burial the water in which it was drowned was sprinkled about the place while the person performing the ceremony uttered these words: I conjure you, the daimon that has been aroused in this place, and you, the daimon of the cat that has been aroused with spirit, come to me on this very day and from this very moment, and perform for me the (requested) deed.34 The use of cats is a form of concealment that differs in its nature from those made with shoes, garments and other artefacts. The latter appear to have a protective role, serving as decoys and so standing in for the occupants of buildings in which they were found. The purpose of concealed cats seems to differ somewhat and, like witch bottles, to have a rather more threatening, aggressive or retaliatory character. Merrifield suggests that the quasi-magical imitation of a hunting cat was intended to repel what he terms spiritual vermin the underworld familiars of witches which may have taken the form of rats and mice.35 It is surprising to find that such beliefs may have survived in early 20th-century Sydney in circumstances that suggest a link to fears generated by an outbreak of the plague. This matter will be explored shortly. Several people who contacted me about finds of concealed cats described the circumstances of the concealments and how they were discovered. These provide indications of the locations of the carcasses within the buildings that conform with prescribed locations for other concealed objects. The disposition of the carcasses, their attitudes and the association of dead rodents with one of the cats bears a clear resemblance to cat finds in United Kingdom caches. Rob Thomas told of the cat he found in his family home at 55 Upton Street, Launceston (page 324). He lived in the house with his mother from 1977 to 1996 and as a young boy explored parts of it that adults rarely if ever saw. Built in the 1840s and added to in 1871, the old house stood on a site that sloped down the hill from the street. Beneath the house, Thomas made his way through a very small old door and into a space that became more and more confined as he approached the front of the building. With headroom of a metre or less, tapering down to almost nothing, this was not a space into which adults would normally venture. Quite close to the front of the building, on a dirt floored-space beneath the hearth of the drawing room fireplace, Thomas found the body of a cat: It had all its skin and its tail and legs but no fur and was lying on its side, frozen in a very aggressive, quite ferocious pose. It had its mouth open with one paw up. It was as if it was about to kill something and had been frozen in time. It wouldnt have been like that if the death had been a natural one. I cant imagine an animal dying in that frozen position. I think it must have been posed.36

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This cat was concealed beneath the front of the building and as such is located close to the most convenient surface point of access, namely the front door. The attitude that Thomas describes is typical of some concealments in England where the creature is poised as if ready to attack. Sometimes the cat is found with companion animals dead rats or mice. The pose may include a dead rat in the cats mouth. British researchers suggest the rodent companions represent the prey that the cat is meant to pursue in the other world, thus protecting the house and its occupants.37 One example of companion rodents is known in Australia. This is the cat found at Her Majestys Theatre, Ballarat, Victoria (page 339), and now preserved in a case in the foyer, which has as its accoutrements a number of rodent companions. In the Perth suburb of Burswood (page 383), Kallan Short began renovations to the old house The Ballarat cat and companion rodents. (Her Majestys Theatre) he and his wife bought in 2001. The house appears to date from around 1900 and the back verandah had been enclosed to form a kitchen and dining area. This part of the building was demolished to allow for the construction of a new addition to the house. When the floorboards were taken up Short was surprised to find the body of a cat, directly under the original rear door of the building: It was in coiled position, with the upper portion leathery and well preserved and the side facing down rotted away. The skeleton was well preserved. While it is possible that the cat had crawled in there by itself I could not identify any entry point.38 In this case, the cat has been placed at another common access point. Unaware at the time of the possible significance of the find, Short sent the carcass to the tip along with the debris from the demolition work. Another find came from a house in the country near Wagin, WA (page 396). Built in 1904 on the Dumbelyung Road, two kilometres from Wagin for the publican of a local hotel, the house was suffering from damp problems when Jenny Lebens bought it in the early 1980s: When we lifted the floor to dig some soil out to try to alleviate the rising damp problems, we were surprised to find the leathery body of a cat with skin still intact and not significantly damaged. We wondered at the time how it could have found its way in there as the foundations were stone and to the best of my knowledge did not have holes big enough for an adult cat to climb in.39 There is no clear statement of the location within the room of this find but other reports describe cats being found in close proximity to the hearth or the base of the chimney in a significant room where family gatherings took place. John Logan of Montrose, Victoria,

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wrote to tell me about the old house he demolished at Wandin many years ago. It had been built by people from Guernsey in the English Channel Islands, probably in the 1870s: With the floorboards up I discovered in the cavity formed below the floor level by the footings and the foundations for the chimney there was a dirt mound, evenly formed, and on that was the carcass of a cat. It was stretched out as if it had died of fright. It was totally dried and the fur was missing. I would say it was put there when they built the house. It looked that old.40 Anne Wood of Birregurra, Victoria (page 341), reported an intriguing find. Renovations underway at the rear of their 1867 house uncovered the very old and very dry body of a cat. The carcass was discovered under the back doorstep. As with other cat finds, this carcass was despatched to the local tip with all the building rubbish.41 The house owned by the Woods was designed by the prominent Melbourne architect Leonard Terry who acted as Diocesan architect for the Anglican Church. In Birregurra Terry designed Christ Church and the adjacent vicarage. The Woods house had been the Anglican parsonage until 1989 when they bought it from the Church. Born in Yorkshire in 1825, Terry arrived in Melbourne in 1853 and began what proved to be an outstanding career, designing grand residences, banks, retail stores, warehouses and ecclesiastical buildings, principally for the Anglican Church.42 The discovery of a concealed cat in a building that had been associated with the Anglican Church is interesting. In the UK, where folk magic and religion have co-existed throughout the centuries, concealed cats have been found in churches.43 A find of this nature in Australia, together with other finds of cats and shoes in Australian churches, suggests that these two strands of belief continued their association in this country during the 19th century. It is possible that the Church authorities knew nothing of the ritual carried out at their Birragurra parsonage. It may have been the work of the tradesmen who built the vicars house part of the mystery of their craft and, as such, concealed from outsiders. In the case of the cats concealed in adjoining houses in Argyle Place, in Sydneys Millers Point (page 266), there is a glimpse of the possible reasoning behind the choice of these animals. Of the row of six shop-fronted terraced houses on the site two are known to have contained concealed cats. While the date of initial construction is not known the group of houses received a make-over in about 1906, emerging with a distinct arts and crafts appearance in a photograph of 1907. The first cat find was reported to me by Dr. Ling Yoong, owner of No. 8, following the telecast of ABC-TVs Rewind programme in October 2004. She described the circumstances of the find that occurred when tradesmen working on her behalf replaced the timber floor of the kitchen. I visited the site towards the end of 2004 when Yoong showed me the now-intact room and stated that the brick walls of this space would have made it impossible for the animal to crawl into the subfloor area of the room after the

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building was completed. The cat had been discarded before she became aware of its significance and made contact with me. Some months later Yoong emailed me again to report that another cat had been found in the adjoining residence: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 14:57:56 +1100 Hi Ian Guess what? My neighbour at 10 Argyle Place had to lift their floorboards before they tile over it and there was a cat under the floor boards - they did not take a photo. They left the cat in place. I think there must be a cat under each of the 4 terraces. This really substantiate (sic) the story. Ling44

The group of shops and residences in Argyle Place, Sydney two of which contained concealed cats in subfloor voids. The cats were found in the residences underneath the triangular shapes on the pediment. Details of these finds are in the Catalogue of Finds, Appendix One. The photograph was taken on 2 November 1907. (State Library of NSW image GPO1 no. 10316).

The site of these finds is 500 metres from the place where the plague epidemic of 1900 was first detected. The unfortunate victim was a 35 year old van driver named Arthur Payne whose house at 10 Ferry Lane, Millers Point, was swiftly guarded by police and Payne, his wife and three children, a servant and a visitor were shunted off to the Quarantine Station at North Head.45 The plague triggered a major Government

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response and resulted in the compulsory acquisition of properties and numerous demolitions within the worst-affected zone. It was known at the time that rats and mice were carriers of the bubonic plague. Fleas that live on these animals act as vectors and transfer the infection from the rodents to humans. The initial report on the outbreak, in the Sydney Morning Herald of 25 January 1900, quoted Dr. Ashburton Thompson, president of the Board of Health:

. it has for a long time been a puzzle to know how rats communicate the disease to man. As the result of constant observation, there seems to be very little doubt indeed that the infection is conveyed from the rats to man by the intermediary agency of fleas and other like insects. Therefore preventive measures must be directed against rats and fleas and similar pests.46

The first news of the plague. Sydney Morning Herald, 25/1/1900.

Although the role of rats and fleas in spreading plague was understood among health professionals at that time it had not yet been absorbed by the wider community. This information was disseminated by means of posters warning that the rats were the cause of the disease. George McCredie, an architect and consulting engineer who had been appointed chief organiser of the State Government response to the outbreak, issued the posters on 1 March 1900 warning in both English and Chinese of the dangers posed by rats: Plague is present in Sydney. It has been introduced by diseased rats and there is a danger of it spreading further.47 Teams of ratcatchers under McCredies supervision fanned out over the city, concentrating their activities on the slum areas where rats were most numerous. More than 44,000 rats were dispatched by the time the programme was concluded. The human toll was
Some of the 600 rats killed by professional ratcatchers working in plague-stricken areas of Sydney on 17 July 1900. (SR 12487_a021_

a021000010)

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also significant. Between 19 January and 9 August 1900, 303 people contracted the disease. Of these, 103 died.48 With a one-in-three chance of dying if you contracted the disease, it would be understandable if the plague sparked deep-seated fear of domestic rat infestations. Although the Sydney Morning Herald wrote that there was no need for alarm49 the public response for a time came close to panic. Billy Hughes, MP for the area where the plague began, wrote that on the day the Herald report was published: Before noon, alarm bordering on panic had spread throughout the community, and by nightfall the trains to the mountains were crowded with citizens fleeing from the infected city.50 The Millers Point cat finds are particularly interesting as the concealments took place at a time when fear of the plague was still very strong in Sydney. Cases of the plague occurred in Sydney and other maritime cities around Australia for many years afterwards. The proximity of the Argyle Place houses where the cats were concealed to the plagues ground zero is noted. Particular care was taken with the cat placed under the floor at No. 10 Argyle Place. It was in a purpose-built box made by fixing floorboards to the bottom of the floor joists. The kitchen floorboards acted as a lid to the box. Of the other dwellings in the group, one was extensively renovated by speculators who cannot now be contacted
Sketch by Michael McCowage

This cutaway view of the cat in the purpose-built box beneath the floorboards of the old kitchen at 10 Argyle Place, Millers Point, was drawn after a site inspection and conversations with the owners who were present when the old floor was taken up. After discussions with Dr. Yoong about the cat found at No. 8, the owners of No. 10 decided to leave this cat in-situ and the new floor of tiles was laid on top.

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and another shop/residence, at present an antique store, has not been examined for subfloor or other concealments. The outbreak of plague within close proximity to these houses, both geographically and in time, raises the possibility that there was a purpose behind the concealment of cats in renovated buildings so close to the site of the original infection. Paul Cowdell in Charms, Charmers and Charming says that the connection of rats to evil spirits has long been known. He refers to beliefs about rats as harbingers of evil and omens of death in Worcestershire in 1909.51 There was good reason to see them in this light in Sydney in the first years of the 20th century. Merrifield observed that: The great obsession of the 17th century was with witchcraft, and witches were supposed to work their evil by means of familiar spirits that often took the form of rats or mice.52 Merrifield recorded additional thoughts on cat concealments in an unpublished manuscript for a book planned to be a cooperative effort with Swann and Easton. This project was terminated by Merrifelds death on 9/1/1995. In October 1994 he wrote: Animal sacrifice survived into the post-mediaeval period as a protective device, and the dried bodies of cats are often found in roofs and chimneypieces. Sometimes they have been set up after death holding rats or mice in hidden places, and rationalised as deterrents to vermin. The original purpose, however, is likely to have been deterrence of the witchs familiars, which often took the form of rats, mice or birds.53 The discovery of one cat close to the site of the Sydney plague outbreak might be overlooked as mere coincidence but the second cat, placed on a speciallyconstructed platform in an adjoining house, carries the story further. This was a concealment with intent, made at a time when fear of the disease continued to grip the residents of Sydney. These Cats are arranged in a cruciform shape in this concealment dating from 1617. The find was made in a house at Vaihingen concealments took place in a an der Enz, southern Germany. (Petra Schad) period when ancient beliefs may have overlapped with new scientific understanding that placed the blame for the plague squarely on the rats that infested the slums of Sydney. I suggest that the cats were chosen and concealed for their

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supposed ability to function in the underworld and, perhaps, to deal with the diabolical forces that may have been considered to be instrumental in the spread of the plague. Lingering fears of the underworld as a source of evil may have influenced the precautions taken by either the builders or the occupants of the houses in question. The Millers Point finds take cat concealments in this country into the 20th century and suggest the survival in post-Federation Australia of mediaeval beliefs in dark spiritual forces.

5.7 garments Finds of garments of various types totalled twelve. These consisted of a variety of objects ranging from half a womans lace collar in an 1830s house in Dawes Point, NSW (page 243), to a straw hat in an early 19th century house at Antill Ponds This cap from HMS Dart was found within in the Midlands of Tasmania (page 295), convict the wall of a community hall at shirts from Sydney and from Granton (pages 282, Goulburn, NSW. 313), Tasmania, two pairs of trousers in a lighthouse (GWMM) at Geraldton, Western Australia (page 386), and a sailors cap found within the walls of a community hall at Goulburn, NSW (page 254). Other finds included a convict jacket from the old Port Arthur Commissariat at Taranna, Tasmania (page 335), and a waistcoat of circa 1830 discovered in the roof cavity of the former Good Woman Inn, Hobart (page 315). Gloves were found beneath the floor of a house at Lindisfarne, Tasmania (page 325), and St Marys Cathedral, Perth (page 394). There is a possibility that the babys bonnet and embroidery pattern found in a box beneath the floor of a house at Blackheath, NSW (page 232), are associated with child deaths. The house was owned for a time in the early 20th century by Alexander and Winifred Wilson who were married at the Sydney suburb of Woollahra in 1912.54 In the small local cemetery on the outskirts of Embroidery patterns and babys cap from the Blackheath Blackheath a tombstone records
cache in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.

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the deaths of two infants, born to Winifred Wilson, in 1914 and 1920 respectively. The death of Baby Wilson, who was buried before christening, is not recorded by the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages so the likelihood is that this was the death of a new-born infant and considered, officially at least, as not of sufficient matter to place in the registry. A tiny grave adjacent to the headstone may be that of this child. The other death, that of Marjorie Euphemia Wilson, took place when she was 15 months old and is duly officially noted.55 I am aware of one other concealment, A Tribute of Love the Wilson headstone at Blackheath cemetery, NSW. that carried out at 37 Lower Fort Street, Dawes Point, NSW (page 243), which appears to be associated with child mortality. The role of family deaths, not necessarily those of children, in precipitating the concealment of protective objects requires further investigation. This avenue of enquiry has been stimulated by preliminary research into the history of an early boot found under the kitchen floor of Lotts Cottage, York, WA (page 397). The boot, that of a small child, and dated to circa 1811 1815,56 appears to have been concealed many years after manufacture. European settlers occupied Western Australia from 1829, reaching the site of York not long afterwards.57 John Lott arrived in the Colony in 1837 and settled in York shortly afterwards where he married Margaret Kelly in 1842. Of the ten children they had in the following twenty years, four were dead, either through illness or accident, before 1890.58 The cottage in which the boot was found, located in Northam Road on the outskirts of York, dates from circa 1850s.59 The boot, therefore, was concealed at least thirty years after it was made. Its retention long after use, a period in which it was kept in near-perfect condition, indicates strong family and sentimental associations. If perceived as a powerful family talisman it may have been called into play following the string of deaths that occurred Margaret Lott (Gwen Langsford/ among the Lott children. These included those of James, aged two, Residency Museum in 1857, George in 1885, Edward in 1886 and Ellen in 1888.60
collection)

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Other researchers have come to much the same conclusion in regard to a possible link between concealments and the death of children and other family members. Eastop, in describing the discovery of various artefacts, including a babys cap of circa 17401770, found in a wall cavity at 26/26a East St Helens Street, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, makes the connection to child mortality: The presence of the babys cap is significant because deliberately concealed garments are often childrens clothing. This leads to speculation that such garments may have been hidden to protect the household against infant deaths and/or to promote fertility/fecundity.61 The promotion of fertility, if indeed this is a function of such concealments, appears to suggest an anticipated connection between the object and the objective, imparting a metaphoric underpinning to the practice. The use of caps or hats in concealments also provides a link to beliefs associated with the magical power of the mind and the psyche. Other caches containing the clothing of children have been found in Australia. These include one of the pairs of trousers in the lighthouse at Geraldton, WA, (referred to on the previous page) and the young boys coat from Cessnock, NSW (page 239). As with shoes, concealed garments found to date are in very poor condition: worn, dirty, ragged and, as in the case of the waistcoat from the Good Woman Inn (page 315), lacking part of their substance. The waistcoat has had half of the black silk from its front cut away. It is difficult to see this as an expression of the ritual cutting occasionally found on shoes and garments discovered in British concealments. But while this may have been a matter of not wishing to waste black silk, or perhaps a contractual matter, only half of the silk on this garment was left in situ. Taking all of it might have rendered the charm ineffective. The condition of concealed garments can mitigate against their recognition when they are found by people, often builders, who may be unaware of their purpose. The waistcoat from the Good Woman Inn (page 315) and the convict garment in the Port Arthur Commissariat at Taranna (page 335) were both almost condemned as old rags. There are correspondences between the places in buildings where concealed shoes and concealed garments are found. The exception, very probably for entirely logical reasons, is that concealed garments are not found in chimney flues. It is notable that confirmed convict garments in public collections survived because they were concealed in the buildings where they were found. Significant finds of concealed convict garments include the shirts from Hyde Park Barracks (page 279), Sydney, and from the supervisors cottage at Granton, Tasmania (page 313), and the waistcoat from the Port Arthur Commissariat (page 335). Suspected or possible concealed convict shoes have come from the Moreton Bay Commissariat, Brisbane (page 401), and the cottage at Granton (page 313). All of these finds, plus others discussed elsewhere in this chapter, are illustrated and described in the Catalogue of Finds (page 224).

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5.8 conclusion

Throughout Australia, 119 sites where shoes, cats, garments and other objects were concealed in building voids have so far been located. A significant proportion of these appears to have been associated with members of the building trades. While the history of this practice has never been documented, other than by the artefacts themselves, reexamination of the discovery of shoes and other objects in Roman ritual pits in England and the Scottish borders hints at the possibility of a custom that has ancient origins. Other Roman practices survived until comparatively recently, including the manufacture of curse tablets, and the use of wattle-and-daub building construction which lingered in rural Australia until the early 20th century. Perhaps the most surprising result of this research is the implication that ancient beliefs and practices, with roots extending far into the past, had lasted until well into the 20th century. Concealed cats found in Australian houses reinforce this conclusion in particular, the cats found in adjoining shop-fronted terraced cottages in Sydneys Millers Point. We have no contemporary accounts of any spellcraft used during the concealment of cats, shoes, garments or other objects in either the British Isles or Australia, but the cat spell from the Greek Magical Papyri provides a possible template for a form of words that may have been used before the concealment process became routine. As to the question of choice of object for concealments, there are theories but no explanation. It is doubtful whether availability alone would have been the reason for the use of shoes instead of garments. There may be an as-yet-unknown factor at work here as, on the face of it, garments are as reflective of the person as shoes. But shoe concealments outnumber garments by a factor of almost seven to one. With cats, the ratio is five-and-a-half to one. The immediate conclusion to be derived from this is that shoes were considered more effective as talismans against evil but this may be too simple by far. The lower figure for cats may be a product of lesser availability. Finding a cat on a building site, at just the right moment, would not be easy. Cat concealments may have been opportunistic: with no shoes available from the buildings owners or occupants and a cat on hand the decision may have been one that made itself. By considerable margins, subfloor concealments at liminal points and the shoes of children are the most noticeable features of this practice. The locations of concealments, typically doors, windows, chimneys, subfloor zones and roof cavities, suggest a continuing fear of danger posed by such spaces. There appears also to be an association with building work, exemplified in the case of Woodbury, Antill Ponds, Tasmania (page 295), where shoes and leggings were bricked into the old bread oven and other objects were tucked away behind a lath and plaster wall constructed in an attic bedroom. These caches convey an innuendo of a propitiary offering, made to compensate for the disturbance created by the work, although the possibility of a link with family tragedies associated with this

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house cannot be ruled out at this stage. While the fear of evil spirits, witches and demons may have inspired this practice and kept it alive for many centuries, it appears to have taken a somewhat different form during the later period of its practice. Increasingly, I am coming to the view that in 19th century Australia the fear of child mortality, the deaths of more mature offspring and family members may have been a contributory factor in the survival of this practice. Other sources of stress, such as the continuing conflict with Aborigines in Tasmania during the first half of the 19th century, may have been elements in this practice. Cat concealments in adjoining houses in Millers Point, Sydney (page 266), may have been a response to the outbreak of the plague which began very near the site of the concealments. Stress, danger and death were thus elements contributing to the use of folk magic in the houses and buildings of Australians in the period between 1788 and 1935. The preceding paragraph had been written before I read Clarks Between Pulpit and Pew: Folk Religion in a North Yorkshire Fishing Village (1982) in which he states that aspects of folk religion were deployed at times of crisis or personal misfortune, allowing some pragmatic means of coping with threatening and stressful events.62 Among the strands of information arising from the examination of Australian concealments is the presence in the Catalogue of Finds of shoes that were placed in voids years after the period in which they were made. These include the elegant boot of a woman, found at Marine Terrace, Battery Point, Tasmania (page 303), the childs boot from Lower Fort Street, Dawes Point, Sydney (page 243), and the early boot of a small child found at Lotts Cottage, York, Western Australia (page 397). The possibility is that these objects were regarded as powerful talismans, long cherished and honoured as symbols of home and domestic life, and were brought into play at a time of crisis, after the deaths of children or other family members. At such times and with fear of death a part of everyday life the invocation of spiritual forces, whether by means of religion or the practices of folk magic, may have seemed to offer the only protection available to people who felt themselves to be at the mercy of the fates. While this ritual clearly had a firm grip on people for many centuries, observance tapered off in synchronisation with the rise in education and scientific thought. Concealments after about 1900 would have been made because it was considered lucky to do so. As it became unfashionable to refer to magic or to witchcraft, practices that had once been carried out in an effort to sustain life and health and to repel demonic beings were increasingly A postcard issued in England in 1909 portrays old boots described by a more acceptable as lucky and reflects the changing attitude to term: they thus became lucky concealments that appeared in the early 20th century. (NMG) rather than magical.

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SIX: CONCLUSIONS

he research carried out for this thesis has established the presence in Australia of a previously unknown ritual practice carried out in secrecy in the period 1788 1930s. Deliberately concealed shoes, garments, cats, childrens toys and trinkets and a variety of other objects have been found and recorded in old houses and other buildings at locations in six states of Australia. I am not aware of finds of concealed objects in the Northern Territory where a low population base in the 19th century may have precluded significant observance of this practice. Close examination of many of the sites recorded herein, and of the objects found within them, has been carried out. The conclusions arrived at are based on these visits and the objects found at a considerable number and variety of sites. While documents or any form of explanation have not been found at any sites so far recorded in Australia the objects themselves, their positions within buildings and the historical context at the time in which they were concealed have revealed more information than might have been expected. The sites of the finds made to-date are widely dispersed, both within capital cities and throughout regional areas within the various states. Had these finds been clustered, for example within a particular area or areas, it would have been possible to attribute such concentrations to local word-of-mouth or to the activities of one person or a small group of individuals. But the distribution is extensive: sites are scattered and seemingly isolated throughout cities, suburbs, towns and rural areas. This dispersion indicates a depth and breadth of understanding of this practice and suggests considerable antiquity. This is not a practice that began spontaneously as a result of circumstances or situations occurring in Australia: it has ancient roots and these have been traced to Britain and from there, very tentatively, to ancient Rome and Greece. The Romans in Britain placed shoes and other objects in pits and wells for ritual purposes, as described in Chapter Five: Analysis. If this is the origin of modern concealments we have as yet no proof of the link although circumstantial evidence, also quoted in Chapter Five, raises intriguing possibilities. A Mediterranean origin is speculative: the roots of this practice may lie in the depths of antiquity. Merrifield, in The Archaology of Ritual and Magic, describes numerous ritual placements of a variety of objects, and of the skulls of people, in rivers, streams and bogs in Britain during the Bronze Age. These, he suggested, were acts of propitiation to gods of the earth and the underworld. The presence of large quantities of neolithic stone axes in the Thames pointed to an even more remote origin for such cult activities.1 These votive offerings bear a resemblance to the sacrifice of shoes, garments and, particularly, cats which were, it appears likely, killed immediately before their placement in building voids. The practice of concealing objects in buildings in England has been dated to the 13th century. How and when and why this practice originated remains an issue yet to be resolved although some strands of the history of the practice are visible. In the 13th century

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and for several centuries afterwards John Schorn was venerated as someone who achieved power over the Devil by casting him into a boot. The first recorded finds of concealed shoes overlap with Schorns incumbency as rector at North Marston, Buckinghamshire, with the custom steadily gaining pace in succeeding centuries when Britain was subjected to fear of witches, the plague and the ordeal of the English Civil War. The practice arrived in Australia with convicts and emigrants, perhaps as early as 1788 but certainly by the 1820s. The accumulation of finds of the same kinds of objects in the same locations within buildings has formed a distinct pattern. It is clear that something unusual had been taking place, passing without notice by archaeologists and architectural or social historians. An enigma of this custom lies in the fact that it appears to have been both secret and widely known. It was secret in the sense that it appears never to have been recorded, explained or described in any widely-accessible contemporary written document, either in Australia or in the United Kingdom. This lack of contemporary explanatory documentation, a marked feature of the practice of concealments, distinguishes it from the manufacture of witch bottles. There are published recipes for witch bottles but no known contemporary documentary records about concealments, other than the rather cryptic reference by Samuel Pepys to the kidney stone passed by his mother and dropped into her fireplace an event which may or may not have any significance in the context of this discussion. The lack of documentation may reveal a quality of this ritual: it was perhaps too dangerous to record. Alternative explanations go to the other extreme: everyone knew about it so there was no reason to write it down. I suspect the former theory may be closer to the truth. In England, concealments escaped the attention of the diligent band of collectors working in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to record folk magic practices on behalf of the Folklore Society. But in limiting research to the countryside, where the Society researchers (themselves drawn from societys elite) may have found difficulty relating to unsophisticated members of rural communities, the opportunity to discover this ritual was missed. There was also a failure to be open to wider possibilities. Gillian Bennett in Traditions of Belief: Women and the Supernatural (1987) relates that in asking who were the folk in folklore the answer was commonly old codgers and granny women.2 According to Bennett, folklorists of the time were intent on unearthing what were felt to be cultural relics from a less advanced period: Just as fossils remained in the earth to show earlier life-forms, so cultural fossils might remain hidden in the thought of sophisticated societies, which would show traces of earlier beliefs and customs. The folklore of the people was just such a survival.3 Preconceived and self-limiting ideas thus hindered the search for surviving ritual practices in England. In Australia, site visits to cache locations and careful examination of the objects found there have raised the possibility of identifying a social group linked to

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concealments. The significant number of finds associated with members of several of the building trades suggested that it was a practice known to and frequently performed by tradesmen, although there is no information on how or when this association came about. The circumstances of the concealments examined so far are such that they lead to the conclusion that the practice of concealing shoes, garments and dead cats within the fabric of buildings was, for some time at least, a secret ritual of the building trades. If this is correct, it appears to have spilled over into the community at large. A large number of finds in Australia has no apparent connection with members of the building trades. However, shoes which are not those of the builders themselves may have been contributed by members of a family and concealed by tradesmen. So widely was this practice disseminated, despite its lack of explanatory documentation, that it can only have been of long standing. In todays world, with the electronic media and the Internet, fads and fashions can be spread around the globe in a very short period of time. But the distribution of a ritual such as I have described would have taken a very long time in the period under discussion. An established tradition extending over centuries would have been necessary to enable the slow, steady dissemination of the beliefs that underpinned this practice, extending it not only throughout the community at large but also among members of individual trades such as carpenters, bricklayers, stonemasons, plasterers, roof slaters and possibly other branches of the building industry. In the early third millennium, newspapers, periodicals, electronic media and the Internet would have to be harnessed to achieve a comparable result. To spread this practice so very widely in a time when transport and communications systems were primitive in the extreme, aided by no more than the spoken word, is quite remarkable. It appears that a powerful oral tradition was at work, that it operated over an extremely long timeframe, and that in the period before about 1900 and perhaps for some time afterwards, motivation was strong. Concealments of all of the variety of objects found in Australia are also known and widely distributed both in time and location within the British Isles. A number of concealments found in various locations throughout Australia can be linked to convicts, either as identified or anonymous individuals or groups, or British settlers or their children. Folk magic practices and beliefs were widespread throughout Britain until well into the 20th century and it would have been remarkable if British convicts and settlers had left the comfort provided by ancient cultural traditions at home before embarking on perilous journeys to the other side of the world. There is also the fact, as demonstrated by Pitt in 1997, that a surge in concealments occurred in Britain during the 19th century, thus increasing the probability that the practice would spread to the Australian colonies at a time of high emigration to this country. While I have not been able to identify Australian concealments dating from the period 1788 1820 the practice becomes apparent here from the 1820s onwards. The comparatively small number of pre-1820 structures surviving, due in part to the initial low population base in the Australian colonies and the fact that those buildings which

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have survived have all been been subject to conservation or renovation before recognition of the practice of concealment, has mitigated against the informed discovery of concealed objects from the early Colonial period. Mundane artefacts such as shoes and dead cats would have been discarded by tradesmen and, in all probability, by the conservation architects who worked on these buildings during the second half of the 20th century and earlier. The deliberate concealment of shoes in houses was first identified in England in 1955 in John Nevinsons rather tentative letter to The Times and it was not until much later in the 20th century that awareness of these concealments began to spread. It would be many years before tradesmen became aware that the old shoes and other objects which they regularly found during building renovations or demolition had a story to tell. The locations of concealments, typically at doors, windows, chimneys, subfloor zones and roof cavities, suggest a continuing fear of the danger posed by liminal spaces. There appears also to be an association with substantial renovation or building work, exemplified in the case of the shoes and leggings placed in the old bread oven at Woodbury, Antill Ponds, Tasmania (page 295), when it was closed up. There are echoes in this of a propitiary offering, made to compensate for the disturbance created by the work of the bricklayers. The custom of concealing objects within Australian buildings was identified by this writer and first publicised in 2004, resulting in numerous finds being put on record. Before this date old shoes, dead cats, garments and other objects found within the structure of this countrys old houses and other buildings were simply viewed as random artefacts or puzzling rubbish with no particular significance. June Swann, on British Arts Council lecture tours of Australia in 1993 and 1997, mentioned concealed shoes in an interview on ABC Radio in Hobart during her first visit.4 But Swanns reference to concealments on a popular radio programme did not result in recognition of the practice as having any historic significance and did not come to my notice until long after I began this research. Today, understanding of concealments is widely dispersed throughout Australia. I receive on average one or two reports per month alerting me to the discovery of new finds. The total number of Australian reports represents an accumulation of finds, including those made at some time in the past and which were noted, recorded or placed in private or public collections, together with those that came to light as a result of renovations conducted in the period of this research. Chance clearly played a significant part in compiling this data: there are almost certainly a good many other finds which have not yet been drawn to my attention and even more that are still locked away in closed cavities in old buildings. The period in which objects were concealed in Australian houses and other buildings, on the basis of finds so far recorded, ranges from circa 1820 to the mid 1930s and possibly later. But there is no reason to suggest that 1820s finds represent the initial phase of this practice in the Australian colonies. The more probable circumstance is that the custom arrived with the convicts and military personnel who were sent to establish a British penal settlement in New South Wales.

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The shoes of children are the most common finds in concealment caches throughout Australia. This may simply be due to the larger families that were common at the time. There is, however, an alternative way of seeing this and I am therefore going to propose a theory relating to the higher proportion of the shoes of children and young people in the concealments that I have recorded. It is important to note that an academic dilemma arises here and it is grounded in the lack of contemporary documents to help us to understand this practice, either in relation to the significance of childrens shoes or any other Childs boot, circa 1860s, found in the wall of a cottage at Deloraine, object. All we have are the artifacts. So, what follows Tasmania. (Julie Reicha) is entirely theoretical. But if we take a step across this informational void, leaving aside for the time being the justified misgivings that arise from such a move, a possible explanation for all those childrens shoes begins to take shape. And it leads to a plausible explanation as to the reason for all concealed objects found in Australia. The missing link in the following chain of deduction may be available to us at some later stage. In regard to the many finds of childrens shoes I offer the following suggestion. My theory is that childrens shoes were used in an attempt to harness the power of the good and the innocent, by using the shoes of pre-pubescent children to protect houses from evil. Taking this rationale a little further, it suggests by implication a motive for concealments: protection from the forces of darkness emanating from the underworld. The evil that was feared was supernatural, although we have no way of knowing at this time how it was imagined by those who made the concealments. Finding so many childrens shoes in concealments provides a link that ties this practice to ancient folk magic rituals relating to witches, demons and evil spirits. And it suggests that when objects are being concealed magic is at work. The discovery of so many childrens shoes in concealments is an element in the paradox in 19th century societys attitudes to children. Children were valued and honoured for their innocence and purity but were also put to work in mines, mills and factories under appalling conditions. In 1883 inspectors at James Millers South Melbourne rope works found ten year olds working sixty hours a week. Childs ankle boot, circa 1860, a subfloor find at a former coaching inn, Hartley Vale, NSW. Young children, extensively employed in the

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tobacco industry, worked similar hours as did those in the clothing and other industries. They were paid a pittance, and often nothing for the first few months. Their health suffered from cramped, unsanitary, and poorly ventilated conditions. In Melbourne in 1882 a Dr Beaney described how a woman brought her daughter for examination: She had been in a factory twelve or eighteen months already, and she is only thirteen now. She is like a little old woman, pale and shrivelled, and suffers from palpitation of the heart.5 A contrasting view of children prevalent in 19th century society was reflected in the popular Pears Soap advertisements. These used images of children to represent childhood traits of innocence, youthfulness, freshness and cleanliness. The use in concealments of objects associated with children and childhood represented the employment of powerful societal talismans, offering the hope that these would provide the means by which goodness would prevail over evil.6 The images of a young Childhood innocence: protection boy and girl on the ball found beneath the miners cottage at Kalgoorlie, WA (page 389), against evil? The face of a little girl on a Victorian indiarubber ball, found beneath recorded in the Catalogue of Finds, play into the floor of a former miners cottage in Kalgoorlie, WA. (Jack Baxter) this scenario. The innocence and beauty of childhood reflected the very opposite of everything associated with the unspeakable demonic forces that lay at the heart of many peoples fears at the time. Hymns of the period, and for centuries before, reflect apprehension of the time when phantoms of the night appear. John Lelands 1792 hymn, The Day is Past and Gone, was typical in its expression of fears of evil in the hours of darkness: Lord, keep us safe this night, secure from all our fears; may angels guard us while we sleep, till morning light appears.7 Thus, darkness brought danger, unspecified in the hymn, but easily recognised at the time as emanating from demonic and evil forces and beings who scurried away from the light of dawn. The story of concealed objects was eventually discovered in Australia (long after it might have been found) by noting similar occurrences elsewhere in the world, by long and careful research in Australia and the United Kingdom, and by a determination to understand something that on the surface appeared enigmatic, mysterious and inexplicable. Had this custom been found earlier, we might have had a better understanding of the intensely

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painful emotional realities of transportation, emigration and family life in Australia at a time before the comfort and intellectual expansion provided by modern medical science, communication, education and travel. The discovery of this practice opens a new window on the past, revealing the hopes and fears of people, both immigrant and native-born, in Australias formative years. It is evident that beliefs that 21st century Australians would consider absurd were a vital part of the fabric of life in the Australian colonies during the 18th and 19th centuries and into the 20th century. Understanding this has the potential to provide new insights into the lives and belief systems of Australians of European origin in the period from 1788 to the 1930s. The power of this ritual and its underlying beliefs in magic and supernatural forces had faded away by the mid-20th century. Education, science and the development of communications made the world a very different place. David Vincent, in Literacy and Popular Culture (1989) describes the social and technological changes that occurred in England and their effects on popular culture in the period from 1750 to the First World War. While faith in religion survived this transformation, folk magic and its concomitant belief systems moved to the periphery of peoples lives, surviving only in vague references to black cats, good luck charms and the like. The reason for this may lie, at least in part, with the very different nature of the two systems. While religion is an open and public attempt to communicate with and propitiate a god, magic operates in secret and seeks to manipulate supernatural powers for personal advantage. This story has many remarkable facets, and I suspect that not all of them have yet been revealed. But it is clear that for a great many years Australias old houses and buildings contained and kept a mysterious secret with the power to alter our view of history. The truth is out now but much research remains to be done. And the task of reinterpreting social history remains. The rediscovery of ancient beliefs that survived well into the 20th century has the potential to provide a new understanding of the state of mind of Australians in the period before the 1930s. I believe that this practice tells us something about Australians in the period from 1788 to the 1930s of which we would otherwise have been unaware. In the shoes of their children and all the members of their family, tucked carefully into voids in the houses where they lived, those Australians have sent us a message that they have expressed in no other manner. They were afraid that their children would be taken and they took steps to protect them from unseen and unknown horrors. Cracked, broken and worn they may be, but these old shoes and boots have stories to tell. Unaccompanied by any written explanation, they speak nevertheless of a time when people lived in fear of the scratch, the infected tooth, the rotting appendix or the fever that would carry away their children. Further research raises the possibility of other discoveries and new insights into the secret lives of Australians when this country was young. In the United Kingdom and elsewhere, efforts could be made to trace this practice further back in time, to seek answers to questions raised in this thesis and to explore the use of concealments in Continental Europe, North America, New Zealand and elsewhere

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in the English-speaking world. We should know more about the concealment of cats and how they were killed and about the inter-relationship between organised religion and folk magic. In Australia we should look for other folk magic practices that survived in the United Kingdom until the early 20th century and which may have travelled here. There are numerous questions about this practice that remain without answers. Why do so many concealments consist of only one shoe? What happened to the other shoe? Does the single, concealed shoe signify that a contract had been entered into? If so, with whom or what? Did the breaking up of the pair of shoes and the concealment of one in a void beyond ordinary, everyday reach represent the ritual killing of shoes, thus sending them into the world of the spirits? Are there Australian witch bottles from the 18th or 19th centuries waiting to be found? Further research inevitably raises the issue of the need for a continuing record of finds of concealed objects throughout Australia. I have carried out this role since 2004 but any consistent research programme from this time onwards should involve a systematic record of finds. This would usefully be a website where members of the public could forward details of finds which would be vetted before being posted on-line. In my view funding for this purpose should be sought from a Federal Government agency: the issue is national history and identity. Data recorded in this manner would include images of finds, an image of the location, details of the find, its present location and some means of contacting the present owner of the object. Artifacts could thus be available for continuing research. Such a resource would enable international scholars to compare Australian finds with research programmes conducted elsewhere. The finds made in voids and caches throughout Australia provide valuable personal, historical and artifactual information and are probable indicators of the depth and extent of this practice in other parts of the world. In the case of the shoes found, these constitute a catalogue of Australian footwear of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the light of the lack of explanatory contemporary documentation of concealment, the objects found assume enhanced significance, making their identification, retrieval and recording a matter of some importance. Some of the garments found constitute the only record we have of particular items of convict clothing. We owe the survival of these unique garments to those anonymous persons who concealed them in the Commissariats and houses occupied by members of the colonial administration. We would have been so much the poorer as a society had these garments not come down to us in their time capsules in the buildings where convicts and their overseers lived and worked. Rainer Atzbach, writing in the context of discoveries in Germany, put the case for the careful recording of finds of concealed objects in old buildings: These sealed time capsules represent an important source of research on the past. They not only provide a rounding off of the known spectrum of finds; but due to their good preservation, they also permit completely new insights

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into their production and use. Almost as important is their direct connection to historically tangible people, recorded in written sources as inhabitants of the houses. Hardly any other source permits such an intimate look into the past.8 At least two informed observers have reported that objects continue to be concealed in British buildings to this day, although these concealments are almost certainly performed without understanding of the origin of the practice. In East Anglia, and perhaps in other parts of the British Isles, a number of builders secrete objects in old houses. Easton gained the confidence of two older members of local building firms who told him of continuing concealments: I have two first-hand accounts given to me by operators in the building t rades of the secretion of objects under floors and behind cast iron fireplaces. Both men had worked for a time in the 1950s and 60s in traditional East Anglian family firms and had witnessed what the other relatives were doing.9 Matthew Champion of Fakenham, North Norfolk, is a consultant on historic buildings and from time to time acts as a project manager for English Heritage in conservation work on their East Anglian properties. He advises that: local builders, all over East Anglia, still put concealments in modern jobs. That said, they appear to do it more often when working on older properties rather than new. If you ask them why they do it they will just say that it is traditional. Any obvious and overt ritual meaning has been lost. They do it, not because it will offer protection to the property, or the inhabitants, but simply because it has always been done.10 While many questions remain, a start has been made on decoding this practice. After more than 220 years of European habitation of this country we now know that an ancient and secret ritual was transplanted onto Australian soil and that it thrived and survived here until at least the third decade of the 20th century. As this research was drawing to a close preliminary evidence for the use of apotropaic marks on old Australian houses and buildings began to emerge. The 1851 stables building at Shene, Bagdad, Tasmania, was found to contain the first daisy wheel apotropaic mark discovered in Australia. Another has been found at Collingwood, Victoria. At Lewisham, Tasmania, a consecration cross on a door in an inn of 1825 is a further indication of the role of magic in everyday life in 19th century Australia. Concealed objects and apotropaic marks are beginning to reveal a history that has not so far been found in the documentary record. These finds raise the possibility of other discoveries of the same variety. The need for further research is clearly indicated. The story of the role of folk magic in everyday life in Australia in the period from 1788 to circa 1935 is emerging from material culture and it is there that further discoveries may be awaiting the researcher.

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REFERENCES
introduction

1. H. R. Jackson, Churches and People in Australia and New Zealand 18601930. Wellington, NZ: Allen and Unwin/Port Nicholson Press, 1987, 6. 2. Owen Davies, The Case for Support. Bristol: Submission in support of a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, AH/H018379/1, 4/5/2009. 3. John Webster, The Display of Supposed Witchcraft, London: Jonas Moore, 1677, 32. 4. Owen Davies, Witchcraft, Magic and Culture 17361951. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999, 274-278. 5. W. G. Stewart, The Popular Superstitions and Festive Amusements of the Highlanders of Scotland. Edinburgh: Constable, 1823, 179, 180. 6. Several Early Pamphlets on Witchcraft. The Old Witchcrafts. January 1853. No publisher, no date. 7. Max Kelly, A Certain Sydney 1900. Paddington, NSW: Doak Press, 1978, unpaginated. 8. Martin Normile, letter to his father, 18/2/1863. Quoted in Fitzpatrick, Oceans of Consolation: Personal Accounts of Irish Migration to Australia. Carlton, Vic: Melbourne University Press, 1995, 91. 9. K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic. London: Penguin, 1991, 775. 10. H. D. Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, xlviii. 11. R. Godbeer, The Devils Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, 30, 31. 12. C. Renfrew and P. Bahn, Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice. London: Thames and Hudson, 2000, 405-408, quoted in Amy Gazin-Schwartz, Archaeology and Folklore of Material Culture, Ritual and Everyday Life. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 5.4, 12/2001, 263-280. 13. Amy Gazin-Schwartz, ibid. 14. R. B. St George, Conversing by Signs: The Poetics of Implication in Colonial New England Culture. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1998, 192. 15. B. Hoggard, The Archaeology of Counter-Witchcraft and Popular Magic in Davies and de Blecourt (eds), Beyond the Witch Trials: Witchcraft and Popular Magic in Enlightenment Europe. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004, 167-184. 16. Owen Davies. Witchcraft, Magic and Culture 1736 1951, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999, 6.

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17. M. Perkins, Visions of the Future: Almanacs, Time and Cultural Change 1775 1880. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996, 190. 18. Ibid, 162. 19. J. Obelkevich, Religion and Rural Society: South Lindesay 1825 1875. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1979, 259. 20. Ibid, 260. 21. Ibid, 286. 22. David Clark, Between Pulpit and Pew: Folk Religion in a North Yorkshire Fishing Village. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982, 166.
one: methodology

1. Boot from the Moreton Bay Commissariat building, Brisbane. Queensland Museum object No. H-4819. 2. Site visit, Sydney Harbour Bridge, 26/9/2007. 3. Site visit, 121 Mitchell Street, Stockton, 15/3/2007. Discussions with the owner John McMaster. 4. E. Lipscombe, The Anatomy of Ghosts. Reflections, National Trust of Australia (NSW), May-July 2006, 29. 5. S. Pepys, Samuel Pepyss Diary, Wednesday 5/12/1660, Latham & Matthews transcription. London: Bell & Hyman, Berkeley: University of California Press, 19701983, 1, 310. The original text of the diary states: And there found my mother still ill of the stone and hath just voided one, which she hath let drop into the Chimny; and could and find it to show it me. Dr. Luckett, the current Pepys librarian, checked the original text in the diary held at Magdalene College and emailed to say that that the use of and for not was common therein. Timothy Easton suggests that it is more likely that Mrs. Pepys threw the stone into the fire- place from a seat near the hearth and was not able to recover it from the embers when Samuel called in. 6. E. Lovett, English Charms, Amulets and Mascots. Croydon, UK: Guardian Printing, circa 1920, 6. 7. James Stuart, Daemonologie, Edinburgh: Robert Waldgrave, 1597. Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Ltd./Da Capo Press, 1969. Seconde Booke, Chapter Four, 32. 8. R. Boulton, A Complete history of magick, Sorcery and Witchcraft. London: E. Curll, 1715-1716, chapter 1, 19. 9. J. Glanville, Sadducismus Triumphatos. London. J. Collins and S. Lownds, 1681, 155. 10. Susan Hoyle, The Witch and the Detective: Mid-Victorian Stories and Beliefs.

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De Blecourt, Willem, and Owen Davies, Witchcraft Continued: Popular Magic in Modern Europe. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004, 51, 52. 11. Alison Petch, Edward Lovett, http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness Edward-Lovett.html, 9/2009; Edward Lovett, Cuming Museum http://www. southwarkcollections.org.uk/code/emuseum.asp, 10/9/2010. 12. Brian Hoggard, The Archaeology of Counter-Witchcraft and Popular Magic. Beyond the Witch Trials: Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment Europe, Davies and de Blecourt, (eds). Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004. 167, 168. 13. C. R. Auge, Guardians at the Door: Apotropaic Remedies for Domicilic Perils. Kalamazoo, Michigan: 41st International Congress on Mediaeval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2006, 1. 14. T. Easton, Spiritual Middens. Encyclopaedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 1, 568. A recorded example is the shoes concealed in Valley Farm, Huon Valley, Tasmania, after its owner, Yorky Oates, moved out to allow his son and his sons wife to occupy the house, 1894. See the Catalogue of Finds. 15. K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic. London: Penguin, 1991, 776, 777. 16. C. van Driel-Murray, And did those Feet in Ancient Time .. Feet and Shoes as a Material Projection of the Self. Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1998, 137. 17. Churches where John Schorn has a presence on painted screens include St Agnes, Cawston, Norfolk; St Helen, Gately, Norfolk; St Margaret, Suffield, Norfolk; St Gregory, Sudbury, Suffolk; St. Onalaus, Portlemouth, Devon. With the exception of St. Onalaus, I visited these churches in 2006. 18. R. Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic. London: Batsford, 1987, 135. 19. C. Tilley, Interpreting Material Culture, in Ian Hodder, The Meanings of Things: Material Culture and Symbolic Expression. London: Unwin Hyman, 1989, 192. 20. Ibid. 21. C. Fennell, Multivalent Symbols of an Enclosing Hand, Newsletter of the African Diaspora Archaeology Network, December 2007, 6. (Edited extract from Crossroads and Cosmologies: Diasporas and Ethnogenesis in the New World. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 2007). 22. I. Hodder, The Meanings of Things: Material Culture and Symbolic Expression. London: Unwin Hyman, 1989, 73.
two: cultural context

1. E. Richards, Britannias Children: Emigration from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland since 1600. London: Hambledon and London, 2004, 119, 126; Jackson,

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Churches and People in Australia and New Zealand 18601930. Wellington, NZ: Allen and Unwin/Port Nicholson Press, 1987, 6, 15. 2. H. R. Jackson, ibid., 45; R. Hutton, Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996, passim. For an account of an early Guy Fawkes effigy carried through the streets of Sydney fully accoutered with matches, lantern &c see the Sydney Herald, 8/11/1836, 3. 3. H. R. Jackson, ibid., 44. 4. E. Lovett, Difficulties of a folklore collector, Folklore, 20.2, 30/6/1909, 227- 228. 5. E. Lovett, Superstitions and Survivals amongst Shepherds, Folklore, 20.1, 30/3/1909, 63. 6. Alison Petch, Members of the Museum Staff who have contributed to the Folklore Society, http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-PRM-and-FLS.html, 4/11/2010. 7. R. Hutton, loc. cit., 341. 8. Pitt Rivers Museum, English Artifacts: http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk, 4/11/2010. 9. Alison Petch, Harvest Trophies, http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-harvest- trophies.html, 4/11/2010. 10. Alison Petch, Collecting Immortality: field collectors who contributed to the Pitt Rivers Museum, Journal of Museum Ethnography, 16, 3/2004, 127-139. 11. Alison Petch, Harvest Trophies, http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-harvest trophies.html, 4/11/2010. 12. R. Hutton, ibid, 341; Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. London: Macmillan, 1911-1915, 419-425; Lambeth, Discovering Corn Dollies. Oxford: Shire Publications, 2008, 3-7. 13. R. Hutton, loc. cit. 14. Pitt Rivers Museum, biography of Edward Burnett Tylor, http://history.prm.ox.ac. uk/collector_tylor.html, 4/11/2010; Holdsworth, Chris. Sir Edward Burnett Tylor. Oxford. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004-2010. 15. Chris Wingfield, Tylors Onion: a Curious Case of Bewitched Onions from Somerset, http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-tylors-onion.html, 4/11/2010. 16. J. G. Frazer, The Principles of Magic, The Golden Bough, chapter 3, passim. 17. Chris Wingfield, loc. cit. 18. E. Tylor, Primitive Culture. London. John Murray, 1920, 16. 19. Alison Petch, Edward Lovett, http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-Edward- Lovett.html, 4/11/2010 20. E. Lovett, Amulets from Costers Barrows in London, Rome and Naples, Folklore, 20.1, 3/1909, 70, 71. 21. E. Lovett, Folklore of the War. Leaflet containing a press account of Lovetts

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lecture, 1918. London. Cuming Museum, Southwark; E. Lovett, Magic in Modern London. Croydon, UK: Advertiser Printing, 1925, 52, 53; 3/1/1914, 6. 22. E. Lovett, Folk Medicine in London, Folklore, 24.1, 3/1913, 120, 121; Folklore of London, paper read before the London Society, 14/11/1919, typescript, Wellcome Library, London; E. Lovett and A.R. Wright, Specimens of Modern Mascots and Ancient Amulets of the British Isles. Folklore, 19.3, 30/9/08, 288-303. 23. Stanhope Sprigg, A Literary Letter. Adelaide: The Advertiser, 3/1/1914, 6. 24. Alison Petch, Edward Lovett, ibid. 25. Cuming Museum, Edward Lovett. Search for lovett at http://www.southwark collections.org.uk/code/eMuseum.asp?page=search_basic, 4/11/2010. 26. Blogspot, Wellcome Library, http://wellcomelibrary.blogspot.com/2009/07/youll- absolutely-lovett.html, 4/11/2010. 27. Jude Hill, The story of the amulet, Journal of Material Culture, 12.1, 2007, 67. 28. Ibid., 69. 29. Ibid., 71. 30. Ibid., 74. 31. Ibid., 68, 69. 32. E. Lovett, The Folklore of the Cat. Croydon, UK. Advertiser Printing, undated but post 1918. Cuming Museum, Southwark. 33. Jude Hill, op. cit.; 78; Lovett. Superstitions and Survivals amongst Shepherds. Folklore, 20.1, 3/1909, 65. 34. Hill, op cit.; 78. 35. Hill, op cit.; 79. 36. Acquisition and Disposal Policy, Cuming Museum, www.southwark.gov.uk/uploads /file_36967.pdf (This document no longer available online: 4/11/2010); Hill, loc. cit., 78. 37. Alison Petch, England The Other Within: English Folklorists, http://england. prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-English-folklorists.html, 4/11/2010. 38. A. Fea, Secret Chambers and Hiding Places. Amsterdam: Fredonia Books, 2003, 274 39. Victoria & Albert Museum, staff obituaries. John Lea Nevinson. The Times, 7/8/1985, online at http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/periods_styles/features/ history/staff_obituaries/textiles/nevinson/index.html, 4/11/2010. 40. J. L. Nevinson, A Sussex Discovery Ladys Shoes of the Time of Charles II. The Times, 23/1/1934, 10b. 41. J. L. Nevinson, Mens Straights. The Times, 5/2/1934, 13e. 42. Adrian James, Assistant Librarian, Society of Antiquaries, email 21/9/2009. 43. Susan North, curator, Textiles and Fashion, V & A Museum, email, 10/9/2009.

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44. F. K. Annable, Letter to the editor, Folklore, 66.2, 6/1955, 304. 45. J. Swann, email, 7/9/2009. 46. J. Swann. Shoes Concealed in buildings. Costume, 30, 1996, 56-69. 47. J. Swann, email, 27/10/2009. 48. J. Swann, Shoes Concealed in Buildings. Northampton Museums Journal, 2/1969, 9. 49. I. M. Stead et al., Excavations at the South Corner Tower of the Roman Fortress at York. Yorkshire Archeological Journal, 39, 1958, 527. 50. J. Swann, email, 17/9/2009. 51. Ibid., email, 7/9/2009. 52. Ibid., email, 27/10/2009. 53. J. Swann, loc. cit. 54. J. Swann, email, 27/10/2009. 55. Ibid., 3/11/2009. 56. Ibid., 14/9/2009, 23/10/2009. 57. Ibid., 23/9/2009. 58. Ibid., 14/9/2009. 59. J. Swann, loc. cit. 60. J. Swann, Concealed Shoes. Unpublished notes, 10/1990. 61. R. Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic. Imprint page, US edition. 62. R. Merrifield, Folklore in London Archaeology, Part Two: The Post-Roman Period. The London Archaeologist, winter 1969, 101. 63. P. Marsden, Obituary: Ralph Merrifield. London: The Independent, 13/1/1995. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-ralph-merrifield-1567811. html, 4/11/2010. 64. R. Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, 133. 65. V. Gabbitas, A. Hems, S. Davies, various email messages, 10/2009. 66. R. Merrifield, op. cit., 131. 67. E. Richards, op. cit., 305.
three: tracing the past

1. Rebecca Shawcross, Shoe Resources Officer, Northampton Museums and Art Gallery, email, 13/1/2010; Margaret Brentnall, The Cinque Ports and Romney Marsh. London: John Gifford Ltd, 1972, 43. 2. English Heritage National Monuments Record. Lympne Castle. http://pastscape. english-heritage.org.uk/hob.aspx?a=0&hob_id=463996, 15/1/2010. 3. Shawcross, loc. cit. 4. Rainer Atzbach, Medieval and Postmedieval Shoes from Kempten (Allgu).

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Shoes in History 2000, Ivan Planka, (ed.), Lectures from the 3rd International Conference. Zlin, Czech Republic, 2001: 184-196; Schad. Animal mummies concealed in buildings in the district of Ludwigsburg Remains of a post mediaeval magic conception? Depotfunde aus Gebuden in Zentraleuropa. Berlin: Scrpvaz-Verlag 2005, 151-161. 5. The Local, Berlin, 13/4/2010. www.thelocal.de/society/20100413-26503.html, 17/5/2010. 6. C. Smith, email, 11/6/2010. 7. Jennifer Jiggerts, Historic Custom yields Donations of Museums shoes, Carroll County Times, Westminster, Maryland, 6/6/2010. 8. R. May, The Soldier in the Chimney: Evidence for Ritual Magic at US Army Fort Rosecrans, San Diego, California. Paper presented to Society for Archaeology, Long Beach, California, 12/5/2001. 9. J. Swann, Concealed Shoes in Buildings. Costume 30, 1996, 56-69. 10. F. Pitt, Builders, Bakers and Madhouses: Some Recent Information from the Concealed Shoe Index. Archaeological Leather Group, Museum of London, 17/9/1997. Archaeological Leather Group Newsletter, Spring 1997, 36. 11. R. Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic. London: Batsford, 1987, 135. 12. S. Jenkins, Englands Thousand Best Churches. London: Penguin, 2000, 35. 13. R. Marks, A Late Medieval Pilgrimage Cult: Master John Schorn of North Marston and Windsor. Windsor: Medieval Archaeology, Art and Architecture of the Thames Valley. British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions XXV. Leeds: Maney Publishing 2002, 2001, 201; Windsor Castle Official Guide. Windsor: 1977, 20-21; John Erde, Schorne Book of the Hours. Windsor: St Georges Chapel Archives and Chapter Library; www.stgeorges-windsor.org/ archives/archive-features/image-of-themonth/title1/schorne-book-of-hours.html. 14. Tom Muckley, Rood Screens of East Anglia. www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/ norfolkroods.htm, 4/11/2010. 15. Michael Begley, Rood Screens. www.binhampriory.org/furnishings/rood.html, 2/10/2010. 16. J. Stabb. Some Old Devon Churches, Their Rood Screens, Pulpits, Fonts, Etc, London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., 19081916; The Book of Days, May 8, Master John Schorne, www.thebookofdays.com/months/may/8.htm, 27/3/2010; E. H. Marshall, Oxford Journals, Notes and Queries, 3/11/1894, 341; Linda Hall, Period House Fixtures and Fittings 1300-1900. Newbury, Berks: Countryside Books, 2005, 150-153. 17. G. G. Coulton, Five Centuries of Religion, 2, 546. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1927; John Nevinson and J.A. Hudson. Sir John Schorne and His Boot. Country Life, 1/3/1962, 467, 468.

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18. R. Merrifield, loc. cit.; John Erde, loc cit. 19. J. Swann, email, 26/1/2010. 20. J. Halliwell-Phillips, Regius Manuscript, quoted in Haywood, H.L., The Builder. London, January 1924, X, 1. www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/operative_ masons.html, 17/9/2010. 21. D. Stevenson. The Origins of Freemasonry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, 8. 22. Ibid., 1, 6, 112, 113. 23. Ibid., 42. 24. Ibid., 15. 25. H. L. Haywood, The Builder, London, February 1924, IX, 2, How Operative Masons Changed to Speculative Masonry, www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/ operative_speculative_masons.html, 20/9/1010. 26. H. L. Haywood, ibid. 27. Haywood, ibid., January 1924, X, 1. 28. Haywood, loc. cit. 29. Adelaide Masonic Centre Museum. Guide to Centenary Exhibition, Adelaide, 2006. www.freemasonrysaust.org.au/markmuseum.html, 30/9/2010. 30. Ibid. 31. See, for example, NSW State Records Office, Index to the Colonial Secretarys Papers, 1788-1825 at http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/state-archives/indexes-online/ colonial-secretary/index-to-the-colonial-secretarys-papers-1788-1825, 3/11/2010. 32. Owen Davies, Cunning Folk in England and Wales During the 18th and 19th Centuries. Rural History, 8, 1, 1997, 91-107. 33. Owen Davies, Cunning Folk: Popular Magic in English History. London: Hambledon and London, 2003, vii. 34. Ibid., 101, 102. 35. Ibid., 113. 36. R. C. Allan, Wizards or Charlatans Doctors or Herbalists? An Appraisal of the Cunning Men of Cwrt Y Cadno, Camarthenshire. North American Journal of Welsh Studies, 1, 2, Summer 2001, 76. 37. K. Thomas, op. cit., 292. 38. Owen Davies, Cunning folk in the Medical Marketplace During the Nineteenth Century. Journal of Medical History, 1999, 43, 69; Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Norwich, 1847, 13, 171. 39. William Allison, Almanac and Notebook, State Library of Tasmania and Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office, NS261/1/1. 40. Hobart Town Courier, 27/12/1828, 1, 2; Arthur Davies, Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1, 1788-1850, 290, 291.

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41. Allison, loc. cit. 42. Allison, ibid. 43. Ritual Marks on Historic Timber. Journal of the Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association, summer, 1999, 4. 44. T. Easton, email, 15/3/2010. 45. Ibid. 46. T. Easton, Spiritual middens. Paul Oliver (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 568. 47. T. Easton, loc. cit. 48. T. Easton, Ritual Marks on Historic Timber. Journal of the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, Spring 1999, 2228; T. Easton. Apotropaic Marks, Scribed and Scratched in Barns and Houses. Newsletter of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, November 1988, 7, 8. 49. The full 1741 text can be seen at www.preces-latinae.org/BVM/Memorare.html. 50. Ross Burns, The Monuments of Syria. London: I.B. Taurus, 2009,184. 51. C. J. Bindin et al., Ritual Protection Marks in Goatchurch Cavern, Burrington Combe, North Somerset. Proceedings of the University of Bristol Speleological Society, Bristol, 2004: 119-133; Bob Meeson, Ritual Marks and Graffiti: Curiosities or Meaningful Symbols? Vernacular Architecture, vol 36, 2005: 41-48. 52. Charles Godfrey Leland, Marks on Ancient Buildings. Folklore, 8, 1, 3/1897, 86, 87. 53. T. Easton, Scribed and Painted Symbols, Paul Oliver (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 533, 534; Bindin et al, Ritual Protection Marks in Goatchurch Cavern. Ibid. 119-133. 54. Bessie Burchett, Janus in Roman Life and Cult: A Study in Roman Religions. PhD thesis. University Park: University of Pennsylvania, 1918, 4; W. Warde Fowler, Religious Experience of the Roman People. London: Macmillan, 1911, 94, 95. 55. S. T. Johnston, Crossroads. Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Bd. 88, 1991, 224. 56. David Teague, Windsor Council Chambers 1897-1997. Lutwyche, Qld: Windsor and Districts Historical Society, 1997, 3. 57. Virginia Lloyd et al. Burn Marks as Evidence of Apotropaic Practices in Houses, Farm Buildings and Churches in Post-Mediaeval East Anglia. R. Wallis and K. Lymer (eds.) 2001, A Permeability of Boundaries? New Approaches to the Archaeology of Art, Religion and Folklore. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, International Series S936, 2001, 57-70; conversations with Timothy Easton, London and Bedfield Hall, Suffolk, 2002, 2004, 2006. 58. T. Easton, email, 17/3/2010.

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59. L. Stark, The Charmers Body and Behaviour as a Window onto Early Modern Selfhood. Charms, Charmers and Charming. Jonathan Roper (ed.). Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008: 5. 60. B. Hoggard, The Archaeology of Counter-Witchcraft and Popular Magic. Beyond the Witch Trials: Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment Europe. Owen Davies and W. de Blecourt, (eds.). Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004: 168-185; R. Merrifield, op. cit., 169. 61. J. Blagrave, The Astrological Practice of Physick. London: Printed by S.G. and B.G. for Obadiah Blagrave, 1671, 154, 155. 62. J. Semmens, The Usage of Witch-Bottles and Apotropaic Charms in Cornwall. Old Cornwall, 12: 6, 2000, 2530; Cornwall Record Office No. X268/83. 63. Stephen Mitchell, A Case of Witchcraft Assault in Early Nineteenth Century England as Ostensive Action. W. De Blecourt and Owen Davies (eds.), Witchcraft Continued: Popular Magic in Modern Europe. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004, 18. 64. Proceedings of the Old Bailey On-line. Jane Kent, Royal Offences/Religious Offences, 1/6/1682, reference No. t16820601a-11. 65. R. Merrifield, op cit, 163175. 66. Beatrix Wherry, Hermione Jenkins, A Cambridgeshire Witch. Folklore, 16:2, 24/6/1905, 189. 67. M. Becker, An Update on Colonial Witch Bottles. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 75:2, 2005, 16. 68. B. Hoggard, op. cit., 169-171. 69. Witchs Bottle Spellbinds Expert. BBC News, Leicestershire, 22/2/2007. http:// news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/leicestershire/6386403.stm, 4/11/2010. 70. Linda Geddes, Londons Magical History Uncorked from Witch Bottle. New Scientist, 4/1/2009, at www.newscientist.com/article/dn17245-londons-magical- historyuncorkedfrom-witch-bottle.html, 4/11/2010. 71. Mike Pitts, Urine to Navel Fluff: the First Complete Witch Bottle. British Archaeology, 107, July-August 2009, at www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba107/news.shtml, 3/11/2010. 72. C. Faraone, Ancient Greek Curse Tablets. Chicago: University of Chicago Library, http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/1/777777122300, 4/11/2010; John Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, 3. 73. Pliny the Elder, Natural Histories, 28.4.19, quoted in Curse Tablets from Roman Britain. http://curses.csad.ox.ac.uk/beginners/intro-greece.shtml. 74. Tacitus, Annals, 2.69, (trans. Gager), quoted in Curse Tablets from Roman Britain, http://curses.csad.ox.ac.uk/beginners/intro-greece.shtml, 4/11/2010.

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75. Curse Tablets from Roman Britain, various pages accessed at http://curses.csad. ox.ac.uk, 4/11/2010: Gager, op. cit., 194-198. 76. Ibid. 77. The Uley tablet is identified as No. 72 on the Oxford University site, Curse Tablets from Roman Britain. It has a very long URL but can easily be found from http:// curses.csad.ox.ac.uk/index.shtml, 4/11/2010; Gager, op. cit., 1829. 78. R. Merrifield, op. cit., 140, 141. 79. Ibid., 147, 148. 80. http://curses.csad.ox.ac.uk/beginners/people-workings.shtml, 4/11/2010; Gager, Ibid, 9. 81. R. Merrifield, op. cit., 154.

four: secrets in the void

1. L. White, email, 4/7/2005. 2. J. Swann, email, 3/11/2009. 3. Sydney Gazette, 7/1/18251 1. 4. Ibid., 20/3/1830, 3. 5. Ibid., 9/12/1826, 3; Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, NSW, No. V1826127, 10/1826. 6. Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, NSW, No. V18308900 2C/1830. 7. Sydney Gazette, 23/9/1830, 2; 26/1/1833, 3. 8. Ibid, 26/10/1830: 3; NSW Land Titles Office, Book E, No. 946, quoted in Conservation Management Plan, Dawesleigh v2. Balmain: Oikos Architects 2003. 9. Sydney Gazette, 25/11/1834, 4. 10. Sydney Morning Herald, 1/7/1842, 3. 11. Conservation Management Plan, Dawesleigh. 12. Sydney Morning Herald, List of Citizens with Property in Gipps Ward, 14/9/1842, 4. 13. Ibid., 17/8/1840, 5. 14. Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, NSW, Nos. V1841178 25A/1841, V184236 27A/1842, V1844949 28/1844. 15. Sydney Herald, 16/12/1840, 1. 16. Ibid., 21/6/1841, 3. 17. Sydney Morning Herald, 12/6/1845, 4. 18. Ibid., 17/6/1893, 3S. 19. Ibid., 3/3/1885: 3; Ibid, 3/10/1896, 9. 20. Conservation plan, Dawesleigh, op cit. 21. Sydney City Council, Archives, Assessment Book, Gipps Ward, 1856: assessment

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No. 166; Ibid., 1861: assessment No. 1757; Ibid, 1891, assessment No. 1522. 22. Records of the Hurley tenancy are in Fords Sydney Directory, 1851, Sands Sydney Directories, 1858 1880, and Sydney City Council assessment books 1845 1880. 23. State Records NSW, birth registration V18522614 69/1852 of George Hurley junior. 24. Church of Latterday Saints, Family Search website http://www.familysearch.org/ eng/search/frameset_search.asp. 25. David Vincent, Literature and Popular Culture: England 1759 1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, 162. 26. Maureen Perkins, Visions of the Future: Almanacs, Time, and Cultural Change 1775 1870. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, 159. 27. Sands Sydney Directory, 1863, 195; ibid, 1871: 415; Sydney Morning Herald, 2/10/1880, 6. 28. NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages: http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/, 4/11/2010. 29. Sands, ibid.; Sands, loc. cit., 1871, 415; Sydney Morning Herald, 28/11/1862, 1; 1/11/1864, 2. 30. Sydney Morning Herald, 26/9/1859, 5. 31. Ibid., 13/3/1854, 8; 4/4/1855: 8; 14/12/1857, 1. 32. Ibid., 13/8/1866, 1. 33. The Supernatural Magazine for 1809. Dublin: Wilkinson & Courtney, 1809, 13. The text originally appeared in John Pordages Innocencie Appearing, Through the Dark Mists of Pretended Guilt. London: Printed for Giles Calvert, at the Black Spread-Eagle, at the West-end of St Pauls, 1655, 74. 34. J. Obelkevich, Religion and Rural Society: South Lindsay 1825-1875, 263. 35. Ibid, 307. 36. R. Godbeer, The Devils Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England, 15. 37. J. Sykes, Slawit in the Sixties: Reminiscences of the Moral, Social and Industrial Life of Slaithwaite and District in About the Year 1860, quoted in D. Vincent, Literacy and Popular Culture: England 1750 - 1914, 160. 38. R. Godbeer, Devils Dominion, 9. 39. Sydney Morning Herald, 5/11/1859, 1; 11/11/1859, 8. 40. Ibid., 26/1/1855, 4. 41. The Queenslander, 22/2/1873, 4. 42. Sydney Morning Herald, 27/4/1858, 1. 43. J. S. Coleman et al., Cats and wildlife: a conservation dilemma. Milwaukee: University of Wisconsin - Extension, 1997, at http://wildlife.wisc.edu/extension/ catfly3.htm, 4/11/2010; M. Howard, Dried cats. Man, 51, 11/1951, 150; BBC Nature online, www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/pets/cats.shtml, 4/11/2010. 44. M. Howard, ibid; R. Kieckhefer, Forbidden rites. Philadelphia: Penn State Press,

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1998, 100; Golden, Encyclopaedia of Witchcraft, 1, A D. Santa Barbara, Cal. ABC-CLIO, 2006, 174, 175; Richard Cavendish (ed.), Man, Myth and Magic. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 3, 2006, 417-421. 45. M. Howard, loc. cit., 150. 46. P. Schad, Animal Mummies Concealed in Buildings in the District of Ludwigsburg: Remains of a post-medieval magic conception? Bamberger Colloquia on Archaeology of Mediaeval and Modern Times. Berlin: Scrpvaz-Verlag, 2005, 151- 161. 47. P. Schad, email, 22/5/2005. 48. E. Lovett, A new Lecture entitled the Folk-lore of the Cat. London: Cuming Museum, Southwark, undated but post 1918. 49. M. Howard, loc. cit. 50. Rob Thomas, telephone conversation 15/2/2005. 51. P. Schad, email, loc. cit. 52. The property was acquired in 1887 by Charles Clifford, a currier. See ownership timeline for 9 Day Street, Windsor, at the NSW Department of Lands website: http://www.lands.nsw.gov.au/land_titles/property_search, 4/11/2010. 53. T. Easton, conversation, Bedfield Hall, Suffolk, 4/7/2006. 54. Margaret Baker, Letter to curator, Northampton Museums, 16/10/1982. 55. National Library of Australia, catalogue entry for Margaret Baker, http:// catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/979798, 1/11/2010. 56. Nick Wright, Publisher, Shire Publications, email, 18/11/2009.

five: analysis

1. Ian Stapleton. How to Restore the Old Aussie House. Mullumbimby: Flannel Flower Press, 2008, 9698. 2. William Weaver, Specifications of Works to be Done and Materials to be Provided and Used in the Erection and Completion of a Residence in Accordance with the Accompanying Plans at Burrundulla near Mudgee. Burrundulla collection, Mudgee, NSW. 3. Scott Hill, email, 7/1/2010; Womens Supplement, Sydney Morning Herald, 18/7/1935, 86. 4. William Weaver, loc. cit. 5. Specifications of the different artificers work required for the erection of additions to house proposed to be erected at Bishops-court Randwick for Mrs. T.S. Morgan. 10/10/1883. Ian Evans collection. 6. Phillip Hughes, Patching Old Floorboards. London: Society for the Protection of

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Ancient Buildings, 1988; Melbourne: Department of Planning and Community Development, 2007, 2, 3. 7. J. Petersen, Hyde Park Barracks Museum Guidebook. Sydney. Historic Houses Trust, 2003, 23. 8. J. Swann, Shoes Concealed in Buildings. Costume, 30, 1996, 56-69. 9. C. van Driel-Murray, Footwear in the North-Western Provinces of the Roman Empire. Stepping Through Time: Archaeological Footwear from Prehistoric Times until 1800. Zwolle, Netherlands: Foundation for Promoting Archaeology, 2001, 347. 10. John Chapman, Fragmentation in Archaeology: People, Places and Broken Objects in the Pre-history of South-eastern Europe, 6. 11. Ibid, 37. 12. R. Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic. London: Batsford, 1987, 111, 112. 13 Ibid, 44. 14. Driel-Murray, And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time .. Feet and Shoes as a Material Projection of the Self. Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1998, 131. 15. M. Fulford, Links with the Past: Pervasive Ritual Behaviour in Roman Britain. Britannia, 32, passim. London: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 2001, 199, 218. 16. Simon Clarke, Wells and Ritual Deposition at the Newstead Roman Military Complex. Slide 20, Powerpoint presentation, Roman Limes Congress, University of Newcastle, UK, 19/8/2009. 17. Trimontium Roman Fort and Marching Camps, www.roman-britain.org/places/ trimontium.htm. 18. Ibid. 19. J. Curle, A Roman Frontier Post and its People: The Fort of Newstead in the Parish of Melrose. Glasgow. James Maclehose and Sons, 1911, 42, reprinted for The Trimontium Trust by The Armatura Press, 2004. Downloadable at www. curlesnewstead.org.uk, 4/11/2010. 20. Ibid., vii. 21. Ibid., 108. 22. Ibid., 116-139. 23. R. Merrifield, op. cit., 107-112. 24. J. Curle, loc. cit,, 113. 25. Ibid., 114. 26. Ibid., 114. 27. S. Clarke, Abandonment: Rubbish Disposal and Special Deposits at Newstead.

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TRAC96: Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, Sheffield, K. Meadows, C. Lemke, and J. Heron (eds.). Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1997, 73-81. 28. J. Curle, op cit, 152. 29. Driel-Murray. Footwear, 337. 29. R. Merrifield, op cit, 23-30. 30. P. Cunnington, How Old is your House? Sherborne, Dorset: Alphabooks, 1982, 28-56; B. Breckon and J. Parker. Tracing the History of Houses. Newberry, Berkshire: Countryside Books, 1991, 12. 31. S. Clarke, Probably Ritual: Assemblage Interpretation at the Roman Military Complex - Towards a More Holistic Approach. Holy Ground: Theoretical Issues Relating to the Landscape and Material Culture of Ritual Space. A.T. Smith and A. Brooks, (eds.). Archaeopress, Oxford: British Archaeological Reports International Series, No. 956, 2001, 81. 32. M. Lewis, Australian Building: A Cultural Investigation, http://mileslewis.net/ australian-building, 4/11/2010, Section Four: Hybrid Types, 4.01.1. Wattle and Daub; Marcus Vitruvius, Ten Books on Architecture. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1914, Book II, 57; I. Evans, The Australian Home. Glebe, NSW: Flannel Flower Press, 1983, 26. 33. G. Luck. Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992, 97, 98; H. D. Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, xlii. 34. H. D. Betz, ibid., 19. 35. R. Merrifield, op. cit., 131. 36. Rob Thomas, email, 28/1/05. 37. B. Hoggard, The Archaeology of Counter-witchcraft and Popular Magic. Beyond the Witch Trials: Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment Europe. O. Davies and W. de Blecourt, (eds.). Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004, 175. 38. Kallan Short, email, 17/1/05. 39. Jenny Lebens, email, 17/1/05. 40. John Logan, letter, 23/9/04. 41. Anne Wood, email, 13/1/05. 42. Great Ocean Road/Colac Visitor Centres, Birregurra Heritage Walk Guide, 2002; M. Lewis, Leonard Terry (1825 - 1884). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1976, 6, 257, 258. 43. B. Hoggard, op. cit., 176. 44. Ling Yoong, email, 13/1/2005. 45. Sydney Morning Herald, 25/1/1900, 5. 46. Sydney Morning Herald, ibid.

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47. M. Kelly, A Certain Sydney 1900. Paddington, NSW: Doak Press, nd, unpaginated. 48. M. Kelly, ibid. 49. Sydney Morning Herald, loc. cit. 50. W. Hughes, Policies and Potentates. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1952, 37, quoted in Kelly, A Certain Sydney 1900. 51. P. Cowdell, If not, shall employ Rough on Rats: Identifying the Common Elements of Rat Charms. Charms, Charmers and Charming. Jonathon Roper, (ed.). Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave McMillan, 2009, 17-25. 52. R. Merrifield, loc. cit. 53. R. Merrifield, Foundation Deposits from Human Sacrifice to Time Capsules. Chapter 1, 3, of typescript of proposed book to be entitled Magical Protection of the Home in European Tradition from Roman to Modern Times. The project was terminated after the death of Merrifield which occurred shortly after he contributed the text referred to here. The original mss is held by June Swann, Northampton. 54. NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, No. 3956/1912, Alexander Wilson and Winifred Long, Woollahra, NSW. 55. NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, No. 1577/1920, Marjorie E. Wilson, Katoomba District Registry, NSW. 56. J. Swann, email, 7/10/2010. 57. Manning Clark, A History of Australia, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1973, III, 20, 21. 58. Lott Family files, Residency Museum, York, WA. 59. The date is based on the use of small window panes and the form of the structure, placing it in the period before about 1860. See Stapleton, Mid-Century Vernacular, Australian House Styles, 25. 60. Lott Family files, loc cit. 61. D. Eastop, Garments Deliberately Concealed in Buildings. R. Wallis and K. Lymer (eds.) A Permeability of Boundaries? New approaches to the Archaeology of Art, Religion and Folklore, BAR International Series S936. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 2001, 80. 62. David Clark, Between Pulpit and Pew: Folk Religion in a North Yorkshire Fishing Village. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982, 164.

six: conclusions

1. R. Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic. London: Batsford, 1987, 23 26. 2. G. Bennett, Traditions of Belief: Women and the Supernatural. London: Penguin

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1987, 9. 3. Ibid, 3. 4. J. Swan, email, 8/5/2009. 5. K. Boulden, Eight Hour Day: a Resource for Middle-year Teachers and Students, Melbourne: Museum Victoria, 2006, 6. 6. P. Rayner, et al., Media Studies: the Essential Introduction. London: Routledge, 2001, case study No. 2, unpaginated. 7. J. Lothrop, The Pilgrims Companion. Utica, NY: Northway and Bennett, 1827. 8. R. Atzbach, Late and Post-Medieval Time Capsules: Important Information from the Upper Stories. Athena Review, 4/4, 2007, 1-9. 9. T. Easton, addendum to draft thesis text, 1/12/2010. 10. Matthew Champion, email 21/7/2010.

appendix one: catalogue of concealed object finds

1. Research by Bathurst Historical Society, cited in letter to David Bailey, 18/4/2001. 2. The back of the plaster sheeting was dated-stamped 1922. The name of the builder was obtained during interviews by Helen Ridley with elderly neighbours and other residents of Cessnock. 3. NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, No. 20177, 1887. 4. Ibid, No. 38404, 1913. 5. Research by Brian Ridley; NSW Certificate of Title, volume 3452, folio 32 6. Letter from Brian and Helen Ridley, 18/10/2006. 7. NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, No. 43508, 1914. I looked for births registered to Herbert and Eileen Clayton, who purchased the house from Hipwell in 1923 but found none. 8. Jane Peek, senior curator, military heraldry and technology, Australian War Memorial, email, 29/1/09. 9. Max Kelly, A Certain Sydney 1900, Doak Press, Paddington 1978, unpaginated. 10. Hunter District Water Board, drainage plan 23659-60, lots 105 and 105a Mitchell Street, Stockton, for Misses A. and N.G. Hocquard, 17/11/1936. 11. Hyde Park Barracks Museum Guidebook. Sydney: Historic Houses Trust, 2006: 4, 12. 12. Ibid., 26 28. 13. J.D. Midler, Inventory of Underfloor Deposits (Levels 2 & 3). Hyde Park Barracks, report to Historic Houses Trust, 1995. 14. T. Murray and P. Cook, An Archaeology of Institutional Refuge: Material Culture of the Hyde Park Barracks. Sydney: Historic Houses Trust, 2003, 28.

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15. Ibid, 9. 16. Clive Lucas, Clive Lucas, Stapleton and Partners, email, 26/2/2007. 17. T. Murray and P. Cook, op. cit., 27. 18. Owen Davies, Cunning Folk: Popular Magic in English History. London: Hambledon & London, 2003. 19. J. Swann, Northampton Museum Journal 6, December 1969, 8-21; R. Merrifield, Folklore in London Archaeology. The London Archaeologist, 1, 5, winter 1969: 99-104; R. Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic. London: Batsford, 1987, 128-136; T. Easton, Spiritual Middens, in Paul Oliver (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World, 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 563; R. Latham, Talismans, Rewind, ABC-TV, 4/10/2004; Evans, Ian, lecture, Ritual, Magic and Witchcraft in Old Australian Buildings, Rouse Hill, NSW, 1/5/2004, 2/5/2004; Old Shoes Tell a Surprising Story from Australias Past, Reflections, National Trust of Australia (NSW), August October, 2005, 20, 21; Old Shoes Reveal a Secret from Australian History. Sydney: Heritage NSW, Summer 2005 2006, 6. 7; Charmed. Sydney: Readers Digest, July 2006, 90-96; Touching Magic: a Strange Secret Brought to life. Perth, WA: Trust News. August, 2009, 8-9. 20. J. D. Midler, loc. cit.; T. Murray and P. Cook, loc. cit. 21. A genealogical search at www.familysearch.org on 3/11/2010 produced records for Robert Harrison showing his birth at Rivenhall, Essex, on 5/5/1769 and death at Woodbury, Oatlands, Tasmania, on 14/7/1860. 22. Edward Dumaresq, Journals of the Land Commissioners for Van Diemens Land, 1826-28. Hobart: University of Tasmania and Tasmanian Historical Research Association, 1962: 27. 23. P.C. Mowle, A Genealogical History of Pioneer Families of Australia. Adelaide: Rigby, 1978, 183; Robert Harrison, letter to Lieutenant Governor, Van Diemens Land, and Statement of Property in Cash, Goods, Agricultural Implements, Stock or other Articles, 4/7/1823, Archives Office of Tasmania; www.familysearch.org. 24. Edward Dumaresq, Journals, loc. cit. 25. P. C. Mowle, loc. cit. 26. Construction dating and assessment of additions to Woodbury by Alan Cooper, 2005. 27. Hobart Town Courier, 4/4/1829, 1. 28. Robert Alfred Harrison, born Hobart 22/12/1826, died Launceston 3/4/1829. Online at http://pridmore-olver.sytes.net/ahnentafel.php?personID=I6348&tree=Olver-Arm strong&parentset=0&generations=4, 5/11/2010 29. The Examiner, Launceston, 21/8/1860, 7S. 30. Maitland and Krone, The Cyclopedia of Tasmania, Hobart, 1899-1900. 31. The Mercury, Hobart, 13/4/1920, 1; Ibid., 26/4/1921, 7.

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32. Alan Cooper, construction dating, 2005. 33. J. Swann, email, 1/4/05. 34. Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, House Magazine, Spring, 2007. Online edition at www.wealddown.co.uk/Magazine/Spring 2007/magazine-spring-2007- part3.htm#keeping evil at bay, 4/11/2010; BBC Wales, 24/9/2010, http://www.bbc. co.uk/news/uk-wales-11400041, 15/5/2011. 35. F. J. Gray, Old Pontville: A Seamless Web, n.d. 36. Pontville Heritage Association. Occasional Paper No. 1, 1999, Thomas Stace and his House. 37. M. Hetherington, Minute to Acquisitions Committee, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 7/12/2005. 38. Charles Leski, Auctions, Catalogue of Sale, Hawthorn East, Victoria, 15/12/2005; M. Hetherington, email, 18/4/2006. 39. M. Hetherington, loc. cit. 40. Ibid. 41. Charles Leski, Auctions, loc. cit. 42. J. Swann, email, 9/12/2006. 43. David J. Bryce, Pubs in Hobart. Hobart: Davadia Publishing, 1997: 69. 44. Hobart Star newspaper, 19/4/1994. 45. State Records NSW, Colonial Secretary Index, 1788-1825, Index to Land Grants in Van Diemens Land, fiche 3262, 4/438 pp.70, 73, Fiche 3270; X19 p.20. 46. UK Home Office, British Transportation Registers 1787-1867, State Library of Queensland, http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/info/fh/convicts, 4/11/2010. 47. Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office, email, 8/1/2009. 48. Annette Evans, dressmaker, report on examination of the garment. 49. M. Fletcher, Costume in Australia 17881901. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1984, plates 33 and 34. 50. Colonial Times, Hobart, 2/9/1845, 3. 51. Telephone conversations at various times in 2005 with Craig Godfrey, Gowans Auctions, Carol Riley-Hanson and Neville Locker; Catalogue of the Neville Locker Collection. Sydney: Bonhams and Goodman, lot No. 1190, 29/4/07. 52. E. G. Robertson, Early Buildings of Southern Tasmania. Melbourne: Georgian House, 1970, 394400. 53. Bryan Curran, F. G. Tabart genealogy submitted to www.familysearch.org. 54. The painting of Oates is signed by Worth and was inspected and photographed during a visit to The Stonehouse in January 2005; Sue Knopp, State Library of Tasmania, email, February 2005. 55. Oates Family history, mss genealogical notes, 12/1/1993, examined at The Stonehouse.

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56. Ibid. 57. T. Easton, Spiritual Middens, loc. cit. 58. Ian Jack, Tasman Peninsula. The Heritage of Tasmania The Illustrated Register of the National Estate. Melbourne: MacMillan, 1983, 7074. 59. Great Ocean Road/Colac Visitor Centres, Birregurra Heritage Walk Guide, 2002. 60. J. Swann, email, 5/11/05. 61. J. Moyle, Cole, Joseph Stear Carlyon (18321916). Australian Dictionary of Biography, 8. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1981, 62-63. 62. Settlers Gazette, Perth: Western Australian Genealogical Society, 14/3/1998. http://wags.org.au/o/1829-ships/1829-shipping-arrivals/lotus.html, 1/11/2010; Dictionary of Western Australians 1828-1888, 1672. 63. Joness property was Perth Town Lot F5, between St Georges Terrace and Hay Street. Email, State Records Office, WA, 2/11/2010; Sharon Kennedy, ABC South-West WA, Archaeologists uncover old shoe near Balingup, 5/7/2007, www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2007/07/05/1971193.htm, 4/11/2010. 64. Settlers Gazette, loc. cit. 65. Jeff Pow, email, 25/6/2009, citing his own research into the history of Southampton Homestead; Grave marker of John Allum, Southampton, with inscription: Sacred to the memory of John Allum who departed this life May 15 1868, aged 83 years. 66. Jeff Pow, email, 17/6/2009. 67. Ibid. 68. Ibid. 69. S. Burke, email, 15/6/2009, 18/6/2009. 70. Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Register of the National Estate, Southampton Farm homestead, Place ID 9514; WA Heritage Council, State Register of Heritage Places. Southampton homestead, place No 00710. 71. Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Register of the National Estate, Willow Gully homestead, Place ID 9687. WA Heritage Council, State Register of Heritage Places. Willow Gully homestead, place No. 01914. 72. Perth Gazette, 6/11/1857, 2; 26/2/1858, 3; 28/5/1858, 2. 73. Lott Family files, York Residency Museum, York. WA. 74. M. Kennedy, Commissariat Store Conservation Plan. Brisbane: Queensland Department of Public Works, 1998, 34. 75. K. J. Murphy, Under the Boards. Brisbane: BA thesis, School of Social Sciences, University of Queensland, 2003, 31. 76. Andrew Petrie, Plan of Commissariat Store, Brisbane Town, Morton (sic) Bay, 1838. Petries series of drawings of buildings at Moreton Bay is in the Queensland State Archives. See, for example, item IDs 659618 and 659620.

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77. M. Kennedy, op cit, 12. 78. Ibid., 13, 43. 79. Ibid., 32, 37. 80. Ibid., 35. 81. Ibid., 36. 82. Ibid., 41. 83. Queensland Museum object H-4819. 84. M. Kennedy, op. cit., 42; Sue Constable, Shoe Heritage Officer, Northampton Museums, email, 10/2006. 85. J. Swann, email, history of British boots, 12/11/2006. 86. Brisbane City Council heritage citation, June 2000. 87. Ibid.; Brisbane Courier, 1/3/1902: 5. 88. Glossary of Welsh Place-Name Elements: http://www.jlb2005.plus.com/wales/ glossary/, 4/11/2010. 89. Australian Dictionary of Biography, Melbourne; Melbourne University Press, 12, 531; D. B. Watterson. Biographical Register of the Queensland Parliament 1860 1929. Sydney: Casket Publications, 2001; J. Maidment. Amateur and Professional: the Organ in Private Residences in Australia. Organ Historical Trust of Australia, Journal, July 1991, 10-14, 19. 90. Australian Dictionary of Biography, loc cit. 91. Brisbane City Council, loc. cit. 92. J. Swann, email, 12/11/2006.

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New South Wales Specifications of the different artificers work required for the erection of additions to house proposed to be erected at Bishops-court Randwick for Mrs. T.S. Morgan. 10/10/1883. Myocum: Ian Evans collection. Weaver, William. Specifications of Works to be Done and Materials to be Provided and Used in the Erection and Completion of a Residence in Accordance with the Accompanying Plans at Burrundulla near Mudgee. Mudgee, NSW: Burrundulla archive. Index to Land Grants in Van Diemens Land. Colonial Secretary Index, 17881825. Sydney: State Records NSW. Queensland Petrie, Andrew. Plan of Commissariat Store, Brisbane Town, Moreton Bay, 1838. Queensland State Archives, Brisbane. Tasmania Allison, William. Almanac and Notebook, Hobart: State Library of Tasmania and Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office, NS261/1/1. Harrison, Robert. Letter to Lieutenant Governor, Van Diemens Land, and Statement of Property in Cash, Goods, Agricultural Implements, Stock or other Articles, Hobart: Archives Office of Tasmania, 4/7/1823. Dumaresq, Edward. Journals of the Land Commissioners for Van Diemens Land, 1826-28. Hobart: University of Tasmania and Tasmanian Historical Research Association, 1962. United Kingdom Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle, Cornwall. Images from Glanvilles Sadducismus Triumphatos and Hopkinss Discoverie of Witches were obtained during visits to the Museum in 2006. Northampton Museums and Gallery, Northampton. Baker, Margaret, letter to Northampton Museums, 16/10/1982, regarding a conversation with Bill Brown of Church Cottage, Stockleigh Pomeroy, Devon, 30/9/1973, re concealed shoes.

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June Swann, MBE, Northampton. Ralph Merrifields mss of chapter entitled Foundation Deposits from Human Sacrifice to Time Capsules for proposed book entitled Magical Protection of the Home in European Tradition from Roman to Modern Times. Cuming Museum, Southwark. Sage, James. Typescript of mss. entitled Lovett on the folklore collector Edward Lovett. UK Home Office British Transportation registers 1787-1867. Online at State Library of Queensland website: www.slq.qld.gov.au/info/fh/convicts/, 4/11/2010.

printed primary sources and periodicals

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Register of the National Estate. Southampton Farm Homestead. Australian Heritage Database, Place ID 9514. Canberra: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Search online at www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ ahdb/search.pl, 5/11/2010. Register of the National Estate. Willow Gully Homestead. Australian Heritage Database, place ID 9687. Canberra: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Search online at www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/ search.pl, 4/11/2010. Renfrew, Colin, and Paul Bahn. Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice. London: Thames and Hudson, 2000. Richards, Eric. Britannias Children: Emigration from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland since 1600. London: Hambledon and London, 2004. Ritual Marks on Historic Timber. EASA Journal, Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association, summer, 1999: 4. Robertson, E. Graeme. Early Buildings of Southern Tasmania. Melbourne: Georgian House, 1970. Roper, Jonathan (ed). Charms, Charmers and Charming. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008. Ruhen, Olaf, Tess van Sommers, Patricia Thompson. The Rocks. Adelaide: Rigby, 1977. Rule, John. The Labouring Classes in Early Industrial England 1750 1850. New York: Longman, 1986. St George, Robert Blair. Conversing by Signs: Poetics of Implication in Colonial New England Culture. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. Schad, Petra. Animal mummies concealed in buildings in the district of Ludwigsburg Remains of a post-medieval magic conception? Depotfunde aus Gebuden in Zentraleuropa. Ingolf Ericsson & Rainer Atzbach (eds). Berlin: Scripvaz-Verlag, 2005, 151-161. Semmens, Jason. The Usage of Witch-Bottles and Apotropaic Charms in Cornwall. Old Cornwall, 12, 6, 2000, 25-30. Sharpe, James. Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in England 1550-1750. London: Penguin, 1997. Witchcraft in the Early Modern Isle of Man. Journal of Cultural History, 4, 1, 2007, 11-28. Sheehan, John. A Seventeenth-Century Dried Cat from Ennis Priory, County Clare. North Munster Antiquarian Journal, 22, 1980, 64-69. Smedley, Norman, and Elizabeth Owles. More Suffolk Witch Bottles. Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, 30, 1964-66, 84-93.

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Smith, J.B. Pot-lid and Jack in the Cellar: the Unborn Child in Saying, Custom and Artefact. Folk Life Journal of Ethnological Studies, 37, 1998-99, 92-98. Springate, Megan E. The Sextons House Has a Ritual Concealment: Late Nineteenth-Century Negotiations of Double Consciousness at a Black Family Home in Sussex County, New Jersey. The African Diaspora Archaeology Network, Newsletter, June 2010. Online at www.diaspora.uiuc.edu/news0610/ news0610.html#2, 5/11/2010. A Concealed Shoe Recovered at the Updike Farmstead, Princeton Township, Mercer County, New Jersey. Newsletter of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey, 232, May 2011, 1, 3, 4. Stabb, J. Some old Devon Churches, Their Rood Screens, Pulpits, Fonts, Etc. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., 19081916. Stapleton, Ian. How to Restore the Old Aussie House. Mullumbimby, NSW: Flannel Flower Press, 2008. Stapleton, Maisy and Ian Stapleton. Australian House Styles. Yeronga, Queensland: Flannel Flower Press, 1997. Stark, L. The Charmers Body and Behaviour as a Window onto Early Modern Selfhood. In Roper, Jonathan (ed), Charms, Charmers and Charming. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008. Stead, I.M., with J.H. Thornton, and A.V. Goodfellow. Excavations at the South Corner Tower of the Roman Fortress at York. Yorkshire Archeological Journal, 39, 1958, 515-518. Steane, John, and Christine Bloxham. Secrets under the Floorboards. Folk Life, 35, c.1987/8, 40-44. Stevens, Ray. Conservation Plan, Dawesleigh, Millers Point. Balmain, NSW: OIKOS Architects, Balmain, 2003. Stevenson, David. The Origins of Freemasonry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Swann, June. Shoes Concealed in Buildings. Northampton Museums Journal, 6, December 1969, 8-21. Shoemaking. Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire: Shire Publications, 1986. Concealed shoes, unpublished notes, October, 1990. Shoes Concealed in Buildings. Costume 30, 1996, 56-69. Shoes Concealed in Buildings, Archaeological Leather Group Newsletter, 7, February 1998, 2-3. Interpreting Concealed Shoes and Associated Finds. Depotfunde aus Gebuden in Zentraleuropa/Concealed Finds from Buildings in Central Europe. Ingolf Ericsson & Rainer Atzbach (eds). Berlin: Scripvaz-Verlag, 2005.

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Teague, David. Windsor Council Chambers 1897-1997. Lutwyche, Qld: Windsor and Districts Historical Society, 1997. Tehnas, Megan. Accounting for the Presence and Distribution of Artefacts at St. Marys Cathedral, Perth, Western Australia. B.A. Honours. Armidale: Department of Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology. University of New England, 2007. Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic. London: Penguin, 1991. Trimontium Roman Fort and Marching Camps. Online at www.roman-britain.org/ places/trimontium.htm, 4/11/2010. Veres, Maya. Introduction to the Analysis of Archaeological Footwear, Australasian Historical Archaeology, 23, 2005, 89-96. Victoria & Albert Museum. Staff Obituaries Department of Textiles. John Lea Nevinson. London: The Times, 7/8/1985. Online at http://www.vam.ac.uk/ collections/periods_styles/features/history/staff_obituaries/textiles/nevinson/ index.html, 5/11/2010. Vincent, David. Literacy and Popular Culture: England 1750 - 1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Volken, Marquetta. Concealed Footwear in Switzerland, Archaeological Leather Group Newsletter, 7, February 1998, 2-6. Watson, R. Thomas Stace and his House. Occasional Paper No. 1: Pontville, Tasmania: Pontville Heritage Association, 1999. Watterson, D.B. Biographical Register of the Queensland Parliament 1860 1929. Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1972. West, Janet. Australian Scrimshaw. Sydney: Australiana, Journal of the Australiana Society, Sydney, 9, 3, 1987. Wilby, Emma. Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic. Sussex: Sussex Academic Press, 2006. The Visions of Isobel Gowdie: Magic, Shamanism and Witchcraft in Seventeenth-century Scotland. Sussex: Sussex Academic Press, 2010. Windsor Castle Official Guide. Windsor: St Georges Chapel Archives and Chapter Library, 1977. Wingfield, Chris. Tylors Onion: a Curious Case of Bewitched Onions from Somerset. England The Other Within. Oxford: Pitt Rivers Museum, 2009. Online at http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-tylors-onion.html, 4/11/2010. Woolf, Leonard. Downhill all the Way: An Autobiography of the Years 1919-1939. London: Hogarth Press, 1968. Wright, Adela. Care and Repair of Old Floors. London: Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, technical pamphlet No. 15, 1999. Wright, Thomas. The Romance of the Shoe. London, C.J. Farncombe, 1922.

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APPENDIX ONE: CATALOGUE OF FINDS

Ian Evans 2010

Shoes and boots dated and identified by June Swann, MBE

The following record includes all sites identified from commencement of research in early 2004 to October 2010
New South Wales Tasmania Victoria South Australia Western Australia Queensland 225 293 294 337 338 357 358 375 376 399 400 414

Building tradesmen, early 20th century. Grouped around the very dapper architect at front row, centre, are carpenters, bricklayers, plumbers and plasterers. One of them is holding a cat. Russell Hall, Skipton, Victoria, 1918. (MV image No. bfa001407)

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Balmain Bathurst Bega Berrima Blackheath Blayney Brooklyn Burwood Camperdown Campsie Carrington Cessnock Cooks Hill Cremorne Dawes Point Double Bay Elizabeth Bay Glebe Goulburn Gundagai

226 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239, 240 241 242 243-245 246 247249 250 251 255 256 258

Hamilton Hartley Vale Islington Leichhardt Lithgow Marrickville Millers Point Milton Molong Mudgee Ravensworth Stockton Sydney Temora Thurgoona The Oaks Triangle Flat Wickham Willoughby Windsor

259 260 261 262 263, 264 265 266 268 269 270 271 273 274 275, 276 277 285 286 287 288 289, 290 291 292 293

Images in this Catalogue are by Ian Evans, unless otherwise attributed.

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BALMAIN Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type Location of object in building 6 King Street Masonry house, early 20th century Lindie Ward, curator, Powerhouse Museum Phone 02 9818 4460. Email lindiew@PHM.GOV.AU Mans Balmoral boot, left foot, circa 1900 1920s, heel cut off. Cutting thought to have been done with a sharp knife and destructive intent. Magical purpose of the mutilation? Subfloor, adjacent to presumed location of original kitchen.

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BALMAIN Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Informant Object type Location of object/s in building St Augustines Catholic Church, 3 Jane Street (Eton Rd) Church, brick, 1906 Catholic Church Arthur Rudman, painter. Phone 02 9568 2815, 0418 286 552 Mans Balmoral boot, right foot, 280mm, early 20th century, splashed with setting plaster, 8 under tab. Boot probably that of a building tradesman. Also small bottles. Roof cavity, approximately above altar.

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BALMAIN Site of find Type of building/date Former property owner Object type Location 162 Beattie Street Brick terrace, single storey, circa 1880s Paul Dickson. Phone 0413 764 320. Email pgdhmd@hotmail.com Childs boot subfloor

Mr. Dicksons phone has been disconnected and he has not responded to email enquiries. He has sold the house and moved to an unknown address. I have visited the house without gaining access but have not seen the boot. The find was reported to me by Ms. Marjorie Clarke, a Beattie Street resident, who has been known to me for many years.

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BATHURST Site of find Type of building/date 63 Russell Street Brick house, 1891, designed by James Hine for Frank Glasson, real estate agent.The house initially was let to Daniel Veness, Bathurst Town Clerk.1 David Bailey. Phone 02 6331 9964 Male Balmoral boots, pair, black or brown leather, circa late 1880s, splashed with lime mortar, probably those of a building tradesman, well worn, re-soled, seven lace holes, four brass hooks, 275mm. I have been informed that these are stockmans boots.

Property owner/occupant Object type

Location of object/s in building Subfloor, in front room (parlour?), at left in photograph, close to door. Found when floorboards were lifted to check for termites.

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BEGA Site of find Type of building/date 18 Union Street Originally a two-room slab structure with a shingle roof, rebuilt c. 1900 as six-roomed weatherboard cottage Elizabeth Silvolli. Phone 02 6492 4404. Email esilvolli@hotmail.com Childs ankle boot, five lace holes, three hooks, plus remnant of infants shoe, possibly another boot or two boots

Property owner/occupant Object type

Location of object/s in building Subfloor, near fireplace. Found during replacement of timber stumps.

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BERRIMA Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type Location 10 Argyle Street Circa 1840s stone house Betty Sideres. Phone 02 4877 1350. Email bsideres@bigpond.net.au Boot, army Blucher, adult male, right foot, circa 1890-1920, four lace holes, 290mm subfloor, near fireplace in front room (at left in photograph below

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BLACKHEATH Site of find Type of building/date Former property owner Object type 122 Govetts Leap Road House, circa 1885 Trish Ryan. Phone 02 4787 6261, 0419 435 440 Babys bonnet, embroidery patterns

Location of objects in building Subfloor, in cardboard box (now lost). These objects were found by Dennis Plink, builder, (02 6355 2003) during renovations. They were under the floor of the room on the south-west corner of the house. Access was difficult. The objects are with Ian Evans pending appropriate long-term arrangements.

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BLAYNEY Site of find Type of building/date Former property owner/occupant Object type 34 Martha Street Timber cottage, late 19th century Roland Zopf. Phone 02 6331 8405, 0414 407 049 (Now at 210 Bentinck Street, Bathurst) Cat (also shoe, discarded). Cat is with Mr. Zopf.

Location of object in building Subfloor

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BROOKLYN Site of find Type of building/date Former occupant Object type 202 Brooklyn Road Timber cottage, late 19th century Beaumont Jardine. Phone 02 9985 7087. Email beaumontjardine@bigpond.com.au Bottle wrapped in rag and containing a dead mouse, nine bent pins attached to a piece of string with nine knots, teeth made from stone and a piece of paper with illegible writing coiled around a key. The bottle was found circa 2000. Mr. Jardine did some internet research and concluded that the object was a witch bottle. It was discarded. This object may have been a modern recreation of a traditional witch bottle. Subfloor, adjacent to path to front door.

Location of object in building

Above, Beaumont Jardines sketch of the bottle and some of its contents. At left, he indicates the place where the bottle was found at the front left-hand corner of the house.

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BURWOOD Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant 16 Grantham Street Brick terrace, c. 1890 Josephine Brattoni. Phone 02 9744 2176, 0414 768 330. Email josephine52@optusnet. com.au Womans shoe, black leather, right foot, 245mm, circa 1920s. Subfloor (in upper level floor). This concealment may be associated with work carried out when the house was wired for electricity.

Object type Location of object/s in building

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CAMPERDOWN Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Informant Object type Australia Street, (western side) Brick terrace, late 19th century Not known Darryl Webb. Phone 02 4385 2678 Boys front-lace ankle boot, right foot, extension for growth at front, circa late 19th century 1930s, 170mm

Location of object in building Chimney (in cavity beside flue, near smokeshelf). The chimney had back-to-back flues and was centred between the kitchen and the parlour. This find was made by Mr. Webb, a bricklayer, while demolishing a chimney in the late 1990s. He does not recall the number in the street. The shoe is in my possession pending appropriate long-term arrangements for its preservation. The houses shown below are part of a group in the area of the street where the shoe was found.

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CAMPSIE Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type 8 Moore Street Brick house, late 19th century Melanie Smith, Sarah Penicka. Phone 0408 027 359. Email Mello444@tpg.com.au Balmoral boot, male, five-six eyelets, three hooks, circa early 20th century, numerous animal bones

Location of objects in building Subfloor, possibly original kitchen. Returned to original location after photography.

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CARRINGTON Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type 91 Wilson Street Late 19th century attached timber house (on right in photograph) Christine Robinson & Ken Newland. Phone 02 4974 1400 (W), 0425 391 751 Shoes, twelve surviving (several discards were in very poor condition) plus two cats (discarded). This cache of early 20th century shoes appears to reflect an entire family. The shoes date from circa 1912 to the 1920s and 1930s. Kitchen, subfloor, near fireplace, back door and staircase to upper level.

Location of objects in building

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CESSNOCK Site of find Type of building/date Fomer property owner Object type 7 Ivan Street Timber cottage, circa 1922 Helen & Brian Ridley. Phone 02 4333 3441 (Now at 69/15 Bias Avenue, Bateau Bay) Childs coat

Location of object in building Wall in front hall, behind skirting near bedroom. The jacket is with Ian Evans at present but will go to Newcastle Regional Museum. The very last thing Brian Ridley expected to see when he took the original plaster sheeting from the wall in the hallway of his cottage in Cessnock was an old blue serge jacket. He thought at first that it was a rag that had been used to apply black japan to the floors of the old house but a closer look revealed that this was not the case. The coat, a little shabby and frayed when it had been put into the wall, also appeared to have suffered from insect attack during the many years in which it had been hidden from view. The jacket was a childs, dark navy blue and fairly heavy in weight. Buttons down the right-hand side indicated that it had been made for a boy and its size suggested a child of about age seven. The house was being renovated at the time the jacket was found. The old plaster lining was not in the best of condition and, having decided to replace it with new plaster sheeting, the Ridleys had decided to install insulation at the same time. The jacket was placed low down in the wall, near the skirting board and close to the 7 Ivan Street, Cessnock, circa 1960. doorway into one of the front bedrooms. (Brian Ridley) Changes lay ahead for Brian Ridley and his wife, Helen, both of whom are retired teachers. The old house was thoroughly renovated before they sold it and moved to a retirement village at Bateau Bay. A lover of history, Helen had done some research into the story of their house which had belonged to her parents, James and Helen Alexander, since 1957. She discovered that it had been built in about 1922, one of three adjacent cottages constructed by a local builder with a most unusual name: Cecil Australia Britain Hipwell.2 Born at Paterson in the Hunter Valley in 18873, Hipwell was doing well for someone who had probably received no more training than an apprenticeship as a carpenter. In 1913 he married Muriel Squire at Cessnock. They had a daughter, Cecile, in the

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same year.4 With a family to support and house, Cecil Hipwell had work to do. He bought three allotments of land in Ivan Street, Cessnock, Nos. 3, 5 and 7, and constructed houses on each of them. He may have lived for a time in the timber cottage he built at No. 7 but it was sold in 1923 to Eileen Clayton, the wife of a Cessnock tobacconist and billiard hall proprietor.5 The second owner was a Mrs. McIntosh. She sold it to the Alexanders and it eventually became the home of their daughter and her husband.6 The jacket was found late in 2004, shortly after the Ridleys had seen the episode of ABC-TVs history programme, Rewind, in which I described my research into concealed objects in old buildings. They realized what they had found and got in touch. If, as seems likely, the jacket was concealed by Cecil Hipwell it reaffirms the role of carpenters in the concealment of objects in buildings. The question that remains outstanding in this story is who wore the jacket? Cecil and Muriel Hipwell had only one child: Cecile. But the jacket was made for a boy. I looked a little further afield and found that Cecil Hipwells elder brother, Leslie, also lived in Cessnock at the time. He and his wife, Elizabeth, had a son named John. Born in 1914, he makes a perfect fit for the age of the jacket.7 My understanding of the way this custom operated was that practitioners believed the objects best served their purpose if they came from the family who lived in a house. But Hipwell was building a speculative cottage. He could not know at this time who was to live there unless he intended to take up residence himself while he was working on the adjoining houses. It was common for speculative builders to live for a time in the houses they built. If No. 7 was the first of the cottages completed it would have been very convenient to live there while the other two were being constructed. But why choose a boys jacket when Hipwells daughters clothing was right at hand? So many people practiced this custom without the benefit of any written instruction in its complexities that we must assume that there were many different interpretations of its detail. Quite why the concealment came to be associated with a male child I have no idea. Perhaps Hipwell thought it would increase the potency of the ritual. Perhaps the jacket simply happened to be on hand when Cecil Hipwell and his men were finishing off the hallway of the cottage at No. 7 Ivan Street, Cessnock.

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COOKS HILL Site of find Type of building/date Property owner at time of find Object type 55 Laman Street Attached timber cottage, 19th century (at left in photograph) Chris and Robert Mooney, 5 Village Bay Close, Marks Point. Phone 02 4945 8696 Pair of boots, female, well-worn, circa 1870. Left foot 205mm, right 195mm (some sole leather is missing) Roof cavity, on beam above front door.

Location of objects in building

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CREMORNE Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant 44 Montague Road Brick house, 1915, rear addition 1940 Audrey Molloy. Phone 02 94249 999, 0414 386 824. Email amolloy@theeyeinstitute. com.au Childrens shoes Basecourse

Object type Location of objects in building

These shoes were found by tradesmen and went missing in chaotic circumstances at the site. Photographs of the find were taken by the owner. On 28/9/05 2:02 PM, Audrey Molloy at amolloy@theeyeinstitute.com.au wrote: Hi Ian, We have just moved into the house last weekend (after all the renovations!) so the place is upside down. We no longer have the shoes - just the pics I sent you before. Everything got thrown out by the builders. You can give us a call if you are in the area on 02 9908 7835 and you can visit the site if you like, but the whole back of the house where the shoes were found was removed and rebuilt. Sorry I can't be of more help. Kind regards Audrey Molloy PS you are welcome to use the pictures I have given you for a story if you are still interested. You can describe the incident and just describe the location of the house at North Cremorne. The house was built in 1915 and the back (where the shoes were found) was added on during the early 40's. A.M.

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DAWES POINT Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type 37 Lower Fort Street Attached brick/stucco house, 1833 M. Bishop & J. Dunn. Phone 02 9251 8650 Email piperpress@bigpond.com Childs three-button ankle boot, left foot (circa 1830 1840s), 130mm, also half of a womans lace collar (circa 1845?). Objects owned by Nick White: shpicko@gmail.com, 0403 643 587 Attic space, behind lath & plaster wall, NE corner at front of house. The corner location, in my view, raises the possibility of further concealments in other corners of the attic space.

Location of objects in building

Location of objects

Elevation by Ray Stevens, OIKOS Architects

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Left, No. 37 Lower Fort Street before conservation began. Below, the house in the present landscape of Millers Point. Bottom, a sectional view of the roof cavity and part of the level below. (Images by Ray Stevens, OIKOS Architects)

Location of finds

Storage Lath & plaster wall

Objects between joists

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Top, the circa 1830 1840s ankle boot found in the roof cavity. Made from woollen fabric with a toecap of patent leather or kid, the shoes sole remaining button is faceted Bohemian glass. At just 130mm long, this was the shoe of a very small child. Extensive wear raises the possibility of use by a number of children. Above, the lace found with the shoe. This object is approximately half its original size and, like the shoe, is well worn.

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DOUBLE BAY Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant 14 Manning Road Large brick house, circa 1900, thought to have been the city residence of a grazier. Dr Sandra Short. Phone 02 9363 9823 (W), 02 9327 7268 (H), 0421591150. Email sandra@dentartistry.com.au Balmoral ankle boot, male, left foot, 210mm, front lace, probably originally black leather, but with the facings (sections with eyelets/ lacing hooks) broken away. The straight cut at the toe suggests that a toecap is missing, and there's part of a straight cut on the sole which may indicate a missing -sole repair. Date: late 19th early 20th century. Subfloor, near basecourse in NW corner.

Object type

Location of object in building

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ELIZABETH BAY Site of find Type of building/date Elizabeth Bay House, 7 Onslow Avenue Substantial Georgian house, built in 1826 for Alexander Macleay, first Colonial Secretary of NSW, and designed by John Verge Historic Houses Trust of NSW (NSW Government). Head curator Scott Carlin Phone 02 9356 3022, 0419 622 658 Email scottc@scottc@hht.net.au Boots, pair, male, circa 1920s, 280mm. Roof cavity at rear of house.

Property owner

Object type Location of objects in building

Top, Elizabeth Bay House as it is today. Above, a view of Elizabeth Bay and Elizabeth Bay House by Conrad Martens, 1850 (NL nla.pic-an7681619). Left, the staircase in the saloon, by Harold Cazneaux, 1930. (NL nla.pic-an2383762-2)

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Slaters at work on the roof of Elizabeth Bay House, 18 July 1935, photographed by the Sydney Morning Herald. The attire of the men is typical of the time: trilby hats, second-best trousers which might be from a now-shabby suit and, on the man at left, an inexpensive pullover with a pattern suggestive of a Fairisle knit. These garments, once Sunday best, had been relegated to workwear in an era when tradesmen were expected to look like office staff. The shoes found in the roof cavity are contemporary with the period of this work, giving rise to the possibility that men in this team were involved in the concealment. The discovery also raises the issue of another trades involvement with concealments in buildings. Other finds have been linked to carpenters, bricklayers, stonemasons and plasterers. The location of the shoes at the rear of the house was above the original bedrooms first occupied by domestic servants in the late 1820s. Servants had long since been gone from the house at the time this concealment took place. Information on this concealment was provided by Scott Carlin, Curator, Elizabeth Bay House. (Fairfax Photos and Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales)

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June Swann describes the shoes found at Elizabeth Bay House as six eyelet, closed tab, formal toe-cap Oxfords. They are well-worn and bad enough to part with. The hole in the right shoe, at left above, appears to be recent damage and may have precipitated the decision to abandon the pair. The left shoe (above right) has been carelessly laced and with some holes skipped but the lace has been pulled tight at the top, indicating that it was knotted after removal from the foot. The lace in the right shoe (above left) has broken and has been started halfway up. It appears that some thought has been given to making these shoes appear complete before their concealment. The date of these shoes could be 1920s early 1930s, making them available for concealment in 1935. But June Swann says that these are in a long-lived style and could equally be dress wear from before World War One. The style appeared soon after 1900 and went on to the mid-1950s. The toeshape remained until about 1960.

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GLEBE Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant 2 Garran Lane Circa 1899 timber cottage Asa Wahlquist, journalist, The Australian. Phone 02 9660 8261. Email awahlquist@ bigpond.com Cat (discarded) Within timber wall of former childrens bedroom, demolished by Asa Wahlquist in 1982. The corpse was curled up on the bottom plate of the wall.

Object type Location of object in building

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GOULBURN Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant 29 35 Auburn Street Former Church of the Good Shepherd, 1911 Jack & Gillian Miller. Phone 02 4821 7699 (H), Jack 02 4823 4457 (W). Email jack. miller@goulburn.nsw.gov.au Two youths single shoes, male, toecapped, five eyelet Oxfords: black shoe, right foot 210mm; Brown shoe, right foot, 215mm, smart casual. Both lacking soles. 1920s Subfloor, under or near position of altar.

Object type

Location of objects in building

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Top, the original plans for the Anglican Mission Hall, 1911, South Goulburn (later the Church of the Good Shepherd). (Goulburn City Council Archives). Above left, A view of the altar. The shoes were sitting on a beam beneath it. Above right, E.C. Manfred, architect of the Mission Hall, and his wife in their model T Ford, circa 1910. (Historic images contributed by Jack Miller)

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GOULBURN Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Contact Object type Riversdale, Twynam Street Former inn & residence, circa 1840 National Trust of Australia (NSW). Phone 02 4821 4741 Harry Ostendorf: 0413 923 931 Boots, pair, female, 1870s, black leather, elastic-sided, mock-button, cloth tabs on back: Right shoe, button missing, 163mm; Left shoe, 165mm

Location of objects in building Subfloor.

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GOULBURN Site of find Type of building/date Informant Object type Location of object in building 83 87 Park Road, Eastgrove Community hall, 1927 (now demolished) Deliberately Concealed Garments Project, UK Sailors cap from HMS Dart Wall cavity: the cap appears to have been hung from a nail driven into the interior surface of the exterior wall cladding. It has sustained staining as a result of flooding. Now in Goulburn War Memorial Museum collection. Contact: Bob Saunders. Email Bob.Saunders@goulburn.nsw.gov.au

Above right, the cap from HMS Dart found within a wall at the Eastgrove Hall, Goulburn. Above left, HMS Dart, Hobart, photograph by A.G. Green, early 20th century. (SLV image gr007048)

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Top, officers and crew of HMS Dart, Sydney, circa 1906. The officers in this photograph are probably British but the rest of the crew may be colonial. Ordinary seamen, able seamen and leading seamen wore round caps bearing a ribbon embroidered with the ships name. (CoSA 044/044996). Above, Eastgrove Hall a composite image made shortly before it was demolished. The sailors hat was inside the wall to the left of the double doors. (Bob Saunders, Goulburn War Memorial Museum) HMS Dart started life as the British Colonial Office yacht Cruiser of 470 tons. She was transferred to the Royal Navy, equipped with two guns and renamed in 1882. In 1904 she was loaned to the NSW Government as a survey and training ship. But her NSW career was brief and in 1906 she was designated to be paid off. HMS Dart was laid up until a buyer was found for her in May 1911.8 The cap from Eastgrove Hall was perhaps placed there by a former sailor from HMS Dart who may have been working on the construction of the hall. At this stage, efforts to locate a crew list and to cross-reference names of sailors against electoral rolls for the Goulburn district have not been successful.

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GUNDAGAI Site of find Type of building/date Property owners 6 Virgil Street Masonry house, circa 1900 Dr. Rebecca Montague-Drake and Josh Bean Phone 02 6944 4718, 0427 777 602. Email becmd@westnet.com.au Boots, female, circa 1910s, three pairs, one single boot and two soles of baby shoes Subfloor. Still in situ.

Object type Location of objects in building

Email to Ian Evans: Thu, October 23, 2008 9:51 pm We recently had renovations done and got the subfloor opened up for what we believe is the first time since the house was built. We found a lovely pair of ladies boots - they would have been very expensive in their day! They were under the kitchen. Rebecca Montague-Drake & Josh Bean Dr Rebecca Montague-Drake Senior Research Officer Fenner School of Environment and Society Australian National University Evidence of termite damage required subfloor investigation as part of the renovations referred to in the email above. Gaining access to other subfloor spaces revealed additional shoes. The total to date is nine. These include three pairs found under the kitchen, one single shoe under the loungeroom, and the soles of two babys shoes under the front verandah. All of the adult shoes are those of women. After photography the shoes were returned to their subfloor locations. Voids beneath two bedrooms on the uphill side have not yet been investigated due to restricted crawl spaces.

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Above, Rebecca Montague-Drake emerges from an opening cut by builders through the foundation walls of slate blocks. Dr. Montague-Drake retrieved shoes from under the kitchen floor so that they could be photographed. Other voids contained additional shoes. Below, the shoes are, top row L-R, pair of womens ankle boots, black leather, 270mm, pair of womens shoes, black leather, 270mm, all with the large eyelets of the 1920s, bottom row L-R, pair of womens shoes, black leather, 260mm, soles of baby shoes, 145mm, mans Balmoral ankle boot, six eyelet, three hook, right foot, brown leather, 280mm. All circa 1910 1920s.

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Selected shoes from the Gundagai cache. Below, a pair of womens shoes, and the mans ankle boot. All shoes were in voids formed by foundation walls of slate blocks or brickwork, indicative of concealments that occurred during the construction of the house.

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HAMILTON Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant 17 James Street 19th century terrace, one of two David & Renee Hector. Phone 02 4956 2113, 0439 481 988. Email davey-cakes@ exemail.com.au Four shoes (three survive: one was lost during a site cleanup). The condition is very poor. Lengths are 175mm, left foot, 235mm, left foot, and 240mm, right foot. This appears to have been another family cache.

Object type

Location of objects in building Subfloor, kitchen and dining room fireplace.

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HARTLEY VALE Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Object type Collitts Inn, Hartley Vale Road (previously the Golden Fleece Inn, Mount York Farm) Inn, timber, early 19th century Christine Stewart. Phone 02 9660 8324, 02 6355 2072. Email chris@collitsinn.com.au Childs ankle boot, right foot, elastic-sided, black canvas with decorative stitching in white, worn patches repaired with hand stitching, soft leather sole, 160mm, 1859 1860 Subfloor.

Location of object in building

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ISLINGTON Site of find Type of property/date Property owner/occupant Object type Fleming Street/111 Albert Street Late 19th century Katherine and Kevin Blanch. Phone 02 4969 6436 (W), 02 4969 5496 (H), 0409 364 407 Childrens front-lace ankle boots, three, late 19thearly 20th century.

Location of objects in building Subfloor.

These shoes were found by Kevin Blanch during the demolition of a house in Fleming Street, immediately behind No. 111 Albert Street (below, left). New apartments were under construction on that site at the time of my visit (bottom left). Katherine Blanch reported that she found a shoe under the floor of 111 Albert Street during renovations some years ago. However, this shoe has been lost. The Fleming Street shoes (seen below right and bottom right) are kept outside and adjacent to the front door of 111 Albert Street.

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LEICHHARDT Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Object type Location of object in building 229 North Elswick street Cottage, weatherboard, late 19th century (now demolished) Alexis Mack. Phone 02 9550 0566. Email mackarchitect@bigpond.com Cats, two, black, found 1988, discarded Subfloor, one under each fireplace.

(Photograph by Alexis Mack)

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LITHGOW Site of find Type of property/date Property owner/occupant Object type 73 Hartley Valley Road Edwardian timber cottage, circa 1900, originally the home of a miner and his family Robert Millington. Phone 02 6352 4804, 0415 972 947. Email hortiguy@live.com.au Boots & shoes, nine, late 19thearly 20th century

Location of objects in building Roof cavity, eight in the main body of the roof, one above the kitchen wing.

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Hobnailed boots and a hobnailed shoe from the Lithgow cache, seen from above and below. Below, L-R, miners Blucher boot, pre-1885, black leather, right foot, 280mm, centre, childs five eyelet, two hook ankle boot, right foot, black leather, 210mm, bottom, mans work boot, right foot, dark leather with flesh side out, 290mm. Other shoes included a pair of ankle boots, two-toned leather, 270mm, another pair of ankle boots, black leather, 270mm, and a pair of childs ankle boots, brown or tan leather, 200mm. All shoes were returned to the roof cavity after photography.

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MARRICKVILLE Site of find Type of property/date Property owner/occupant Object type Location of object in building 18 Harnett Avenue Edwardian brick cottage N/A Cat Subfloor, centre of house.

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MILLERS POINT Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type Location of object in building 8 Argyle Place Brick terraced shop & residence, circa 1905 Dr. Ling Yoong. Phone 02 9241 1870 (H), 02 9625 9922. Email lyoong@cherry.com.au Cat (discarded) Kitchen, subfloor, in void sealed by brickwork.

Dr. Ling Yoongs house in Argyle Place site of the two houses in a row of six where concealed cats were found. Dr. Yoong was not aware of the significance of the find of the cat, made when her kitchen floor was being replaced, until she saw the story of my research on ABC-TVs Rewind in October 2004. This site is close to Ferry Lane where Sydneys bubonic plague outbreak began in January 1900. The buildings in this group were constructed several years afterwards. Of the dwellings/shops in the group, one was extensively renovated by previous owners who cannot now be contacted and others have not been examined for subfloor or other concealments.

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This image is of professional ratcatchers displaying the result of a days work in The Rocks. The image is from Views taken during Cleansing Operations, Quarantine Area, Sydney, 1900, Vol. IV, under the supervision of Mr George McCredie. (SLNSW PXE 93264). The proximity of the Argyle Place houses where two cats were found under the flooring to the epicenter of the plague suggests that the concealments may have been linked to fear of the disease. Rats were known carriers of bubonic plague. Teams of ratcatchers killed more than 44,000 rats in infected areas of Sydney in 1900.9 Details of the adjoining dwelling and shop where a cat was found follow.

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MILLERS POINT Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type Location of object in building 10 Argyle Place Attached brick shop and dwelling, 1904 Peter & Desiree Hurps. Phone 02 9247 2242. Email makeup@showface.com.au Cat Kitchen, subfloor

This find was reported to me by Dr. Ling Yoong, who advised Mr. and Ms. Hurps of the meaning of the concealment. The kitchen floor was then replaced and the cat, which was found contained within a purpose-built box, was left in place beneath the new tiled floor. The box was formed by nailing boards to the underside of the floor joists.

No. 10 Argyle Place, Millers Point, NSW. No. 8 is on the left.

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MILTON Site of find Type of building/date Former property owner No. 131 Princes Highway. In the 19th century the address was Murramurang Street. Stone house, 1874 Penny Paterson, PO Box 6192, Frenchs Forest. Phone 02 9453 3833. Email conveypp@bigpond.net.au Boots, pair, male, hobnailed, front-lace ankle boots, cut down on sides and heels, steel heel, 290mm. These may be straights (ie made to fit either foot). 1860s or earlier. This appears to be another tradesmans concealment. Subfloor, room near kitchen. Now with Penny Paterson in Sydney. The house has been sold and the boots were seen and photographed in Sydney.

Object type

Location of objects in building

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MOLONG Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Peabody Road (lots are not numbered) Farm cottage, timber, early 20th century Peter & Shirley Kinnaird. Phone 02 6366 9662. Email info@langdonsonpeabody.com. au Cat (still at the cottage) Roof cavity, adjacent to chimney flue.

Object type Location of object in building

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MUDGEE Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Burrundulla Homestead, brick, 1865. Owned by the Cox family since construction. Jeremy Cox, PO Box 1174, Mudgee 2850 Phone 02 6372 1620, 02 6372 4058, 0411 288 250 Email jeremy@burrundulla.com Blucher boot, male, right foot, four hole, front laced, leather lace, probably that of a bricklayer, well preserved but very dry, crumpled in length to fit into brick-sized aperture. 290mm. 1850s. Library, in chimney breast return, left-hand side, close to cornice.

Object type

Location of object in building

This find was reported to me by the conservation architect Christo Aitken of Bathurst who described the circumstances in the following email: Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 12:30:13 +1000 Subject: Re: Burrundulla Boot From: Christo Aitken <christoaitken@bigpond.com> ...... the boot was found by one of the workman repairing the ceiling. A portion of the lath and plaster ceiling in the Library had collapsed a few months ago and a scaffold was erected to carry out the repairs. On closer inspection from the scaffold some cracking of the wall plaster was noticed just under the cornice level on the LHS of the chimney breast return wall....between the picture rail and the cornice. The plaster was removed to repair it and revealed the boot snugly fitted into the space formed by leaving out one brick. The particular location is one of a few locations where the loss of one brick would not make much difference in the longer term to either weathering or structure in view of the widening of the brickwork of the chimney breast caused by the narrowing of the flue.

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Top, the boot found in the chimney breast, above, was extremely dry after nearly 140 years in the Library fireplace. The arrow, above, shows the return wall in which the boot was found. Above right, William Cox whose feat in constructing the first road across the Blue Mountains was rewarded with a sizeable land grant in the new territory which he had opened up. The portrait of Cox is dated to circa 1797 and is a miniature on ivory held by the State Library of NSW. The Australian Dictionary of Biography 1788-1850, vol 1, 259, records that Cox, working with a handpicked team of thirty convicts, constructed 101 miles of road through rugged mountain country in six months without serious accident or loss of life. (SLNSW Min 382) The present owner of Burrundulla, Jeremy Cox, is the sixth generation of his family to live on the property which was first settled in 1821.

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MUDGEE Site of find Type of building/date Property owners Object type Location of object in building 110 Mortimer Street House, circa 1900 Linda & Max Wadey. Phone 02 6372 4180 (Mr. & Ms. Wadey live at 31 Dennison St.) Boot (workmans) Subfloor, in maids room

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RAVENSWORTH Site of find Type of building/date Property owners Contact Ravensworth, 406 Hebden Road Masonry house, circa 1840. Xstrata Coal Ben Clibborn, Senior Environment and Community Co-ordinator, Mt Owen Complex PO Box 320 Singleton 2330 Phone 0422 930 418. Email bclibborn@ xstratacoal.com.au Childs shoe, black leather, right foot. Chimney, smokeshelf

Object type Location of object in building

Contributed image

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STOCKTON Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Canterbury Villa, 121 Mitchell Street Timber house, circa 1900. John McMaster. Phone 02 4928 3839, 0428 859 895. Email john.mcmaster@studentmail. newcastle.edu.au Shoe, right foot, female, 220mm, circa 1932 35, two-toned, three-eyelet Gibson, halfsole repair and nailing to heel probably also indicative of repair. Stamped on sole: Thos. Roberts Pty Ltd. Chimney seen at left in photograph below. The shoe was on the smoke-shelf in the flue in a fireplace fitted with a mantelpiece and register grate.

Object type

Location of object in building

Mr H.A. Grahams House, Stockton, June 24th, 1902. Harry Ackerman Graham with his family and domestic servants. Graham was the first town clerk of Stockton Municipal Council. The shoe found in the chimney marked with an arrow was placed there some years after he sold the house. See the following page for further details. (Ralph Snowball, image 001 002161, Hunter Photo Bank, Newcastle Region Library).

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John McMaster, the present owner of the house at 121 Mitchell Street, Stockton, found this shoe while checking a chimney for earthquake damage. He removed the mantelpiece and the heavy cast iron grate, then managed to stand up inside the flue. The shoe was on a brick shelf inside the flue. The owners of the house in the 1930s were the Misses A. and N.G. Hocquard.10 One of these ladies was perhaps the owner of the shoe. With its white eyelets, two-toning and high heel, this was a smart shoe of its time.

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SYDNEY Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Object type Location of object Sydney Harbour Bridge, Dawes Point Bridge, stone and steel, 19241932 NSW Government Part of sole/heel of childs shoe or boot Embedded in original fill in southern approach road towards S/E pylon. Found by Sydney BridgeClimb contractors while cutting a passage through part of the original structure to provide access to the BridgeClimb route. Heel parts in BridgeClimb collection, residue in Bridge.

Left, stonemasons completing the south-east pylon of the Harbour Bridge. This photograph was taken on 2 September 1931 by D. J. Fraser. (SLNSW, Government Printing Office, PXA 624, vol 2). Below, the Bridge in 1932 by Samuel Wood. (SLNSW ON275/59)

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Left, the access tunnel cut through rubble fill in the southern approach to the Harbour Bridge. The arrow shows the position of the shoe found by men operating a diamond saw. Above, a fragment of the shoes heel still in place. Below, fragments of the heel which are now in the BridgeClimb collection. Bottom, email from John Bowe of BridgeClimb describing the find.

bowe@clydebankholdings.com Date: Thu, June 28, 2007 11:22 am To: Ian Evans <ianevans@oldhouses.com.au> it was found when we sawcut our tunnel through the northern abutment wall of the approach span of the bridge in late 1998, and happened to slice through it neatly in cross section! I can identify almost the precise location it was found as it remained there for some time as our customers filed through the tunnel. We stored it away (in pieces) as it worked its way out of being embedded, with the moisture leeching through and exposure to air. The location is a pretty significant one in the V zone between the concrete form of the final arch, and the massive abutment wall both located beneath the main roadway and just before the commencement of the steel structure of the approach span over Dawes Point Park. Regards John Bowe BridgeClimb 5 Cumberland Street Sydney. Telephone: (02) 92 700 700.

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SYDNEY Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Object type Hyde Park Barracks, Macquarie Street Convict barracks, brick, 1818 Historic Houses Trust (NSW Government) Shoe, male, left foot, marked BO and arrow, circa late 1840s. Convict shirts, two. Rosary beads. Bible of the British and Foreign Bible Society, London. The bible is inscribed Thos. Bagnall Book 1837. Concealed objects that can be attributed to a particular person are rare. Bagnall was tried at Warwick, England, in June 1837 and transported to NSW. Subfloor in various locations within the building. See following pages for details.

Location of object/s in building

Above, Hyde Park Barracks a view attributed to Joseph Lycett, 1818-19. (SLNSW PX*D41/f5*).

Hyde Park Barracks was built following a decision by Governor Macquarie to provide a purpose-built structure to house convicts who had previously been scattered in private housing throughout Sydney town. Between 600 and 1400 male convicts were housed in the Barracks at any given time between 1819 and 1848 when the building was renovated and used to house Irish orphans and the newly-arrived wives and children of convicts who were brought to New South Wales in the early 1850s. In the second half of the century, the building accommodated disabled, destitute, infirm, mentally ill and terminally ill women. A large number of government agencies used the building until it was converted into a museum of Sydneys history by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences and in 1990 into a museum of its own history by the Historic Houses Trust.11 The Barracks is a very different case to other Australian buildings where concealed objects have been found. The majority of those are houses where the builders and/or occupants have concealed shoes, toys, garments or domestic artefacts. The total number of objects concealed is usually small and these are mainly the work of one or two people.

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Hyde Park Barracks, in contrast, had many thousands of occupants during the 19th century. The total number of convicts housed there has been estimated at about 50,000. Many thousands of women also passed through the building in the second half of the 19th century.12 It can safely be said that the great majority of these people, whether convicts, orphans, immigrants or destitute women, would have been distressed, bewildered and fearful. Disorientated in an exotic and alien landscape and grieving for family, friends and home, the probability of these people resorting to familiar ritual practices that offered comfort and a degree of hope would have been quite high. A vast number of objects was found during conservation work on the Barracks and its surrounds in the mid 1970s and early 1990s. Many of these were discarded or random items of no particular consequence in the context of this research. These include oyster shells, seeds and isolated bones of domestic and wild animals, the carcasses, bones and nests of numerous rodents, and a large variety of objects such as pins, nails, matches, hooks and eyelets, spoons, pieces of string etc that could have have slipped through gaps in the flooring.13 It was thought that other objects may have been concealed beneath the floor to keep them safe from thieves, or as escape kits for convicts hoping to get away from a life in servitude. Still others found their way into the nests of the rats that were very active in the Barracks. The archaeologists who worked at the site over a period of some years attributed some of the more puzzling subfloor finds to the activity of rats. The fifth group of objects, apparently never considered by the archaeologists or by the management of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences or Historic Houses Trust, consists of possible ritual concealments. These can be tentatively identified by their similarity to other concealments throughout Australia and in the United Kingdom, their type and proximity to points of access to the building and the spaces where its occupants congregated. A few of the more obvious concealments Top, an archaeologist sifting material at Hyde Park Barracks, circa 1980. are identified on following pages.
Above, one of the many rats nests found at the Barracks. These often contained items stolen from the buildings human residents. (HHT)

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So vast is the number of finds at the Barracks (in excess of 80,000 objects) that it is necessary to limit this study to a slightly more manageable group.14 For this reason, only subfloor finds on levels two and three of the building will be considered here. The cavities beneath the floorboards of these levels contained an extraordinary number and variety of objects and artefacts. More than 61,000 items were recovered from these subfloor voids where they had been trapped for up to 160 years in the spaces between the Floorboards floorboards and the ceilings below.15 A brief note on structural matters will assist in understanding the location of objects and the process involved in their placement beneath the floor boards. In a multi-level building of the 19th century the various levels were constructed as follows: large hardwood beams crossing the open space supported smaller timbers known as joists. These were generally placed on their Joist edges at 450mm centres. F l o o r b o a r d s were nailed to the upper surface of the joists. The underside of the joists was covered with plaster, forming the ceiling of the Timber battens nailed room beneath. This method to underside of joists Joist Plaster of construction formed numerous voids within the structure of a floor. Floorboards at Hyde Park Interior of room Barracks consist of pit-sawn eucalypt of several species. Top, the construction of a 19th-century floor. Plate VI from Widths vary slightly but are Building Construction by Henry Adams. Above, a 19thgenerally around 150mm. century lath and plasterwork ceiling. Illustration by Michael McCowage from Caring for Old Houses by Ian Evans. Thickness is about 25mm. th Early 19 century floorboards were rectangular in profile and thus lacked the tongue-and-groove format of modern flooring. They were simply butted together and nailed to the joists.16 This form of flooring construction made it possible to lever up individual boards something that is quite difficult with modern tongue-and-grooved flooring although this would have been by no means easy, particularly for people who did not have tools. Convict tradesmen who lived in the Barracks would have had access to chisels and hammers during the course of their work in the town but it remains uncertain and probably unlikely that they would have been allowed to bring them into the Barracks. Such tools, had they been available, would have simplified the task of lifting boards so that inmates could tuck items away in the voids beneath the flooring. Some of the ceilings in levels two and three of the Barracks were replaced in 1848 and circa 1880.17 When the original lath and plaster ceilings were stripped out most of the objects in the voids above them, together with a great shower of dust, would have descended on the heads of the workmen. For this reason, there are comparatively few convict-period concealments on levels two and three of the Barracks.

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Beams support Fireplace joists

Numbered joist spaces identify object locations

1

Joist group numbers

14

Above, illustrating the method of recording finds from levels two and three, Hyde Park Barracks. Large numbers identify groups of joists. Subsidiary numbers are used to identify spaces between joists where objects have been found. A room may contain a number of joist groups. For example groups 7 12 and 1 6 form the two largest rooms on level three. Objects are recorded on an inventory of finds as, for example, coming from Joist Group 9, Joist Space 14. (HHT) Many arguments have been employed in an effort to explain the subfloor objects at the Barracks. Rats may explain some of the smaller objects but it is extremely doubtful if rats could carry away shoes and find a way of placing them under the flooring. This is where the theory of the forgotten stash comes into play. If this is correct, a great many occupants of the Barracks must have had very bad memories. If something is precious enough for its owner to go to the trouble of lifting a floorboard and tucking a bonnet or book away it seems unlikely that it would be forgotten especially in so many cases. It also seems unlikely that single shoes at the end of their lives would be worth the trouble of subfloor concealment, even in the impoverished world of the Barracks residents. Single shoes are common finds in voids within old buildings and there are a number of them in The convict shirt found on level the Barracks collection. There is another issue: A floorboard three in an unrecorded location, that has been prised loose and then dropped back into place thought to have been near the stairis very likely to rattle and, when trodden upon, to sound a way. Marked with the broad arrow different note to its firmly attached neighbours. This would and the letters BO (for Board give everyone walking over it a clear signal that there was of Ordnance), it is one of three something under that board. It is therefore possible, even identified convict shirts, as well as likely, that boards that had been lifted to conceal objects were other garments and shoes, found concealed in former government either wedged in place or nailed back down. This small fact buildings. One of these is in the made the possibility of retrieving subfloor objects a little less collection of the National Museum feasible and, as a result, tarnishes the stash theory as it applies of Australia. (HHT) to concealed objects that were clearly deliberately placed.

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At Hyde Park Barracks archaeologists found significant quantities of artifacts associated with the spiritual life of the inhabitants. A bible, religious book, tracts and rosaries were clear evidence of a belief in life on the spiritual plane. Objects associated with a different form of spiritual belief were not noted. Throughout the 19th century the occupants of the Barracks, whether they came from farms, villages, towns or cities throughout the British Isles, would have been well informed on the theory and practice of folk magic. Their background would have included knowledge of the activities of cunning men and women who, at home, cured the sick, lifted spells from farm animals and provided love potions to those who needed help with One of several sets of rosary beads found in the their romance.18 Here in the Antipodes, subfloor voids in the Barracks. (HHT) far from home, family and friends, with the seasons turned around, the sun shining from the wrong part of the sky, and the night filled with the unearthly screams and howls of bizarre beasts, birds and bats, it is reasonable to consider that these people may have grasped familiar rituals to provide comfort and to give them a sense of control over their lives. Studies of the Barracks artifact collection until the present day have not referred to the possibility of a ritual basis to some of the subfloor concealments. This seems odd since the possibility of deliberate ritual concealment of shoes, garments and other objects has been known in Britain for many years and, more recently, in Australia.19 Australian archeologists who have worked at the Barracks, at all levels up to distinguished academics, appear reluctant to state that the ritual practices of folk magic may have arrived in the Australian colonies as part of the cultural baggage of British settlers and convicts. There may be a number of factors contributing to this. These may include a disinclination to believe that British settlers and convicts would have performed such rituals, as well as professional reluctance to mention possibilities that may have been scoffed at by their peers. Objects were thus cleaned, sorted, counted, identified and catalogued but not necessarily interpreted or understood. At Hyde Park Barracks the sheer volume of finds seems to have overwhelmed the investigators. Almost three decades after the initial archaeology there is still no comprehensive over-arching report on the finds. And, it appears, no thought of the possibility of the deep secrets that may have lain beneath the floors. Hyde Park Barracks, home to many thousands of distressed and grieving people between 1819 and 1886, may have been the site of the largest deposit of deliberately concealed objects in the Australian colonies. The archaeologists, with their focus on the almost overwhelming task of sifting, recording and bagging the tens of thousands of objects lifted from beneath the floors, did not place on record any thoughts they may have had of the possibility of a deeper meaning to some of the artifacts they recovered.20

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HYDE PARK BARRACKS

CONCEALED OBJECTS WITH POSSIBLE PROTECTIVE PURPOSES
Identifying possible concealed objects in a building with such a vast collection of artifacts is more complicated than in the case of the average cottage or house. However, some of the many objects found at Hyde Park Barracks are comparable with artifacts found in buildings throughout Australia. The objects noted here were often close to points of access such as doors, windows, stairways and fireplaces. All of the footwear finds were of well-worn single shoes or fragmentary pieces such as heels and soles. Red arrows on the diagram indicate the location of the objects in the images below.

Shoe, male

Bible, religious book

Female garment, male shoe

Hats, two

Above left, the bible of Thomas Bagnall, dating from circa 1830. It is inscribed Thos. Bagnalls Book 1837. It was found in joist group 27, joist space 3 locating it and its companion volume close to the window. The other book was the Pocket Companion of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Above right, single shoe, left foot, male, marked BO for Board of Ordnance, found in joist group 27, joist space 13, placing it close to the doorway. The BO mark indicates that this shoe was Government property. It has been dated by June Swann as circa 1845 and may have been placed under the floor by a convict tradesman involved in refitting this large space between February and October 1848 when it was being prepared for occupation by Irish orphans and the wives and children of convicts. (HHT)

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Soles & heels of shoes, female garments, lace, straw hat, skirt, braces, clay pipes, match boxes, religious documents

Spectacles, shoe, apron, two bonnets, straw hat, rosary beads

Bonnet, hat

Hat

Jacket, female Rosary beads, two Braces Shirt, skirt, bonnets, two Shirt, shoe, rosary beads Shoe Hats, four Shirts, two

Shoe, female garment

Additional objects to those noted here were found on level three but their location was not recorded. These include the famous convict shirt, three bonnets, a wristguard, female glove, female shoe and a garment described as female outerware. (HHT)
Left, the convict shirt as it was found. Poor recordkeeping at the time of its discovery early in the process of investigating the building meant that there is no reliable record of who found it or its location in the building. It is thought to have been found by a tradesman in a subfloor void on level three. (HHT) Another shirt found on the same level was in very poor condition.

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TEMORA Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Find reported by Object type Church of the Sacred Heart, corner of Loftus and De Boos Streets Catholic Church, brick, 1908 Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn Maree New. Phone 02 6978 0210. Email m.new2@bigpond.com.au Shoes, two sighted, one retrieved for photography. Army boot, left foot, 250mm, part of upper cut away, late 19th century.

Location of objects in building Subfloor.

Above, NLA image nla.pic-an24897287_files. Left, image by Maree New.

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THURGOONA VIA ALBURY Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type Location of object in building St Hillaire Homestead, 84 Maryville Way Corrugated tin and pise outbuilding of circa 1876 homestead Catherine ONeill. Phone 02 6043 1840 Shoe Wall, behind wash trough.

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THE OAKS Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Sunnyside, 250 Montpelier Drive (between Camden and Picton, on way to Bowral) 19th century slab & weatherboard cottage (now demolished) Emma Davies. Phone 02 4657 1125, 0412 876 616. Email bigpurpleorange@yahoo. com.au Remains of womans front-lace boot, left foot, 245mm long, pre-1885, plus fragments only of another shoe, possibly male. Subfloor.

Object type

Location of objects in building

The sketch of The Oaks on the point of collapse is on page 98 of Early Slab Buildings of the Sydney Region by Daphne Kingston.

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TRIANGLE FLAT Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type Triangle Flat Farm, 1081 Triangle Flat Road (near Bathurst) Homestead, brick, 1860s & later John & Anne Cooke. Phone 02 9954 1058, 0401 042 183 Cattle skulls, two. Sole of childs boot, 105mm, square toe, nailed and riveted construction, pre-1885. Sole was rescued from the builders rubbish pile. Boot: eaves, above door of earliest building. Skulls: subfloor, de-fleshed & between joists. They were found when a builder was replacing the original flooring. Returned to original location.

Location of objects in building

Above, cricket at Triangle Flat, early 20th century. The childs boot was found above the door of the earliest building, second from left above. The arrow points to the spot. The cattle skulls were in the centre of the main homestead building, below, facing outwards (see next page).

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Top left, the skulls in situ, photographed by Dennis Milstead, carpenter (02 6337 9413), top right. Above middle, the skulls before they were returned to their original position and a new floor laid. Above left, the remains of the childs boot found on the wall plate above the front door of the earliest homestead building. Above right, John and Anne Cook, owners of Triangle Flat.

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WICKHAM Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Contact Object type 21 Albert Street Timber cottage, 19th century David Andrews. Phone 0410 536 994 Julie Baird, Newcastle Regional Museum JBAIRD@ncc.nsw.gov.au Three boots, childs shoe. L-R: Childs button-bar shoe, 1920s, right foot, 185mm; Womans ankle boot, left foot, seven eyelet, three hook, circa late 19th century 1920s, 240mm; mans four eyelet Blucher shoe, left foot, 1860s - 1885, 250mm; six eyelet Derby boot, left foot, 1880s, 240mm.

Location of objects in building Roof cavity: one in each corner. In Newcastle Regional Museum collection. Accession Nos. 2006/122, 123, 124, 125.

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WILLOUGHBY Site of find Type of building/date Property owner when find occurred Property owners today Object type 60 Tulloh Street Timber house, c. 1890s Scott Ifield 02 9405 5840 (H), 02 9691 1774, 0405 413 838, sifield@optusnet.com Jodie & Phillip West. Phone 02 9967 3794 Childrens ankle boots, both brown leather with decorated toecaps, very worn and splashed with mortar. Smaller boot left foot, 160mm, four brass eyelets, two with hooks. Larger boot right foot, top worn or rotted away and lace holes missing. Found together with a new horseshoe. Boots pre-1885. Subfloor, in hallway near front door.

Location of objects in building

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WINDSOR Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building 9 Day Street Timber cottage, late 19th century Erin Kuch/Ezzat Refaei. Phone 02 4587 9596, 0410 780 495, erink@hht.net.au Childs shoe, left foot, 155mm, 1900-1915 or later, also cat Shoe: Living room fireplace, apparently on the smokeshelf in the flue. It fell out during a severe storm, presumably dislodged by a gust of wind in the flue. Cat: subfloor. Now in Hawkesbury Regional Museum collection.

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TASMANIA

Anthill Ponds Battery Point Burnie Deloraine Epsom Glebe Granton Hobart Invermay Launceston

295 302 303, 304 305 306 307 310 311 312 314 315 321 322 323, 324

Lindisfarne Ranelagh Richmond Ross Sandy Bay Stanley Taranna Western Creek

325 326 328 329, 330 331 332 333, 334 335, 336 337

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ANTHILL PONDS Site of find Type of building/date Woodbury, 7849 Midland Highway Masonry homestead, 1823 circa 1870

Owner/occupant Allen & Linda Cooper. Phone 07 3202 2005 03 6255 2054, 0419 671 574. Email anlcooper@bigpond.com Object type Shoes, 38, leather leggings, straw hat, Akubra hat, parasols, socks, dolls trousers, documents Location of objects in building Disused and bricked-in bread oven and wall of servants/childrens bedroom in roof cavity.

Above, Woodbury as it was in 2003 after decades of neglect. Photograph by Alan Cooper. Below, one of the many shoes found in the Woodbury concealments. This is a six eyelet womans Oxford shoe of circa 1895.

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THE WOODBURY CACHE Robert Harrison was one of many who felt that grants of land for free settlers in Van Diemans Land offered opportunities that were not available in nineteenth-century England. Born at Rivenhall, Essex, in 1769,21 by the early 1820s he was a tenant farmer on a wealthy landowners Essex estate and facing a future in which he would never rise above that station.22 But Harrison fitted neatly into the framework from which the British Government hoped to build the pattern of settlement in its Antipodean colonies. Convicts would provide a pool of labour for energetic and resourceful men with farming and mercantile experience who would form the backbone of what might in time become a new nation. With his wife Eliza and their five children, Harrison arrived in Hobart Town in 1823, armed with a Government letter entitling him to land and with enough capital to claim a grant of 2,000 acres. Like most other settlers of the time, Harrison brought many of the goods and chattels required to build a house and establish a farm. In addition to a small flock of sheep, he was equipped with agricultural implements, saddles and harnesses, seeds, paint, haberdashery, doors and sawn timber, glass and crates of earthenware pottery and hardware, as well as butter, cheese, pork and even shoes.23 Harrisons land was located some five miles south of the township of Oatlands, on the present Midland Highway. He called the property Woodbury Vale. But if he was excited by his estate some at least of the officials who were familiar with it were not. The Tasmanian Land 1823 Commissioner in a report in 1826 commented that: It is a curious circumstance . that men who were scientific farmers at home often make the worst selections of land here. Mr. Harrison is one of the many. The Commissioner described the Woodbury land as a miserable Farm.24 But Harrison and his family made the most of their opportunity. In late 1823 he built a single-roomed cottage of stone just enough, together with the tent he had brought from England, to put a roof over their heads while he established the farm and continued building.25 Additions to the original very basic structure followed in 1825 and 1828, the latter incorporating attic bedrooms at the rear to accommodate the children and servants. The cottage had become a substantial house, consisting on the ground floor of two main rooms, entrance hall and eight subsidiary rooms.26

1825

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1828

While the dining room and drawing room were fitted out with polished cedar joinery, other rooms were less lavishly appointed. The kitchen, for example, was never provided with a ceiling a fact to which the smoke-stained beams still testify. But the house was only part of Harrisons building plans. Outbuildings erected in his time included the usual cluster of rural necessities: stone stables, a barn, shearing shed and cottages to house farmhands and other staff. The family dynamic is not recorded so the reason for the departure from Woodbury of Harrisons eldest son, Hezekiah, is not known. By 1829 Hezekiah was married and living at Campbell Town. He returned to Woodbury in great distress after an event recorded by the Hobart Town Courier on 4 April 1829: Mr. Hezekiah Harrison is arrived quite heart broken at his fathers house at Woodbury, on his way to Hobart town to advertise a reward for the discovery of his lost child. The grief of the wretched parents must be boundless and every feeling heart will sympathize with them.27 It appears the child was already dead after disappearing in mysterious circumstances. The Hobart Town Courier hinted at an abduction. A family genealogical page on the Internet records the death of Robert Alfred Harrison, aged less than three, at Launceston on 3 April, 1829.28 As Robert Harrison aged the twins, William and Thomas, took over the management of the Woodbury estate. On 21 August 1860 the Launceston Examiner recorded the following deaths: Hezekiah Harrison, on board the steamer Tasmania, off the Sydney Heads, on 11 July. Robert Harrison, his father, at Woodbury, in his 92nd year, on 14 July. Eliza Harrison, wife of Robert whom she survived but seven days, at Woodbury, aged 88, on 21 July. Caroline Harrison, widow of Hezekiah, at Campbell Town, on 4 August.29 This cluster of deaths, all of them occurring in a matter of days in the depths of winter, must have been profoundly shocking to the surviving members of the extended Harrison family. Deaths of more than one member of a family are known to have occurred in other Australian houses where concealments were made and are referred to elsewhere in this thesis. In 1870 Woodbury, with land by then amounting to some 12,000 acres, was acquired by John Headlam. Born in Tasmania in 1844, Headlam was the son of Charles Headlam, an emigrant who had arrived in the Colony in 1820.30 Headlam and his family remained at Woodbury for the next 50 years.31 This was the period in which most, if not all, of the concealments found in the building were made. While the Headlam family do not appear to have suffered tragedies equal to those of their predecessors, the house may have been considered marked by ill fate. The traumas of the Harrisons at first glance appear to have no connection with

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Elevations of Woodbury by Allen Cooper

CIRCA 1870

concealments that took place perhaps forty and more years afterwards but the fact is that 32 of the shoes from the Woodbury caches have not been closely examined or dated. Woodbury was further enlarged in about 1870, possibly after acquisition by Headlam, with the addition of two new rooms on the northern end and a verandah extending along the rear of the house. The front of the house was modernised with new posts, capitals and a fretworked valance.32 With these changes, Woodbury had reached its apogee. The next 130 years, particularly after the departure of the Headlams in circa 1921, brought a slow decline in which the house, under a succession of owners, slipped towards decay and destruction. Ugly and unwise alterations in which new rooms of concrete blocks were added to the building and concrete was poured over hand-cut sandstone played havoc with its structure and diminished its Georgian character. When Allen and Linda Cooper acquired Woodbury in 2004 they were just in time to save the house from a sad and inglorious end. Vacant for many years, Woodbury was a playground for vandals, thieves, possums and rodents. Windows and doors were smashed or stolen, stone walls falling down and the outbuildings teetered on the point of collapse. With a record as a successful conservation builder in southern Queensland, Allen Cooper was the right man for the task of saving an important early building from imminent death. What he did not expect to find as he set to work on the house with roofing contractors, carpenters and stonemasons

The smart ladys straw hat, found in the bedroom cache at Woodbury, dates from 1895 1910. The label inside the crown of the hat indicates its origin in the Victorian city of Ballarat. The advertisement by the firm that sold the hat is from the Melbourne Argus, 17/10/1929, by which time the company was a major retailer known as Snows and with stores in Melbourne and Sydney.

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A servants or childrens bedroom in the attic, photographed by Allen Cooper, as it was when Woodbury was purchased. The lath and plaster wall, seen in this photograph in a terminal state of decay, was removed, revealing a cache that included the straw hat, parasol and numerous shoes. The objects were placed behind the timber wall, at left in this photograph. Fragments of wallpaper of the turn of the 20th century are visible on the plaster. Another cache was created at Woodbury when the original bread oven adjacent to the old kitchen was bricked up at some time before 1940. Two caches of concealed objects were thus made in voids created by disturbances to the houses original fabric. Shoes and leather leggings are common finds in disused and bricked-up bread ovens in England but this is the only such find made in Australia to date.33

was the number and variety of concealed objects. Not knowing exactly why these things were turning up in odd places, Cooper and his wife nevertheless carefully put them to one side in the hope that he would eventually find out why people had put shoes, leather leggings, a parasol and a straw hat in several voids in the building. A bricked-up bread oven in the oldest part of the house was re-opened to reveal a deposit of shoes and leather leggings. A mans Akubra hat was discovered in a blocked-up fireplace in what may have been the estate office. Behind a lath and plaster wall in an attic room Cooper found a large cache of shoes, the parasol, the hat and documents dating from the Headlam ownership period. The room where this find was made had probably served at different times as a servants bedroom and as accommodation for some of the children of the house. With its caches containing a total of 38 shoes, Woodbury has recorded the largest deposit of concealed objects yet found in an Australian house.

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Above and following page, a small selection of the shoes from the concealments at Woodbury. The shoes photographed are for left and right feet and include those of men, women and children. All appear to date from the second half of the 19th century through to circa 1920. Lengths range from 160mm 250mm. Those above are girls/womens ankle boots, the top two dating from 1900-1910, the other from the 1890s. The Woodbury finds consisted of 38 shoes plus other items. The maximum number of shoes in a single building in the UK is 66 from The Barracks, Nutley, East Sussex. A recent find from Nant Gwynant, Snowdonia, consists of almost 100 shoes recovered from under the hearth of an abandoned and ruinous cottage.34

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Top, another view of the six eyelet Oxford shoe, circa 1895; Centre, childs black anklestrap shoe, circa 1830 mid 20th century; Bottom, womans thirteen eyelet, front lace, pointed toe boot, early 20th century.

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Allen and Linda Cooper with the shoes and other objects recovered from three voids at Woodbury. The remains of two parasols are at the front and an unidentified article of leather and fabric is at the back. Missing from this image are the leather leggings recovered from the sealed bread oven. These were at the Coopers other house in Queensland when this shot was taken. Gloves, socks, stockings and documents were also recovered from the deposit adjacent to the attic bedroom. Most of the shoes came from this cache. (Image by Steve Watts).

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BATTERY POINT Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of object in building 10 Marine Terrace Timber house, circa 1855 Jenny Morgan. Phone 03 6223 5341. Email jenny.morgan09@gmail.com Womans side-lace ankle boot, nine hole, leather toecap, winged or very low heel, 1840s, left foot, 250mm. This old and comparatively delicate boot, out of fashion by the 1850s, may have had sentimental value, possibly as a wedding memento. It was concealed some years after it was made. Chimney

The house of Charles Dowdell, Hobart timber merchant of the 1880s.

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Top, one of Dowdells advertising leaflets. Above, the womans boot and its detached tongue found in the chimney of the house that Dowdell built. Dowdell was born in Tasmania and the boot discovered in his house suggests that the concealment ritual had been passed on to the nativeborn. The leaflet and information about Dowdell was provided by Jenny Morgan.

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BURNIE Site of find Type of building/date Ladbrooke Street Timber house, built for Joseph Nothrop, carrier, circa 1880s. Now demolished.

Informant Patricia Boxhall, Burnie Pioneer Village Museum. Phone 03 6430 5746 Object type Childs four eyelet front lace boots, pair, 130mm, 1850s, suit age three. Location of objects in building Subfloor. Found during demolition, 1967.

(Images by Burnie Pioneer Village Museum)

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DELORAINE Site of find Type of building/date 290 Wadleys Road Cottage, 19th century

Owner/occupant Julie & David Rocha. Phone 03 6362 2205. Email jar.lee@bigpond.com Object type Childs seven button boot, brass toe-tip, left foot, probably girls, 1860s +. Location of object in building Bedroom wall, adjacent to window

(Image by Julie Reicha)

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EPSOM Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building Epsom, Midland Highway, near Pontville Masonry house, 1831 with circa 1853 upper storey addition. At various times The Castle Inn, The Epsom and The Tasmanian Inn.35 Jacqui & Geoff Robertson. Phone 03 6268 0290, 0417 389 500 (Jacqui). Email jacquirobertson@vicbar.com.au Soles of shoes, cardboard book cover Embedded in masonry wall. Discovered in rubble when an upstairs wall between two rooms was demolished.

Circa 1853 stonework

Circa 1831 stonework

The old inn as it is today. The location of the shoes and book covers in an upstairs wall constructed as part of the circa 1853 addition to Epsom suggests a probable date for the concealments. The objects were found in a wall adjacent to the chimney on the left in the image above.

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Above, the soles of two shoes found among the rubble resulting from the demolition of an upstairs wall at Epsom. Right, the framing for the new wall and doorway between a bedroom and a new bathroom. The original wall in this location was the site of the concealments. Below, the cardboard covers of an as-yet unidentified book also discovered while rubble from the demolished wall was being shovelled into a wheelbarrow. The handwritten inscription has not been deciphered. The items concealed here appear to have been selected because they were slim enough to fit between the stone blocks used in the construction of the wall.

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EPSOM Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building The Stace House, Midland Highway, near Pontville Masonry building, school and post office 18401842, The Dover Castle Inn 1842.36 Richard Watson and Ron Ricks Phone 03 6268 0086 Numerous shoes Roof cavity

One of the Stace House shoes: this is a tab-front slipper of circa 1840, or perhaps more likely, a ballet-type shoe that became too small and was split at the corners of the square throat & centre back, oval toe, no heel: 1820s+.

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Above, a view into the roof cavity at the Stace House. The photograph was taken from a landing in a stairwell leading to a servants bedroom. The space between the ceiling joists is filled with a rich deposit of discarded household artifacts, scraps of timber and plaster, bottles, jars and many other objects. At right, a selection of the numerous shoes from this context.

Top, womans elastic-sided ankle boot, circa 1850; Centre, tie shoe, (either male or female), one pair of holes, high-cut vamp, square toe, 18301850; Bottom, side-lace ankle boot, leather, winged vamp, cloth leg, circa 1850.

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GLEBE Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building 23 Lillie Street Timber cottage, second half of 19th century Mrs. Leamon, 1994 Shoes, eleven, 1880s. Now in Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Nos. P1994.224.1 P1994.224.11 Not known.

Image of seven of the eleven Lillie Street shoes by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

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GRANTON Site of find Type of building/date 4 Forest Road, Granton Stone house, circa 1828, constructed for a supervisor of convict labour on the Bridge- water causeway across the Derwent River

Former Owner/occupant Leonie Wilson. Phone 03 6263 6105, 6263 6873. Email leonieg7@hotmail.com Object type Convict shirt and punishment shoe. Now in NMA collection, catalogue No. 109318. Contact Michelle Hetherington, curator, at m.hetherington@nma.gov.au Location of objects in building Shirt: in wall cavity, adjacent to fireplace. Marked BPC which may stand for Bridgewater Police Camp. Shoe: subfloor. See appendix: NMA acquisitions proposal.

The causeway at Bridgewater, north of Hobart, photographed by William Cawston, circa 1880. (W.L. Crowther Library, State Library of Tasmania image No. AUTA1124851189). The 1.3 km-long causeway connected Granton, on the Hobart side of the River, to Bridgewater and facilitated travel between Hobart and towns and settlements in the north of the Island. The project took six years, during which time the convict laborers worked in appalling conditions, transporting some 2,000,000 tons of sand, stone and earth in wheelbarrows.37

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The Granton convict shirt is similar in manufacture and in the circumstances of its survival to the shirt found at Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney. Both of these garments, exceptional survivors from the convict period, were concealed within the structure of the buildings in which they were found. The National Museum of Australia acquired this shirt at auction in Melbourne in 2005.38 In a minute to the Museums acquisitions committee, curator Michelle Hetherington wrote: The shirt is hand-made from a heavy striped fabric, cut according to a standard pattern that used only 2.25 yards of fabric without any wastage. The shirt is entirely hand-sewn, with very neat stitching except on the lower hem, which seems to have been sewn by a different hand. The shirt has two buttons at the neck and one at each cuff, each of which is made from a small pebble-like object enclosed in crocheted covers. The buttons are thought to have been made from tortoiseshell or horn and the shirt is made from a creamy-white cotton with navy stripes.39 The cirumstances of its find, in a cottage associated with work on the causeway at Bridgewater, were described by Charles Arthur Halmkin, one of the owners of the building, who was present at the time it was found: The roof was unsafe and had to be replaced. When it was removed it exposed the tops of the walls which were about two feet thick. They consisted of two layers of stone with a cavity in between. Most of this cavity had been filled with rubble but in one space, the convict shirt was found. It was rolled up tightly, which no doubt helped to preserve it. As it was in the cavity and under the roof timber it must have been deliberately placed there during construction, dating it to about 1830. The shoe was found under the old floor when the original floorboards were replaced.40

The cottage at Granton.

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Two views of the shoe from the cottage at Granton. The Leski auction catalogue describes this as a punishment shoe of a type worn by convicts who worked in leg irons during the construction of the Bridgewater causeway. The cutaway to the leather at the heel was said to have been intended to permit the chains to bite into the flesh of the wearer.41 June Swann states that the shoe would have been worn by someone involved in heavy work such as quarrying stone but, if it is English-made, she would place it in the late 1840s. Swann suggests that with its smart square toe and high toespring it may have been an American-made shoe, and that if so, its design may have been some years earlier, possibly circa 1840.42

(Images of the shirt and the shoe by the National Museum of Australia)

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HOBART Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building 186 Argyle Street The Good Woman Inn, circa 1839 Not known Waistcoats, male, two. Roof cavity.

The Good Woman as it was during the 19th century. The building has survived to the present day on the south-western corner of Argyle and Warwick Streets but is concealed behind a later facade. Thomas Priest, the first licensee, ran The Good Woman from 1839 until 185643 and it may have been his old waistcoats that were placed in the roof cavity. The garments remained there until they were discovered in 1994 by Carol Riley-Hanson and Andrew Norris, licensees at that time, who were trying to fix a leak in the roof.44 Little is known about Thomas Priest. A person of that name is recorded as owning land in the District of Argyle in a register for the period 18191822.45 Another Thomas Priest arrived in Hobart aboard The Lord Hungerford in 1821, having been sentenced at the Surrey Assizes to transportation for seven years.46 The inn was taken over by a William Guest in 1856 and he ran it until 1860. It was known as The Argyle Inn in the 1890s but became The Good Woman again in 1972.47 (Image No. PH30/1/2524, Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office, State Library of Tasmania)

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THE GOOD WOMAN CACHE

In about 1835 a Hobart man paid quite a lot of money for a very stylish tailored waistcoat. With its fashionable collar and front lining of black silk, adorned with two horizontal slit pockets, it was a garment of considerable quality. No less than four layers of fabric formed its front: an inner lining of creamy-white material of medium weight and an inner layer of heavier and stiffer fabric in the same colour. Just beneath the silk was a layer of material with a slub finish resembling flannelette. The latter provided the base on which the silk would comfortably rest. All of this was drawn together by hand sewing of the highest quality: perfect, tiny stitches so regular that they resembled machine work.48 When its owner ventured out of doors in the Tasmanian winter the waistcoat would have been worn with a frock coat.49 If, as seems likely, money was freely available when the waistcoat was purchased the supply clearly ran out several years afterwards. The garment was worn until it was all but rags. Before it was discarded half of the silk lining from the front was cut away, a process that necessitated the partial dismemberment of one side. When Carol-Riley Hanson and Andrew Norris, the modern-day licensees of The Good Woman, found this and another waistcoat in the roof cavity of the old inn they thought they were just rags. The Hobart Star newspaper of April 19, 1994, gave the find a sensational twist, claiming the garments were of a type worn by convicts. Whether the original owner of the garments was or was not Thomas Priest, the inns first licensee, is something we cannot know. He was still licensee of The Good Woman in 1845 so the probability is that the waistcoat was his.50 What is certain is that Priest opened for business at the worst possible moment. Tasmania at that time was sliding into the grip of a depression that stretched well into the 1840s. The colony was not to see real prosperity again until the late 19th century. Riley-Hanson and Norris sold the waistcoats to the Hobart restaurateur Craig Godfrey who, when short of cash, ultimately sold them through Gowans Auctions in Hobart in 2000. The buyer of one of them has not been identified but the garment illustrated here went to the Australiana collector Neville Locker of Adaminaby and ultimately to another auction in Sydney in 2007 when it was purchased by the National Museum of Australia.51 There is nothing about this coat to indicate a convict connection. The very opposite is much more likely. With its fine needlework and silk front it was clearly an expensive garment. But the condition of the waistcoat when it was found speaks of grim years before its concealment. It had been worn far beyond the point at which a garment would be used today. Tattered, torn, musty and its fabric filled with the dust of many years in the roof cavity of the old sandstone inn, The Good Woman waistcoat has traveled through time to tell the story of a pinched and poverty-stricken period in the history of Tasmania and, it seems, of a particular cultural practice that had taken root in Antipodean soil.

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HOBART Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building 47 Federal Street Masonry house, mid 19th century Angela Douglass (1997) Boots, three, and cloth houseboot. TMAG collection, Nos. P1997.23.1 P1997.23.4 Subfloor

The ankle boots and felt slipper/houseboot, second from left. June Swann dates all of these to circa 1850 1860s. (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery)

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HOBART Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building 367 Liverpool Street Timber cottage, circa 1870s Jen Earle. Phone 03 6234 6714. Email jenmearle@optusnet.com.au Five pairs of shoes/boots, medicine bottle & phial, childrens toys including ball, top, domestic artifacts. Kitchen subfloor, near hearth.

Some of the objects found under the kitchen floor of Jen Earles cottage in Hobart.

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Above, Jen Earle took this shot after the carpenters pulled up the rotten floorboards in her cottage kitchen in Hobart. Five pairs of shoes lay on the dirt close to the hearth stone (marked by the arrow). One shoe from each pair later disappeared and is thought to have been taken by a tradesman. Poor subfloor ventilation, with the joists resting on damp earth, eventually caused failure of the flooring. Below, one of the boots from the cache. This is a womans thirteen eyelet, above-ankle boot with a deeply curved top of circa 1880s.

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Top, mans tan leather, six eyelet four hook boot, late 19th early 20th century; Centre left, mans five eyelet Oxford shoe with repair, same date; Centre right, womans three eyelet, two-tone shoe, circa 19001920s; Left, mans five eyelet front lace ankle boot. The different colour at the top may be due to a missing turn-down. This would make it a 1930s womans boot. This cache with its mixture of pairs of adult footwear, a medicine bottle and phial and childrens toys and trinkets is of a type encountered occasionally. Bottles of various types and sizes are not unusual in such caches. The aggregation of objects gives rise to the possibility of groups such as this being spread as clusters of charms in subfloor areas of busy rooms such as kitchens and parlours.

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HOBART Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building 85 Pedder Street Brick house, circa 1850 Mrs. Pat Weare. Phone 03 6228 1396 Boots, three, circa 1870s, suitable for young persons, found by building tradesmen 1993. Now in Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery. Nos. P1993.129.1, P1993.129.2, P1993.129.3. NW corner of roof cavity, near chimney.

1.

2.

3.

From left, girls elasticsided mock lace ankle boot, 1870s; girls eight button leg boot, 18701880s; boys six eyelet, front lace ankle boot, brass toe tip, 1870s. Above, alternative views of the boots. (Images by Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart)

1.

2.

3.

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INVERMAY Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of object in building 24 Taylor Street House, late 19th century Jill Bradley. Phone 03 6326 6123 (Ms. Bradley appears to have moved as this telephone number is no longer active) Shoe In wall.

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LAUNCESTON Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building 7 Stone Street Timber house, circa 1891 Rosemary Kudlicki. Phone 03 6334 1786 Boots, womans black high-top ankle boot, right foot, 235mm; young womans shoe, black leather, cloth lace, stacked heel, 220mm; two, girls shoe, black leather, strap, 185mm. In canvas bag, possibly of military origin, placed at lowest level of the building.

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LAUNCESTON Site of find Type of building/date Former owner/occupant Object type Location of object in building 55 Upton Street Masonry house, 1840s with 1871 renovation Rob Thomas. Phone 03 9376 4849, 0417 108 131 Cat, discarded by subsequent owner Underneath the entrance to the house.

By email and in a telephone conversation in 2005, Rob Thomas told me the story of the cat he found in his family home in Launceston. He lived in the house with his Mother from 1977 to 1996 and as a young boy explored parts of it that adults rarely, if ever, saw. Built in the 1840s and added to in 1871, the old house seemed full of mystery to young Rob. The land on which it was built sloped up towards the street. Beneath the house, Rob made his way through a very small old door and into a space that became more and more confined as he approached the front of the building. With headroom of a metre or less, tapering down to almost nothing, this was not a space into which adults would normally venture. Quite close to the front of the building, on a dirt floored-space beneath the hearth of the drawing room fireplace, Rob found the body of a cat. He described the scene in a telephone conversation with me: It had all its skin and its tail and legs but no fur and was lying on its side, frozen in a very aggressive, quite ferocious pose. It had its mouth open with one paw up. It was as if it was about to kill something and had been frozen in time. It wouldnt have been like that if the death had been a natural one. I cant imagine an animal dying in that frozen position. I think it must have been posed. Im no expert but I would have thought that a cat that died naturally would have decomposed over a long period of time. In the 20 years or so that I saw this cat under our house it didnt change in the slightest. I think it was preserved. Presumably they took a live cat, killed it and preserved it. We left the cat with the house. It was there before us. We felt it belonged with the house. A later owner got rid of it.

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LINDISFARNE Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building 58 Lincoln Street House: rear section of stone, 1891, front section of timber, 1895 Beth Warren. Phone 03 6243 9219. Email beth.warren@education.tas.gov.au Childrens shoes, two, glove, teaspoon Subfloor, rear hall near backdoor.

The Lindisfarne house where the objects were found by tradesmen during renovations to the rear of the building in 2004. The shoe at left is dated at post 1830 but pre-1890; the right shoe is probably 1880-1900. (Image of the objects by Beth Warren)

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RANELAGH Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building Valley Farm, 54 Lucaston Road, Huon Valley Masonry farm house, circa 1860 Dianne and Ian Smith. Phone 03 6266 4587 Boot, circa 1890, suitable for young woman, right foot, 235mm, mans shoe, 185mm, bootmakers last Roof cavity.

Valley Farm was for many years the home of Charles Oates, nicknamed Yorky as a result of his origins in Yorkshire. Renamed The Stonehouse, the house and its gardens are well known in the Huon Valley today.

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Left, Charles Oates, farmer, sawmiller, shipowner, horticulturist, road builder and owner of significant landholdings. Oates has the rare distinction of being a convict who not only made good in Australia but had his portrait painted by a fashionable artist. This portrait appears to contain a veiled reference by the artist to his subjects convict origins: at the base of the fluting in the column behind Oates left shoulder is a blowfly. This is perhaps a coded message inferring that there was corruption in the foundations of the edifice that was Oates life. The painting is by H.V. Worth and dates from 1887. Worth studied under Millais, a founder of the pre-Raphaelites a movement linked to the Symbolists who used visual allegory to convey ideas. The nephew of the famous Parisian costumier Charles Frederick Worth, the artists other Tasmanian subjects included the speaker of the House of Assembly.54 The portrait of Oates still hangs in the house he built at Ranelagh.

Born in Yorkshire in 1823, Charles Oates worked as a lad on his fathers farm as a laborer, butcher and shepherd. On 18 August, 1842 he married Elizabeth Basion, the daughter of a shoemaker, at Doncaster. After just thirteen days of married life Oates was arrested on 1 September for stealing seven sheep. He was tried at Bradford Assizes and sentenced to transportation to Van Diemens Land for fifteen years. Like many other convicts, he never returned to England and never saw his wife again. Oates arrived in Hobart aboard the Anson in February 1844. He endured the hard grind of life as a convicted felon, working on a road gang and as a sawyer and farm laborer. While still a convict, he obtained permission to marry. After seven years abroad, under British law at the time, Oates first marriage was considered null and void. He married Ann Jackson at Kingston in 1849. The foundations of Oatess success were laid when, after receiving his ticket of leave in 1851, he obtained a land grant in the Huon Valley. In 1853 his conditional pardon was granted. Ann Oates He built a sawmill on his land, planted apple orchards and engaged in dairying, grazing and other farm enterprises, aided by his seven sons and five daughters. Oates obtained contracts for road construction in the district and had a ketch built at Huonville to carry his timber to Hobart. He also acquired substantial landholdings in the Valley. The former convict, once again a respectable member of society, became a justice of the peace. At some time in the 1850s or early 1860s, Oates used convict labor to construct a substantial stone house to accommodate his growing family. With nine rooms on two levels and various outbuildings, the house was of a standard which he would have been unlikely to have achieved in England. He also provided homes and farms for his children. Many of his descendants still live in the Huon Valley.55 Oates home, much neglected and in a state of disrepair, was extensively renovated in the late 1980s. During the course of this work, several objects were found in the roof cavity.

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The boot at right is one of two, together with a bootmakers last, found in the roof cavity of Charles Oates home at Ranelagh. June Swann has dated it at about 1890 and describes it as the kind of footwear that a fashionable young woman would have worn in the closing years of the nineteenth century. Its length is 235mm. Oates would have been about 72 at the time of the concealment and Ann was in her early 60s. The boot had clearly not belonged to Ann. So, whose boot was it and who placed these objects in the roof cavity at Valley Farm? The other boot, that of a man, has been used as a plantpot for a good many years and has largely decayed as a result. Assuming about five years of wear on the boot above, it was thus probably placed in the roof in about 1895, a good many years after the construction of the house at Valley Farm. It is possible to suggest an identity for the person who wore this boot. The evidence is circumstantial but persuasive. Yorky and Ann Oates, alone in the big house at Valley Farm after their children had grown to maturity, moved into a smaller home, Olive Cottage, at Huonville in 1894. Their son Henry, aged 25, and his wife moved into Valley Farm.56 The concealments appear to have occurred at about the time young Henry Oates and his family occupied the old house. This boot may have belonged to young Mrs. Henry Oates. Whoever took the trouble of putting these boots and the last into the roof cavity at Valley Farm was re-enacting a practice that is known in Britain. New owners or occupants of a house placed objects of their own into cavities in buildings. Long-standing residents of a house are also known to have topped up accessible cavities with fresh concealments consisting of old shoes, outdated and worn garments and disused domestic artifacts, thus creating spiritual middens.57

Charles Oates. A portrait taken at the Alba Studio, Elizabeth Street, Hobart, in the 1890s. Oates died in 1916, aged 94. (Image from the Allport Library, State Library of Tasmania: AUTAS001125883595. The image of Ann Oates on the preceding page is from the Archives Office of Tasmania, State Library of Tasmania: PH30/1/1430).

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RICHMOND Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building Richmond Gaol, 37 Bathurst Street Sandstone gaol, 1825 1835 Parks and Wildlife Service, Tasmania Mike.Nash@parks.tas.gov.au Five ankle boots, found circa 1987 Subfloor, gaolkeepers residence of 1825.

Above, the building at the end of the courtyard is the original gaolkeepers residence and office, dating from 1825. The shoes were found beneath the floor of the room indicated by the arrow. Richmond Gaol is the oldest intact gaol in Australia.

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Five ankle boots from beneath the floor of the gaolkeepers residence, Richmond Gaol. All appear to be male. At bottom left, the boot with the peaked toecap and seven eight lace holes and two three hooks dates from the 1870s. Bottom right is a square-toed Blucher boot of the 1850s. In the centre row, left, is another Blucher, centre row, right, a square-toed front-laced boot of the 1850s or 60s. Another squared-toed boot, probably also of the 1850s-1860s, is at the top of the picture. (Images of the Gaol and boots by Mike Nash, Parks and Wildlife Service, Tasmania)

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ROSS Site of find Type of building/date Former owner Object type Location of objects in building 32 Bond Street Sandstone cottage, circa 1850 Brad Williams, heritage officer, Glenorchy City Council. Phone 0418 303 184. Email bwilliams@gcc.tas.gov.au Boots, black, two, both left foot, suitable for a young person or persons. Other objects found include ceramics, glass, part of a candle mould, a leather ball and a pair of broken spectacles. Subfloor, near fireplace in circa 1890 extension.

The boots and other objects were found in the timber extension at the front left of the building, near the chimney. Access to the subfloor area was gained through a hatch. An email from Brad Williams (19/2/09), a recent owner, related some of the history of the building: I know that in the early twentieth century the house was owned by a local shopkeeper, and that he had two daughters. One spinster daughter lived there until her death in the 1950s. The boot at left dates from 1885-1890s, and that at right from the 1890s-1910. Both are probably the boots of young girls. (Images and floorplan by Brad Williams)

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SANDY BAY Site of find Type of building/date Former owner Object type Location of objects in building 28 Princes Street Substantial sandstone house, late 19th century D. Hindle 1972 Boots, three, including two Bluchers, now in Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Collection Nos. P1972.29. P1972.30. Not known.

The Bluchers date from circa 1860s and the boot in the centre appears to be that of a child and dates from post 1885. (Image of boots by TMAG)

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STANLEY Site of find Type of building/date Former owner Informant Object type Location of objects in building The Plough Inn, 35 Church Street Masonry inn, circa 1842 Joan Murphy joaters@internode.com.au Ian Muir, son-in-law. Email ianmuir@internode.on.net Childs lace-up boot. Present location not known. Subfloor, parlour. Found during renovations circa 1974.

The Plough Inn past and present. (Image above from the Archives Office, State Library of Tasmania, image No. PH30/1/7626/2a. Below, as it is today.)

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STANLEY Site of find Type of building/date Owner Object type Location of objects in building Highfield, Greenhills Road Masonry residence, circa 1835 Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service (originally Van Diemens Land Company) Womans slip-on house shoe of the 1830s 1840s, 265mm, possibly kangaroo leather Niche in fireplace of housekeepers room

Above, Highfield. The house was the headquarters of the Van Diemens Land Company for many years. The history of the site includes the accidental death in the garden at Highfield of the two-yearold daughter of Edward Curr, Company manager, and persistent conflict with the Aboriginal people of Tasmanias northwest. Right, Lesa Scott, Site Coordinator at Highfield, with the shoe found in the fireplace at rear. A basket grate was originally fitted on the hearth and fixed into apertures in the brickwork at the sides. The shoe was found tucked inside one of these when a later office safe was removed. (Image by Chris Kidd, Sunday Tasmanian, by courtesy News Limited).

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TARANNA Site of find Type of building/date Former owners Object type Location of object in building 5862 Arthur Highway Norfolk Bay convict station, 1838, brick Dot and Mike Evans. Phone 03 6259 1272, 0428 360 790. Email wilmotarms@bigpond.com Convict waistcoat. Roof cavity.

Built in 1830, the former Norfolk Bay Convict Station served as a staging post for supplies despatched from Hobart to the gaol at Port Arthur. A long jetty extended out into Little Norfolk Bay immediately in front of this building. Goods shipped from Hobart were unloaded at the jetty and stored in the Station which served as the first Commissariat for the penal establishment. From here, supplies and officials were carried to Port Arthur on the infamous convict railway the first railway in Australia.58 After the Gaol closed in 1877 the old Commissariat became the Tasman Hotel, Taranna Lodge and, ultimately, a bed and breakfast establishment. While renovating the building for the B & B in 1999, Dot and Mike Evans found what they thought was a bundle of rags in the roof cavity. The rags were in fact the remnant scraps of a convict jacket. Like a number of other convict-period buildings in Australia, the old Commissariat had concealed a secret. Dot was for some time interpretation manager at Fort Arthur Historic Site and obtained advice on the garment. The fabric from which it was made had originally been a dark navy or grey. The fabric was worsted. There were seven buttons on the front, a collar, no sleeves and a pocket. (Image of the Commissariat building is no. PH30/1/3015 from the Archives Office of Tasmania,
State Library of Tasmania: the Tasman Hotel, circa 1880s. The image of the convict jacket is by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart. Image No. Hu187815a).

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HOBART TOWN LITTLE NORFOLK BAY

2

PORT ARTHUR
1

CAPE RAOUL
This satellite map from Google Earth illustrates the alternative routes from Hobart to Port Arthur. Route One took ships on an unpleasant journey around Cape Raoul through seas whipped up by strong winds blowing all the way from the southern ocean. Route Two took ships into Little Norfolk Bay where their cargoes were unloaded and transported to Port Arthur via the convict railway. The man-powered railway ran from Taranna to the convict station at Port Arthur. (Image below, No. PH30/1/4561 Archives Office of Tasmania, State Library of Tasmania)

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WESTERN CREEK Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupants Object type Location of objects in building Willow Farm, 67 Crowdens Road Farm cottage, timber, circa 1890s Jenny and Chris Gregory. Phone 03 6367 8235 Shoes, eight, shoe last, cotton reels Wall cavity, adjacent to kitchen fireplace.

Above, Willow Farm cottage. Left, Jenny Gregory with seven of the shoes, the last and the cotton reels from the Willow Farm cache. Before this photograph was taken, one shoe was replaced in the wall cavity where it was found. (Photographs by The Examiner, Launceston)

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VICTORIA

Ballarat Bendigo Birregurra Clunes Daylesford Flemington Fulham Hurstbridge Maryborough Melbourne Northcote Port Fairy Richmond Williamstown Yarraville

339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347, 348 349 351 352 353 354, 355 356 357

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BALLARAT Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Object type Location of objects in building Her Majestys Theatre, 17 Lydiard Street South Theatre, masonry, 1875, remodeled 1898 City of Ballarat. Phone 03 5333 5800 Cat and three rats Subfloor. Found during renovations in late 1990s.

Above, Lydiard Street, Ballarat, as it was in the 1940s. Her Majestys is on the right. (Image No. b45407, State Library of Victoria). Left, the theatre as it is today. Below, the cat and three rats found with it, now on display in the foyer of the theatre. (Modern images by Her Majestys Theatre).

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BENDIGO Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building 6 Vinton Street, California Gully Cottage, circa 1890 Name withheld by request. Shoes, two, probably young female, left foot, patterned fabric top, 200mm, right foot, 190mm, early 1860s 1870s. Subfloor, room at rear - possibly original kitchen. Found by builder.

(Contributed images)

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BIRREGURRA Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type Location of object in building 2 Park Lane Former Anglican rectory, 1866-67, designed in the Gothic style by Leonard Terry and built by Paton & Pepper. The first occupants were the Reverend Thomas Sabine and his family.59 Now a private residence. Frank & Anne Wood. Phone 03 5236 2118 Email fawood@bigpond.net.au Cat, discarded Subfloor, under back door step.

Above, the Vicarage, circa 1870, with the Rev. Thomas Sabine, his second wife, Elizabeth, and some of his family. This photograph was obtained from Barry Sabine Wilson, a descendant who visited the house. Right, the back door. The cat was found when the step was removed during renovations. According to Frank Wood there was no possibility of this having been an accidental placement or a death that had followed an incursion by the animal.

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CLUNES Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building 83 Fraser Street Not known Duncan McHarg. Phone03 5345 3408 Email dmleatherwear@yahoo.com Find reported by Sue Constable, Curator, Northampton Museums and Gallery Seven shoes/boots Subfloor, upstairs parlour.

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DAYLESFORD Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building Lavandula Farm 350 Hepburn-Newstead Road, Shepherds Flat via Daylesford Swiss-Italian farmstead, stone, circa 1860s Carol White. Phone 03 5476 4393 Email mail@lavandula.com.au Boot, childs, left foot, 175mm Subfloor, in the rafters of the cellar

(Images by Carol White and Gael Shannon)

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FLEMINGTON Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type Location of object in building 22 Crown Street Timber cottage, late 19th century Fred & Tessa Preston. Phone 03 5261 9718. Email dtq@primus.com.au Young persons ankle boot, suit about age twelve, right foot, 190mm, late 19th century 1915 Chimney smokeshelf, found while looking up flue, circa 1994.

(Boot image by Fred Preston)

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FULHAM Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Object type Location of object in building Fulham Park, 413 Myrtlebank Rd Homestead, masonry, before 1859 R. & S. Foster. Phone 03 5144 3132, 03 5144 6699, 0418 513 233, 0408 517 308. Email sueefoster@vic.australis.com.au Childs shoe In brick wall. Wall repaired and shoe replaced. Informant: Professor Miles Lewis, School of Architecture, University of Melbourne.

Fulham Park is listed on the Register of the National Estate. The record below is from http://www.heritage.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahpi/record.pl?RNE4769 Fulham Park Identifier: 4769 Location:Myrtlebank Rd, Fulham via Sale Local Government: Wellington Shire, Victoria Statement of Significance: Fulham Park homestead is one of the oldest established pastoral properties in eastern Victoria. The design is clearly derived from Colonial Georgian traditions and is enhanced with distinctive and restrained joinery, with the entrance doorway and fenestration of particular note. The verandah has been later adorned with network brackets of Art Nouveau origin. The house is of a form rarely found in Victoria with notable associations with Captain Jones and the Newman family. Description: The pastoral run Fulham on the Thomson River west of Sale was first taken up by Peter Imlay of Twofold Bay in New South Wales. In August 1853 Captain John W. Jones acquired the run and erected, prior to 1859, a Colonial Georgian style, two-storey homestead of brick, regularly fenestrated, with a single storey timber Fulham Park photographed by J.T. Collins in 1971. verandah and outbuildings (State Library of Victoria image No. jc014970). to form a sheltered courtyard.

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HURSTBRIDGE Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building 210 Flat Rock Road House, circa 1905 J. & P. Lawson. Phone 03 9718 2271 Childs boot, gunpowder flask Subfloor, kitchen.

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MARYBOROUGH Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Informant Object type Location of objects in building Clarendon Street Courthouse, circa 1893. Phone 03 5461 1046 Victorian Government Bruce Osborn, curator, Midlands Historical Society Museum, 3 Palmerston Street, Maryborough. Phone 03 5461 2800 (H) Boot, male, right foot, 270mm, circa 1880s. Subfloor. Found during renovations 2002.

The Maryborough Courthouse boot an interpretive sketch by the Clunes bootmaker Duncan McHarg (see page 112) who visited the Midlands Historical Society in July 2002.

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Above, the Courthouse photographed in 1966 by John Collins. (State Library of Victoria image No. H98.250/107). Below, the boot on its display stand in the Midlands Historical Society Museum, Worsley Cottage, 3 Palmerston Street, Maryborough. (Image by Noel Fields)

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MELBOURNE Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building 210 William Street Supreme Court of Victoria, 1884 Government of Victoria. Contact Joan Boyd, Records Manager, Supreme Court Phone 0417 526 258. Email Joanne.Boyd@ supremecourt.vic.gov.au Boys four hole ankle boot, left foot, circa 1860s Banco Court, (Court No. 1), subfloor.

Above left, the corner of Little Bourke and William Streets, circa 1875, showing the Supreme Court under construction. Above right, a circa 1880 photograph by N.J. Caire as the building neared completion. (State Library of Victoria images No. b28390 and H83.162/34)

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MELBOURNE Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building 228-310 William Street Royal Mint, Administrative wing, 1868 1872 Mint Inc. (Government of Victoria) Boot, womans, black, front laced, right foot, 280mm, also pages of The Age, 2/1/1872 Subfloor, near fireplace in lift lobby.

Above, the Royal Mint, photographed after its opening, 1872. (State Library of Victoria image No. cc002033). Left, scenes at the Royal Mint, illustrated in the Australasian Sketcher, 24/9/1881. From top left, the silver assay; Hydraulic press for exhibition medals gold ingots and bars; a 1,500 ounce pouring for gold bars; a crucible; the assay furnace room; gold refining by the chlorine process.

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Top, Viscount Canterbury, Governor of Victoria, coins the first sovereign at the Royal Mint, Melbourne. The sketch is from the Illustrated Australian News, 16 July, 1872. (State Library of Victoria image No. IAN16/07/72/145). The workmans boot was found during archaeological investigations at the old Mint in 1999. These are described in Archaeological Investigations at the Royal Mint, Melbourne, 1999-2000, by Laurinda Dugay and Andrew Long, page 17. The boot was found in association with the crumpled front and back pages of The Age, 2 January 1872, which may have been inserted in the boot. The top edge has no finish and the boot appears to have been cut down. This find was brought to my attention by Dr. Heather Burke of the Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide.

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NORTHCOTE Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/resident Object type Location of objects in building 55 Clarke Street (or 211 Spensely St, Clifton Hill: Seamus Hoare - 03 9489 0871) House, late 19th century Amy Piesse. Phone 03 9481 7721 Shoes, three, young female, 1900 1920s, also possible spine of cat Subfloor.

News

Ways of burying spirits

Julia Irwin
OLD shoes and cats bones found under a Northcote house might be ritual objects left by past owners to ward off evil spirits, an architectural historian and an archaeologist say. When Amy Piesse and Shamus Hoare recently pulled up the floor of the Victorian terrace house they are renovating, they were alarmed to find some old, worn-out childrens shoes and the spinal bone of what looked like a cat. It was a bit creepy to find these things under the house, Ms Piesse said. But when I did some research, I discovered objects like shoes, which retain the shape of the wearer, were placed under floors or concealed in walls and cavities to protect the occupants from evil spirits. Architectural historian Ian Evans said the shoes the couple found were absolutely typical of numerous other finds of this type. Mr Evans said concealed objects such as shoes and dried cats were found in many houses and buildings throughout Australia. Most were placed in the

BRIEFLY

Armed hold-u

A MAN was threate syringe during an a bery in Thornbury. 25-30 years of ag dium build and C stole a bag containin and video camera victim on Woolton Wednesday, June 10.55pm. Contac Stoppers on 1800 3 www.crimestoppers you have any inform

Care to foste

I discovered objects were placed under floors or concealed in walls and cavities to protect occupants from evil spirits
AMY PIESSE

A CRITICAL lack carers in the nort urbs is forcing teenagers to remai run homes. Anyone in fostering adoles contact Anglicare V Preston on 8470 Berry Street on 943

Daffodil Day

chimneys, wall cavities or under the floors during the period between 1788 and the 1930s. The practice grew out of UK folk magic traditions in the 13th century and the belief that such objects protected against witches and spirits. Cats were believed to to serve as a decoy for evil spirits, luring them away from people in the house. La Trobe University archaeology senior lecturer Susan Lawrence said this practice had been prevalent in Australia before the 1930s. Anyone who thinks they may have found ritual objects in their homes can contact Ian Evans at ianevans@old houses.com.au

THE Cancer Counc on Darebin resident their cancer storie fodil Days 15th an Daffodil Day helps funds for the cou saving cancer programs that Victorians on how their cancer risk an services for people by cancer. Visit the website www.can au or call 1300 656 out more.

Building frien

DAREBIN Council the most us municipalities for builders in Victoria Trends, a study b Builders, has builders extensive faction with the le costs of the plannin in councils such a Yarra and the Boroondara. Amy Piesse with the buried shoes.
Picture: JOSIE HAYDEN N51NL105

Northcote to Preston Northcote Leader, detectives 17 June 2008, page 3.move Information for this article by Julia Irwin was
DETECTIVES will no longer be based at Northcote police station after a move to Preston police station expected early last week. Victoria Police said Darebin was not expected to lose any detective numbers in the move. Criminal investigation units across Melbourne have merged to posed the changes, saying local knowledge would be lost and the number of senior sergeants (who head the units) would be cut The Leader understands Northcote and Preston criminal investigation mained at Northcote police station until now. All detectives will soon be based at the Preston police complex to maximise our efficiency and effectiveness, Victoria Police spokes-

City art show

obtained from the author of this thesis. Publication of articles such as this often produces match local government areas over units merged under the title Darebin woman Natalie Webster said. They the last few years. with one senior sergeant, some will work closely with the Darebin information on new finds CIU, of concealed objects. The Police Association has op- time ago. But detectives have re- crime desk, also located at the

Preston police complex, in an effort to deliver the best possible service to the Darebin community. We are currently working with the members involved to make this transition as smooth as possible.

THE Darebin Art calling for entries August exhibition o porary arts and cr open to visual ar craftspeople who liv study in Darebin or a significant connec area. Entries must b by Friday, July 18 Bundoora Homes Centre on 9496 106 www.bundoorahom com

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PORT FAIRY Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/resident Object type Location of object in building Caledonian Inn, 41 Bank Street Inn, brick, 1844 Jim McIlroy. Phone 03 5568 2548 Cat Roof cavity. The carcass was left in situ because there was something special about it.

The Caledonian Inn, photographed in 1971 by J. T. Collins. The old inn is now the Caledonian Motel. The Inns listing on the Register of the National Estate, ID No. 3824, states that it was built for a Scot, David McLaws, in the early 1840s. The first recorded licence was issued in NSW in 1844. The Inn is constructed of rubble stone with a steeply-pitched roof enclosing attic bedrooms lit by dormer windows The angled corner door to the bar, the Georgian window sashes and simple joinery are characteristic of early colonial architecture in Victoria. (State Library of Victoria image No. jc013613).

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RICHMOND Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/resident Object type Location of objects in building 18 Jessie Street Timber cottage, late 19th century Jim Whytock. Phone 03 9429 5694 Childs hobnailed ankle boot, right foot, circa 1880s, 130mm. Also ceramic sheep (now mislaid), spinning top, indiarubber ball, marbles, small bottles and phial Subfloor, kitchen.

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Little bottles and childrens toys from beneath the kitchen floor at 18 Jessie Street, Richmond. Items are not to scale.

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WILLIAMSTOWN Site of find Type of building/date Former owner Object type Location of object in building 73 Osborne Street Timber cottage, circa 1890 Gavin Scott. Phone 0418 382 238. Email docholiday@ains.net.au Infants shoe with ankle strap, remnant of bow on front, leather sole, copper nails. The rounded square toe dates it to either pre- 1885 or post-1900. Length 115mm. Subfloor in parlour, close to fireplace. Found during extensive renovations to the house in 1999/2000. Bluestone foundation blocks completely sealed the cavity.

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YARRAVILLE Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of object in building 346 Williamstown Road Shop, circa 1920s, one of a row of eight Gemma Jones. Phone 0414 695 001. Email gemjones@alphalink.com.au Childs T-strap sandal, right foot, daisy-pattern cut-outs thus post-1906, but may be 1930s. In awning over footpath dislodged by stormwater.

(Image by Gemma Jones)

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SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Adelaide Beulah Park Hilton Mitcham Parkside Semaphore Unley Watervale Woodchester

359 362 363 364 365 367 368 369 371 372 373, 374 375

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ADELAIDE Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Object type Location of objects in building Former Destitute Asylum (now Migration Museum), 82 Kintore Avenue Brick, lying-in building, 1877 History Trust of SA/SA Government Womans boots, two, left and right foot, 1880 1885, 260mm. One has been conserved Subfloor, Lying-In Hospital.

Above, the Lying-In Hospital at the Destitute Asylum, seen during renovations, 7 November 1918. (Image No. B206, State Library of South Australia). The Asylum operated from the early 1850s until 1918. During this time it provided a refuge for Adelaides destitute, homeless, sick and aged. Left, the womens boots of circa 1880 1885 found beneath the floor in the approximate area of the ground-floor door at right. The boot at right has undergone conservation. Both are on display in the building where they were found. The site now houses the South Australian Migration Museum.

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ADELAIDE Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Object type Location of object in building 78 Angas Street Stuccoed brick, formerly Old Colonist Hotel. First publican: Thomas Jellett, first owner Sir Edwin Thomas Smith, mayor of Adelaide. National Archives of Australia (Australian Government). Phone 1300 886 881 Young womans above ankle boot, left foot, sixteen eyelets, 190mm, circa 1880 Subfloor, near dining room fireplace (now researchers tea area).

Above, the former Old Colonist Hotel as it is today and left as it was in circa 1884 The photograph at left was taken three years after the renovations during which it is believed the concealment occurred. (State Library of South Australia image No. B9767).

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The architects drawings of the the Angas Street elevation of the Old Colonist Hotel and its floor plan are from Plan of Proposed Rebuilding of the Old Colonist Hotel, Angas Street, for E.J. Smith, Esq., MP, State Library of South Australia BRG 238/1/165. The approximate location of the boot in its place of concealment is indicated with an arrow on the floor plan, below. The boot was placed immediately in front of the dining room fireplace, as shown.

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The young womans boot from beneath the floor of the dining room at the Old Colonist Hotel, Adelaide.

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BEULAH PARK Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Object type Location of object in building Peroomba, 7 Douglas Street Brick and bluestone, 1856-1857 Helen and Philip White, Phone 08 8332 2615. Email helenwhite4@bigpond.com Shoe, child or young persons, right foot, 167mm, pre 1885. Roof cavity, found by tradesman, circa 2000.

Images by Helen and Alastair White.

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HILTON Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Object type Location of object in building 28 Burt Avenue Former dairy farm house, brick, circa 1898 Michael Lester and Wendy Harmer Phone 08 8463 0697, 0408 208 914. Email flinders@adam.com.au Marble bible, 185 X 135 X 40mm, 2.5 kg Parlour fireplace, behind grate, sitting vertically, on its edge. Found during gas heater installation.

(Image by Paul Sargaison, 4005 Fotografi)

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MITCHAM Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/resident Informant Object type Location of objects in building Princes Street Former Police station, brick, 1891, 1892. Now Mitcham Heritage Research Centre City of Mitcham Council Maggy Ragless, Mitcham Community Historian. Phone 08 8372 8888. Email mragless@mitchamcouncil.sa.gov.au Boots, Blucher, male, 275mm, pair, circa mid 19th century to 1870s. Possibly police issue. Subfloor. Found during investigations by Mitcham Local History Service and Flinders University Archaeology

Above, Mitcham Police Station, circa 1900. (Police Historical Association, Adelaide, SA). Below, elevation of the Police Station, 1891. (Mitcham Local History Collection).

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Left, this floor plan shows the construction sequence at Mitcham Police Station. Room uses, taken from the original floorplan and on-site investigation by Flinders University Archaeology, are: Office Charge Room; Room One additional bedroom of 1892; Room Two bedroom; Room Three kitchen; Room Four living room. The arrow shows where the boots were found when the flooring was lifted . This concealment is associated with the 1892 construction of an extra bedroom. (Floorplan by Flinders University Archaeology)

Left, The room where the boots were found after the floorboards had been lifted. The boots (arrowed) are as they were found. Above, a view of the boots in situ. (Images by Flinders University Archaeology)

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The Mitcham Police Station boots. (Photographs by Flinders University Archaeology, by courtesy of Dr. Heather Burke)

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PARKSIDE Site of find Type of building/date Former property owner Object type Location of objects in building 176 Young Street Cottage, one of an attached pair, stone, circa 1880 John Endersbee. Phone 08 8299 9380. Email je@endersbee.com.au; also Karen Berkman Phone 0407 664 580. Email kberkman@ ozemail.com.au Pair of womans Cambridge shoes, 260mm and 270mm. Probably 1870s. The style is mentioned in Charles Dickenss Household Words, 1853. Other references until as late as 1880. Common household shoes for women.60 Subfloor, inside front door, heels to entrance.

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SEMAPHORE Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/resident Object type Location of objects in building 24 Germein Street Stuccoed stone and brick villa, 1880s Norbert Gross. Phone 08 8449 6303. Email norbertg@iprimus.com.au Youths boot, single, 250mm; male boots, two, 280mm. All are splashed with and contain mortar apparently spilled during the construction of the house suggesting concealment by tradesmen Subfloor, close to fireplace in drawing room and one bedroom. Not all subfloor voids have yet been checked.

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Kitchen

Maids Room? Dining Room

Bedroom

Bedroom

Drawing Room

Verandah

The locations of the concealments at 24 Germein Street, Semaphore, are indicated on this floor plan provided by Norbert Gross. The pair of boots were found by a pest inspector and were under the floor, close to the base of the chimney. The inset images show the finds in situ. Mr. Gross found the single boot during on-going renovations.

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Top left, the mens boots appear to be Balmorals dating from circa 1885 1890. Top right, a cut-down front lace eyelet boot, probably that of a youth, of circa 1880 with its mortar content spilling out. Above, the mens boots in situ under the bedroom floor. The base of the chimney seen above protrudes into the room behind the boots. The wall between the bedroom and the adjacent drawing room is on the right in this photograph. (Images and floor plan by Norbert Gross)

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UNLEY Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/resident Object type Location of objects in building 15 Frederick Street Masonry house, late 19th century Not known Boots, Bluchers, male, pair, circa 1914-1918. A probable tradesmans concealment. Note very crude amateur patching of upper. Now in Unley Museum collection, Unley SA. Subfloor, dining room. Found during replacement of deteriorated flooring. Find reported by Kate Walker, Curator, Unley Museum. Phone 08 8372 5117. Email kwalker@unley.sa.gov.au

(Image by Unley Museum)

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WATERVALE Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/resident Object type Location of objects in building Former Stanley Grammar School, Lot 25, Commercial Road, Watervale Stone, 1863 Now a B & B trading as Stanley Grammar Country House Boots, female, pair, 230mm, circa 1880. Now held by Mount Horrocks Historical Society, Watervale. Contact is Janet Morran. Phone 08 8849 2410. Email morranj@bigpond.com Subfloor, found during renovations circa 1990.

Top left, Stanley Grammar School buildings as they were in 1975. The school closed in 1917. Top right, the school and pupils, 1897. Above, a group of students and teachers, 1930. (Images: Mortlock Collection, State Library of South Australia, Nos. B31703, B16781 and B11741)

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Stanley Grammar Schools founder was Joseph Stear Carlyon Cole. Born in Exeter, Devon, in 1832, he arrived in Adelaide in 1857. He taught at Auburn Public School and became clerk of the local court and the Upper Wakefield District Council, secretary of the Independent Order of Oddfellows, curator of the cemetery and correspondent for the South Australian Register. He married Hannah Peacock in Adelaide in 1862. In 1863 he founded the Grammar School, catering for boarders and offering courses in chemistry, assaying, surveying, linear and perspective drawing, brokerage discount and commission, book-keeping, and field subjects. There were two large class-rooms, five dormitories and a library of 1000 volumes. Hannah Cole was matron. Although Stanley Grammar School graduates were not qualified to enter the University of Adelaide, many of them matriculated later and flourished at the University, in State Parliament and among the professions. Ex-pupils included Sir David Gordon, Dr William Torr, Sir John Duncan, Dr W. Jethro Brown and Emile Sobels.61 The young womans boots above were found beneath the floor during renovations of the building in about 1990. The possibility that these had once been worn by Hannah Cole cannot be discounted. June Swann describes them as seven eyelet, four hook, front lace, above ankle boots with curvy tops, wide square-rounded toe, one inch heel, sole missing on the boot at left above.
(The photographs of Joseph and Hannah Cole were taken in 1895: Mortlock Collection, State Library of South Australia, nos. B 12272, B 12271)

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WOODCHESTER Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/resident Object type Location of object in building Former Primitive Methodist Church, Wistow Road. Now private residence Stone, 1863 John Hanley. Phone 08 8299 9380. Julie Tregenza. Phone 08 8531 0079, 0413 482 780 Cat Subfloor, near original position of altar.

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Balingup Beaconsfield Burswood Fremantle Geraldton Horrocks Kalgoorlie Menora Northbridge Perth Wagin York

377 379 380 382 383 384, 385 386, 387 388 389 390 391, 392 393 395 396 397 399

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BALINGUP Site of find Type of building/date Owner Object type Location of objects in building Southampton Homestead, Southampton Road, Balingup, near the Bibbulman Track, 9km south-west of Greenbushes, on the Blackwood River. Mud brick house, 1862 Jeff Pow. Phone 0412 229 564. Email jeff@catalyst-consulting.com.au Boot remnant, right foot, possibly male, brown leather, 250mm, if hand-stitched (as appears possible) circa 1860 or before. If machine-stitched circa 1875 early 20th century Subfloor.

Above, Southampton Homestead by the Quaker artist William Benson, 1864, from the collection of the National Trust of Australia (WA). Below, the homestead as it is today.

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The first European settlers arrived in the infant colony of Swan River in 1829. Among them were a family of English emigrants: Richard Jones, his wife Louisa and their five children. Jones, a healthy young man of 33 years, offered the new Colony a variety of muchneeded skills: he was a plumber, glazier, painter and building contractor.62 The property Jones purchased, on the corner of St Georges Terrace and Barrack Street in the present city of Perth, is today prime city real estate but it was then just another allotment in one of the worlds most isolated settlements.63 By the time the census-taker knocked on his door in 1832 Jones had set up as a publican. He gave his place of origin in England as Sunderland.64 Louisas death in childbirth a year after their arrival gave the unfortunate Mrs Jones a kind of fame as the first of the immigrant women to die in the new colony. Jones engaged a housekeeper, a Malaysian named John Allum, to care for his children. Allum remained with the family until his death nearly forty years later.65 In 1850 Jones sold his Perth property and took up land in the district of Balingup. The land fronted the Blackwood River, and was located some seven miles from the town. He called the property Southampton after the port from which he and his family had departed England. With the assistance of his sons Richard and William, Jones built a wattle and daub house that was inundated in a flood during their first winter on the property. Another house, built

Top and above, images of the remnant boot found beneath the floor at Southampton Homestead. June Swann describes it as a front lace boot with a square rounded toe. (Photographs by Jade Doering)

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further from the river, was their home until 1862 when the surviving homestead was built.66 The bulk of the materials for this house were all sourced on the property. The kitchen wing was built of bricks fired near the building site and roofed with shingles of jarrah. The main body of the house, consisting of nine rooms and a cellar, was constructed of mud brick (adobe) and roofed with jarrah shingles. All of the timber in these buildings came from trees felled on the land. Joness house and all of the other structures he and his sons built came from the earth on which they stood. Southampton was in time joined by a complex of buildings and other structures, including a jetty, boat shed, dairy, flourmill, bakery, workshop and cottages for farm workers and their families. At one time, the Jones family managed some 27,500 acres or 110 square kilometres of land. The family and their workers produced wine, wheat and fruit and ran 600 head of cattle.67 The English artist William Benson, while travelling in the Australian colonies, painted Southampton Homestead in 1864. Jones died in 1876 and his sons, together with their widowed sister, Mary McHard, took over the property and lived there until 1903.68 During recent investigation of the homestead and adjacent buildings by a team of student archaeologists from the University of Notre Dame Australia and the University of Western Australia, directed by Dr. Shane Burke, a shoe was found under the floor of the 1862 building. It was in the entrance hall, close to the original front door that faced the Blackwood River.69 Southampton is notable for the fact that it retains its original character and has never been subjected to ill-informed attempts at restoration. This is a picturesque mid-nineteenth century farmhouse in authentic and original condition. It has historic value as one of the first homesteads constructed in the Balingup district. Southampton Homestead is listed on local, state and national heritage registers.70

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BEACONSFIELD Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building 38 McCleery Street Masonry cottage, late 19th century Janine McKinnon & Nicholas Iser Phone 08 9433 6835, 0429 790 267. Email JMcKinnon@cemex.com.au Boots, childrens, three, plus a girls Cuban heel boot, also sundry bottles (both glass and stoneware), phials, jars, broken china, coins, cutlery etc Subfloor: shoes beside fireplace hearth, other objects in front of hearth and closer to the door. Found during renovations 2009.

Above, the house in McCleery Street, Beaconsfield. The title deed, in the possession of Janine McKinnon, states that a person named Mills sold the property in 1896 to a Dr. William Henry Moore. The front verandah was enclosed after World War Two by Janine McKinnons Italian grandfather to provide accommodation for a growing family. (Photograph by Janine McKinnon)

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Top, the cache of shoes and boots from McCleery Street, Beaconsfield. Deterioration appears to have been caused by less than ideal subfloor conditions, resulting in decay of the leather. The Cuban heel boot is at top left and dates from post 1902. Above, views of the collection of diverse objects from under the floor. At the bottom right-hand corner of the image at left are 1916 and 1931 halfpennies and a Kitchener medallion of 1916. If the coins were not accidental losses, the boots could have been concealed in circa 1916 or 1931. (Images by Janine McKinnon)

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BEACONSFIELD Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building Edmund Street Masonry cottage, circa 1895. Not known Boots, childs, pair, black leather, front-laced, post 1920 Subfloor, parlour. Information provided by the curator of the Concealed Shoe Index, Northampton Museums, UK. No further details available.

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BURSWOOD Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/occupant Object type Location of object in building 41 Rushton Street Not known, circa 1890 1920 Kallan & Rebecca Short. Phone 08 9470 8023, 0419 953 356. Email becandkall@optusnet.com.au Cat, discarded. Verandah subfloor at rear of house. No apparent access point.

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FREMANTLE Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Object type Location of object in building Cnr George and Duke Streets Royal George Hotel National Trust of Australia (WA) Phone 08 9321 6088 Mans black leather, left foot, front lace ankle boot, five eyelets plus lacing hook at top, 250mm. Informal wear, c1890-1910. Basement

(Images by National Trust of Australia, WA)

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FREMANTLE Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building 17 23 South Terrace Masonry building, circa 1890s Former Papa Luigis Cafe Mens leather Balmoral boots, five eyelet, four hook, black, two, right foot, sole worn through, possibly as late as 1925. Also cigarette packet, nail packet, beer bottle and newspaper dated 1925. WA Museum collection H93.138 & 139. Basement.

(Photograph by Western Australian Museum)

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GERALDTON Site of find Type of building/date Owner/occupant Object type Location of objects in building 353-355 Chapman Rd, Bluff Point Lighthouse keepers cottage, limestone, 1876 Town of Geraldton/Geraldton Historical Society. Phone 08 9923 1837 Two pairs of trousers: one pair adult male, one boys. Geraldton Historical Society collection No. 95/280. Within wall, adjacent to window. Found in 1987 during renovations carried out as part of the National Estate Grants programme. Damage to the window was caused by termite attack to the frame.

Bluff Point Lighthouse Tower and Residence is significant for its unusual design, having a single window instead of a lantern to display the light to guide ships into Geraldton Harbour. It is also unusual for having the keepers residence attached to the tower. John Kelly was the first lighthouse keeper.

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Top left, the mans trousers, top right and above, the boys trousers. The trousers were conserved by the WA Museum. A report on the conservation by Rinske Car was published in the AICCM Bulletin, volume 15, Nos. 3 & 4, 1989, pp 5-15. It is available for download on the AICCM website. Go to http://www.aiccm.org.au/ and then search for Conservation of the Geraldton Lighthouse Cottage Trousers. The report dates the mans trousers as pre-1876. The right leg is missing. The boys trousers have a drop front a feature that dated from earlier in the 19th century. Both had plaster accretion, indicating concealment during construction of the building, and were severely affected by termite damage. Both were of cotton/wool material and were machine sewn. The boys trousers had been repaired by hand-sewing so many times that the original machine sewing was visible only along the waist and pocket. (Photographs of the trousers by Jon Carpenter for the Western Australian Museum. Lighthouse photograph image No. rt47767, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts).

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HORROCKS Site of find Type of building/date Former property owner Object type Location of object in building Willow Gully homestead, Horrocks Road, 5.5 km east-south-east of Horrocks. Circa 1861 Room thought to be a schoolroom attached to the house. Masonry. The homestead complex dates from 1860 with most of the buildings completed by 1871.71 Annette Sellers and David Whettingsteel Phone 08 9934 3093, 0427 460 012 Childs shoe, suitable for three-year-old or slightly older, possibly 20th century. In wall under window sill, replaced as a result of termite damage. Lace missing.

Above, the complex of buildings at Willow Gully, photographed in 1996. The name derives from the Aboriginal placename of Willi Gulli. (Image No. rt53757, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts). Below left, the shoe in-situ immediately after its discovery. Below right, the shoe sitting on the replacement sill. (Images below by Annette Sellers)

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KALGOORLIE Site of find Type of building/date Previous property owner/resident Object type Location of objects in building 223 Piccadilly Street One of a pair of attached masonry cottages built for railway workers, 1896. Jack & Nola Baxter, 44 Hogg Street, Wynyard, Tasmania. Wynyard (FriSun) phone 03 6442 4704, Queenstown (Mon Thurs) phone 03 6471 1178, 0438 333 165 Childs shoe (still in situ), baby powder tin, ball with childrens faces, marbles Subfloor. Found during termite treatment. A trapdoor was cut in the floor as there was no other way to access the void.

Top left and left, the two faces of the ball and above the baby powder tin. (Jack Baxter)

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MENORA Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/resident Object type Location of objects in building Menora (near Bedford). Address withheld at owners request Freestanding masonry cottage, circa 1930 Peter Panizza. Phone 08 9371 5725. Email ppanizza@amnet.net.au Shoes, two. Solid heels suggest outdoor wear, perhaps tradesmans work shoes. Subfloor niche in base of chimney.

(Images by Peter Panizza)

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NORTHBRIDGE Site of find Type of building/date Property owner/resident Informant Object type Location of objects in building St Brigids Convent of Mercy, 60 John Street Convent (1888, 1896/7, c. 1915; designed by Cavanagh and Cavanagh), The Convent is part of a group that includes St Brigids Parish Hall, 1889, the former St Brigids Convent School, 1921, St Brigids Church, 1904, and the presbytery, 1902. The Sisters of Mercy. Phone 08 9328 6991 Annie Q. Medley, Congregation Archivist Email mercyarchives@iinet.net.au Womans front-lace leg boot, right foot, 280mm Subfloor, in storage area close to external door and the cells or bedrooms of the nuns. The area marked in yellow on the floor plan dates from 1896. The boot was found in 2007 by a workman preparing for the installation of a compactus in the room, following the removal of an original linen cupboard and shelving. The arrow indicates the find spot.

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The listing for St Brigids Convent by the WA Heritage Office describes it as an excellent example of a convent with an outstanding oratory, featuring a hammer-beamed trussed roof, painted dado and leadlight panel bay windows with decorative goldpainted arches. The buildings style is described as Federation Arts and Crafts. St. Brigids is place No. 2030 on the WA Register of Historic Places. It was used as a school by the Sisters of Mercy from the late 1880s, at a time before government sponsored primary schooling was widely accessible in Western Australia, and operated as a school until the mid-1970s. Today it serves as the administration offices of the Sisters of Mercy, West Perth.

The womans boot found under the floor at St Brigids Convent. This incomplete view of the leg suggests that the boot had probably at least five eyelets and five hooks, so is likely to be above ankle-high. Rounded toe, brogued cap, 13/4 stacked heel. Wear hole at outside joint visible, and stitches broken at end of big toe. Leather damaged in Perth heat. (St Brigids Convent)

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PERTH Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Object type Location of object in building Shirley Street Former Sunday Times building News Limited Womans black lace kid nine button boot for the left foot, 1880 1885. Heel missing, the upper worn away at the back and the sole worn through. Ten buttons. Possibly a house-boot. WA Museum collection CH.78.36. Found under the building, 9 February 1978.

(Western Australian Museum)

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PERTH Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Object type Location of objects in building Victoria Square St Marys Cathedral, 1863-65, renovations 1904-05, additions 1926-30. Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Perth. Information provided by Megan M. Tehnas. Phone 0438 050 356. Email megtehnas@ hotmail.com Infants shoe with remnant of bow on front, and fragments with two eyelets and two hooks for lacing, leather sole, copper nails. Possibly 1890s. Length 115mm; gloves, two, rosary beads. Subfloor, some of them at 1865 entrance to Cathedral.

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Objects recovered from voids under the floor of St Marys Cathedral. The gloves were rolled into a ball. The name M. Smith is written inside one of them. A single glove was also found in close association. Gloves were in zone ten, square G24 (using the location key from Ms. Tehnass thesis). Both the rosary and the fragments of shoe soles came from zone five, square J19. The rosary had been repaired twice. Tehnas was unable to suggest a logical explanation for the location of these objects under the floor. Items illustrated are not to scale. (Images of the Cathedral and the above objects by Megan Tehnas)

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WAGIN Site of find Type of building/date Former owner Object type Location of objects in building Dumbelyung Road, two km from Wagin Brick house, 1904 Jenny Lebens. Phone 0411 024 558 Email jlebens@westnet.com.au Cat, discarded, plus variety of objects described by Jenny Lebens as a religious medal or badge of some sort, a White Horse whiskey plastic horse, beads and buttons and a carved ivory flower pin (email 17/1/05). Subfloor. Found during work to treat rising damp.

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YORK Site of find Type of building/date Former owner Object type Location of objects in building Lotts Cottage, 12 Northam Road Masonry, circa 1850s Wendy Murphy. Phone 08 9295 1817 Childs above-ankle boot, black leather, left foot, 110mm, 1811 - 1815 or early 1820s. Subfloor, kitchen. Found during renovations.

York, in the Avon Valley 97 kilometres east of Perth, was established in 1831 as the first European inland settlement in Western Australia. Today, with a population of just over 3,000 people, York has the distinction of being the location of more finds of concealed objects than other small towns in Australia. Concealed shoes have been discovered in four of the towns stock of old buildings. The cottage where this boot, the oldest concealed object yet found in Australia, was discovered was occupied by William Lott and his family who are recorded at this address in 1897. The Western Australia Directory of that year lists Lott on page 368 as a farmer. The Lott family were long-standing residents of York, with numerous accounts of prizes won at agricultural shows for their fruit, livestock and wool appearing in the Perth Gazette during the 1850s.72 John Lott was born on 22/10/1816 and died on 5/12/1898. His wife, Mary, was born in the UK on 12/5/1825.73 The boot may have been early childhood footwear of either John or Mary.

Lotts Cottage. (Image by York Residency Museum)

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The Lotts Cottage boot. The off-white lace is probably not original and the lacing pattern is definitely not original. The boot has a square, blunt toe and is dated by June Swann at 1811 1815 or possibly circa 1820, making it an important find. It was already old when it was concealed in the 1850s cottage on Northam Road, York. Unlike the great majority of footwear concealments, this boot appears to be in good condition. This and the fact of its concealment many years after it was made suggest that the little boot may have been valued for its strong sentimental associations. It was perhaps put to use as a charm as the result of the deaths of several Lott children. (Image: York Residency Museum)

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YORK Other concealed shoes found in York are listed below. RESIDENCY MUSEUM 4 Brook Street. Phone 08 9641 1751 At right is the bottom of what appears to be a childs left ankle boot, rivetted or pegged. If the light colour at bottom of the photo is wood (for shank) this may be a girls boot. Probably 1880 1920. Subfloor.

KOOKABURRA DREAM BACKPACKERS 152 Avon Terrace. Phone 08 9641 2936 The building once known as Mrs. Pykes Temperance Hotel contained a concealed shoe, right, that was found under the floor to the right of the entrance during renovations in 2001. This is a brown leather shoe or boot, 230mm long, with a rounded upcurved toe and toe cap. 1880 1900.

FORMER CONVENT OF MERCY 29 South Street. This building was constructed from 1873-74 and the boot it contained, left, was found in a subfloor location in 1985. 180mm. This is probably a boys formal seven eyelet, front-lace ankle boot, closed tab; narrow-ish toe and a low stacked heel. Late 19th early 20th century. (Images by York Heritage Museum)

400

QUEENSLAND

Brisbane Gordon Park Toowong Warwick

401 406 307 408 413 414

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BRISBANE Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Object type Location of object in building Old Commissariat store, 115 William Street Government store, stone, 1829 Queensland Government Remnant of work boot. Length 220mm, width 75mm at widest point, width of heel 60mm. Size of foot estimated as 175mm X 5055mm. Roof cavity. Found during construction of new building level in 1913 and donated to Queensland Museum (item No. H4819).

One of the main problems in managing a convict settlement such as that established in 1825 on the site of the present city of Brisbane was keeping stores safe and secure. With a resident population consisting of hundreds of thieves subsisting on a less than generous daily ration of food, those in charge at Moreton Bay and the other Antipodean penal establishments were faced with a challenge. The settlements stores were kept in securely locked and guarded buildings, operated by the British Armys Commissariat branch, administered from London. A Commissariat stored everything colonial settlements needed to survive: food, clothing, tools and weapons and served as the bank and customs office.74 The first Commissariat at Moreton Bay was a building of timber slabs, constructed on the corner of the present-day Albert and Elizabeth Streets.75 Keeping the contents of this vernacular building secure required a guard around the clock. In July 1828 work began on a much more substantial store close to the river and the wharf from which supplies were unloaded. Above, the Commissariat: Andrew Petries The design, in the Colonial Georgian man- 1838 sketch. Below, Moreton Bay Settlement in ner, was by William Dumaresque, Civil En- 1835 by Henry Boucher Bowerman. An arrow gineer and Inspector of Roads and Bridges indicates the Commissariat. (Queensland State
Library image 3944-1v000r001)

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for New South Wales. Dumaresque walked a fine line with this design: it had to be good enough to impress but not too good for its place and its purpose.76 The building he designed has a number of claims to fame: it is the only survivor of the substantial buildings of the Moreton Bay penal settlement, the oldest surviving building in Queensland and one of only four commissariats remaining in Australia. It serves today as the headquarters and museum of the Royal Queensland Historical Society. It has acquired the dignity of age but its beginnings were not auspiThe Commissariat today. The top level was added in 1913. cious. The Moreton Bay gaol gang, numbering from sixteen to 20 hardened criminals, spent four months during the winter and spring of 1828 excavating a level site for the Commissariat in the rock bank adjacent to the road that ran down to the river. These men were the incorrigibles: sentenced to transportation to New South Wales, sentenced again in Sydney for new crimes and transferred to Moreton Bay where, after further transgressions, they were placed in the gaol. This team of less than enthusiastic laborers shifted a huge quantity of soil and rock from the site in a process that was intended as much for punishment as for the construction of the new store. We can be certain that grim-faced overseers, armed with whips and rifles, supervised this work. Tensions among the gaol gangs members resulted in violence. In September John Brungar used his pick to murder William Perfoot while they were excavating the foundations.77

This sectional view from Andrew Petries 1838 drawing shows the roof cavity where the shoe was found. (Historic images from the Queensland State Archives)

With the site cleared and leveled, skilled stonemasons and a quarryman were plucked from the ranks of the convicts and set to work constructing the new building. Blocks of porphyry for the walls were cut from the nearby cliffs at Kangaroo Point. Lime for the mortar came from Limestone Hill at Ipswich or was produced by burning oyster shells extracted from Aboriginal middens on Stradbroke Island. Timber was easy to find in the primeval wilderness around the settlement. Trees were felled and the logs pit sawn or adzed into shape. Some of the trees selected for the work were huge: the eight hardwood bearers that carry the first floor measure 350 x 200mm.78 The building was completed in late 1829 and consisted of a rectangular structure two storeys high, roofed with shingles, with interior dimensions of 76 feet by 30 feet and decorated

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Above, Queensland Works Department staff assembled on the top of the old Commissariat Store, April 1913. They are standing on the attic flooring on which the old corrugated iron roofing has been deposited after removal. It was during this work that the remnant shoe, right, was found. It was considered to be a convict relic and was donated to the Queensland Museum. This is the earliest recorded find of a concealed object in Australia. (Images by Department of Public Works, Queensland, and Queensland Museum)

with a pediment on which the date and the Royal arms of George IV were displayed. Windows were small unglazed apertures set high in the walls and securely barred against intruders. Stairs connected the two floors and a ladder provided access to the attic space where a timber floor had been laid to provide additional storage. In the context of this research it is significant to note that there were no fireplaces and thus no chimneys in the building and that the lower level was not provided with a timber floor until 1861. Until then, stores on the ground floor were kept in wooden crates resting on the stone paving.79 Into this building went everything required to run a convict settlement: clothing for the convicts, foodstuffs including wheat meal, maize, oats, rye, beef, mutton, pork, sugar, salt, soap and vegetables, flour, oatmeal, rice, tea, spirits, wine, vinegar, lime juice, barley, sago and arrowroot. In addition, there were medicines and medical and surgical equipment and supplies for the hospital.80 With the closure of the convict establishment in 1839 and the opening of Moreton Bay to free settlers in 1842 new uses were found for the Commissariat Store. During the rest of the 19th century it served variously as an office for the sale of Government land, quarters and offices for the police and as a depot for im-

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The top (interior) of the boot remnant and its original label. The polished appearance of the insole suggests that the protruding tips of the hobnails may have been in contact with the sole of the wearers foot. (Image by Queensland Museum)

migrants arriving from England, Ireland, Scotland and Germany. And it continued to serve as a Government store.81 Complaints about the inconvenient location of the store which was accessible only from Wharf Road resulted in the addition of a third storey in 1913. This was constructed of brick, faced with cement render, and it enabled access from William Street for the first time. The new level also increased the capacity of the building.82 As a necessary part of the modifications, the roof of the original building was removed and it was during this process that part of a boot was found. It was interesting enough to be kept. Someone from the team of Works Department builders handed it to the Government Storekeeper. On 28 April 1913 the Storekeeper placed it in the care of the Queensland Museum where it remains.83 Somewhere along the line this wizened old artifact was identified as a convict womans boot but its story is less transparent than that. The Museums records state that it was found on the roof of the Commissariat. Once the roofing material had been stripped the loca-

Toe plate and neb

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tion of anything found on top of the building would have been described in this way. The Commissariats lack of fireplaces, and consequently chimneys, together with a ground floor of stone, had placed obvious limitations on the concealment of objects. The result was that the attic, a large open space with limited headroom, was the only convenient place for anything to be concealed. The probability is that it was placed under the floorboards. This was almost certainly the only place in this room in which anything could be concealed. By 1913 the original shingles had long since been stripped from the roof and replaced with corrugated galvanized iron.84 This change might have happened in the early 1850s when this revolutionary material reached Australia. If the boot was a concealment dating from the construction of the building it did not come to light at this time, suggesting therefore that it was not secreted somewhere within the roofing structure. But it might equally have been placed under the floor while the shingles were being stripped and replaced with corrugated iron. The work carried out in 1913 involved the removal of the attics timber floor and it is perhaps significant that the boot was discovered at this time. It is not uncommon for shoes to be found under attic floors in England. The object that met the gaze of the Works Department tradesmen is the bottom part of a small boot, possibly that of a female or a youth, with a hobnailed sole and tipped with heavy June Swanns report on this object is metal heel and toe irons resembling horseshoes. quoted in full: Workboot, hobnailed These were common characteristics of poorer bottom unit, including toe-plate with quality footwear at the time and were intended upcurved neb, heel-plate and hobs; rather to improve the wear and provide a better grip. large square hobs round forepart edge They suggest that the wearer would have been plus two rows in centre, to waist. The toe involved in heavy, hard work such as felling trees, is square-rounded, so not an 1820s shape. breaking stone, building roads or working in a First reference I have to toe-plate is 1810 quarry. English gamekeepers might have worn 20s and 1812; First with single neb centre boots like this. Heel and toe irons have been front is late 1850s. Heel plates suddenly found on British boots from as early as 1585. In fashionable 1807. Only one size is shown this case, the tip of the toe iron is turned up over on a print of that date, and couldnt have been fixed as toe-plate in the same way as the front of the boot to form a protective tip shown, so probably not dual-purpose. I known as a neb. The irons have all the irregularwould not expect this to be female ity of the handmade object and were probably footwear.

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the work of a blacksmith. Dating footwear like this is difficult. The boots of working men were not fashion items and their design was thus not subject to stylish variations every few years. Boots of this very basic type were produced in England and issued to the military and others in government service throughout the 19th century.85 And we are working from the least identifiable part of the boot: the leather upper has been carefully removed, possibly to use the precious material to repair other footwear. I have not seen such an emphasis on salvaging leather in any other Australian concealment. This speaks of hard times. The Moreton Bay boot is a pitiful fragment of a life lived at the perimeter of human civilisation. Its owner is very likely to have endured hardship that is beyond the understanding of the great majority of todays Australians. The date of this object is uncertain. Swann says the square-rounded toe is not an 1820s shape, and believes it could be as late as the 1850s in which case it is not of convict origin. This humble scrap of leather, hobnails and iron is perhaps not the oldest example of footwear that we have from a convict site but it may be the only surviving example of its kind from the settlement at Moreton Bay. And its discovery in 1913 gives it another claim to fame. It is the earliest recorded find of a concealed shoe in Australia. There is one other remarkable fact about this object: its dimensions are a mere 220mm long by 68mm at the widest point. Its modern equivalent would be an English shoe size of 8. The foot that wore this boot was no more than 175mm long. This is the footwear of a child, perhaps no more than ten or twelve years old, who was employed in backbreaking toil. At a time when children as young as six worked in English mines it should be no great surprise to learn of similar treatment for a child in Australia. And yet it does. The Commissariat boot is a shocking object: a silent witness to unspeakable conditions in a remote colonial outpost.

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GORDON PARK Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Object type Location of object in building Forresville, 29 Jack Street Timber cottage in the Queensland style, circa 1880s Elske Shaw. Phone 07 3227 6400. Email elske@iinet.net.au Childs shoe, small, grey, felt-like material. Discarded some years ago. Roof cavity, over childrens bedroom, near front door.

Above, Forresville in the 1920s and left Mr. and Mrs Daniel Martin, its owners from the 1920s until the 1960s. Mr. and Mrs. Martin were childless, suggesting that the concealment predates their occupation. Below, Forresville today. (Images provided by Elske Shaw)

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TOOWONG Site of find Type of building Property owner Object type Location of objects in building Rhos-y-Medre, 29 Burns Road Queensland verandahed house, timber, 1880s. Donald Fullerton. Phone 07 3371 0059 Plimsoll of canvas, now green but almost certainly originally black, right foot, 250mm, sole and heel of a womans shoe, 250mm, fragments of a mans elastic-sided boot and part of the sole of a babys boot Chimney voids, accessible from roof cavity, on both sides of the flue.

Rhos-y-Medre photographed by Donald Fullerton, 1970. The chimney where the shoes were found is visible at left.

The house at 29 Burns Road, in the leafy Brisbane suburb of Toowong, rests on top of a hill with views towards the east. There has been a house on this site since about 1881 but the present building with its exotic Welsh name dates from a little later.86 The house is an elegant example of the style of building that we now regard as part of the Queensland architectural tradition. Built of timber, with a pyramid roof and encircling verandahs shaded with lattice, it has a semi-detached kitchen complex consisting of kitchen, pantry and maids room. A bridge connects this structure with the main part of the house where high ceilings, fretworked fanlights and a chimney that serves both the parlour and a handsome dining room contribute to the character of a building which has acquired the patina of history. The first house on the site was built by William Arthy, head teacher at the Toowong School. Arthy was a teacher of singing and the first organist at St Thomass Anglican Church, Toowong. It is probable that Arthy knew Walter Horatio Wilson who purchased the property from him in 1886 as they were both involved in music and the local Anglican Church.

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Wilson appears to have engaged the prominent Brisbane architect Richard Gailey to design the house that he called Rhos-y-Medre after the village in North Wales where he was born in 1839.87 Rhos is the Welsh for moor, y simply means of and medre is a hamlet or village.88 The name may have originated to describe the common grazing land of a village or town. The connection of this name to the landscape of Toowong is tenuous but like so many of the people who came to Australia from Britain Wilson brought with him a sentimental attachment to his origins. By naming his house after the place where he was born he sought to create a link between his old home and the new. Wilson had arrived in Melbourne with his parents in 1853. Admitted as a solicitor in 1863, he moved to Brisbane in 1865 with his new wife, Elizabeth. From 1866 he practised in the Supreme Court. But in 1880, after experiencing ill health, he took time off from the law to study harmony and composition at Trinity College, London. Back in Brisbane in 1881 he founded the Brisbane Musical Union, became president of the Liedertafel and was organist and choirmaster at St. Thomass, Toowong, for twelve years. In 1884, Wilson imported an organ built by Henry Willis & Sons, London, and installed it in his home. He was a member of the board of Brisbane Hospital and an Top, Richard Gailey, architect. Born alderman of Toowong Council.89 His broad liberal views and involvement in com- in Ireland in 1834, he practised in Queensland for many years. Above, munity activities attracted the attention of Sir Samuel Walter Horatio Wilson, born in Griffin, Premier of the time, and he was nominated Wales in 1839, Parliamentarian, to the Legislative Council in 1885. Wilson served at prominent citizen of Brisbane and various times as Postmaster-General, leader of the owner of Rhos-y-Medre. (Images: Council, Minister without Portfolio, Secretary for John Oxley Library, State Library Public Instruction and Minister for Justice. He was of Queensland. Gailey is image No. 63597, Wilson Image No. 68183) appointed Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) in 1900.90 Wilsons entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography describes him as temperate and just with deep sympathy for people in need. His personal qualities of courtesy, tact and charm won him respect and friendship. Rhos-y-Medre was Wilsons home for a short period only. His first wife died there in 1886 and it is possible that this tainted his feelings towards the house. Richard Gailey designed a new house for him, Wilcelyn, which was built nearby.91 Rhos-y-Medre passed though various owners after Wilson. In 1971 it was acquired by Donald Fullerton, a landscape architect. During the course of work on the house, Fullerton used a ladder to inspect the roof cavity. While the original corrugated roofing was being replaced he examined the chimney. Its central flue was adjoined on both sides by cavities which were

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Untouched objects photographed in situ at the bottom of the voids located on each side of the chimney flue at Rhos-y-Medre. The void at left contained a plimsoll and fragments of a mans elastic-sided boot, as well as construction debris. The right void contained the sole and heel of a womans shoe and part of the sole of a babys shoe or bootee. All had been attacked by rats. In the process of this research project, these were the first concealed objects seen in situ and largely undisturbed since they were deposited in the voids. Below, Don Fullerton and Ian Evans crouch beneath the roof to look into one of the voids. The chimney flue rises up through the roof on the left in this image. The second void is on the other side of the flue. (Images: Paul Sargaison, 4005 Fotografi)

not accessible from the parlour and dining room below. Both of them contained builders debris: gobbets of mortar which had fallen in while the bricklayers were building the chimney, and a curl of roofing iron an offcut from the 1886 construction work. Don Fullerton was intrigued to see an old shoe at the bottom of one of the cavities but it was not until many years later when he came to a lecture that I gave in Brisbane in September 2006 that he realized what he had found. He went home to take another look, taking lighting up into the attic space with him. The shoe he had seen there in the early 1970s had suffered in the interval from the actions of starving rats and there was little of it left. Looking in the other cavity for the first time he immediately saw another shoe. With floodlights installed in the roof cavity, and a

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sheet of iron taken off the roof by a helpful builder, the chimney cavities yielded their secrets. There were actually the remnants of four shoes in the voids. These were carefully extracted while I visited the house, giving me my first opportunity to see concealed shoes in their original location. The remains of the shoes came into the light of day for the first time in more than a century. As is typical of the great majority of finds, the four were single shoes. They appear to represent a family. The remains of what appear to be a mans elastic-side boot, a womans shoe, a young persons shoe of canvas and the sole of a babys boot were in poor condition the result of the attentions of hungry rats. The best preserved was the shoe with the canvas upper. According

The shoes of Rhos-y-Medre: three adult shoes and part of the sole of an infants shoe or bootee. At top, the Plimsoll. Second from top, the bottom unit of a womans boot with a high stacked heel and dating from post 1885. Third from top, the remains of a mans elastic-sided boot and at bottom a remnant part of the sole of a babys bootee.

to June Swann, shoes of this type were originally called sandshoes and were first made in 1856 but after about 1868 were called Plimsolls. The name came from the Plimsoll line on ships which resembled the demarcation point where the rubber sole joins the canvas upper on these shoes. Dating this shoe is made more complicated by the fact that the style lasted for more than a century and changes were minimal. But the square toe on this shoe suggests a date between 1840 and the 1880s.92 Comparison with the houses date of construction suggests, but does not prove, that the group of shoes may have belonged to W. H. Wilson,

Plimsoll or sandshoe? Circumstantial evidence suggests that this canvas shoe with a rubber sole dates from the 1880s and was therefore probably referred to as a plimsoll. (Images by Paul Sargaison, 4005 Fotografi)

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OUT OF THE VOID: A CACHE REVEALED

Above, L R, removing the remains of the womans shoe from the void where it had lain since the nineteenth century. Left, Don Fullerton manoeuvres fragments of a shoe onto the scoop. Below left, the scoop brings the fragments out of the void. Bottom centre, Ian Evans brings the Plimsoll to the surface. Below, the Plimsoll immediately after recovery.

These images, part of a continuous sequence taken on 7/3/07, are believed to be the first in Australia to show the recovery of concealed objects from a void. (Paul Sargaison, 4005 Fotografi)

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his wife and children. This is a fascinating find. The chimney in which the shoes were found dates from the construction of the house designed by Richard Gailey. Was W.H. Wilson, the respectable and honourable citizen, lawyer, parliamentarian, musician and regular churchgoer, involved in this concealment? The shoes are not the footwear of the builders of this house. And, unlike many other concealments, they were not necessarily put into place by the builders. Any member of the house who was capable of getting a ladder up to the hatch in the hallway of Rhos-y-Medre could have put them there. Whoever it was understood the requirements of ritual concealment: single shoes, well worn, tucked away in a chimney void beyond the reach of daily life in the house. This process was repeated throughout Australia, with remarkable uniformity. The shoes of Rhos-y-Medre have been discovered and brought into Above, the fireplace in the dining room at Rhos-y-Medre. The door at left leads into the drawing the light of day to tell us a story of a strange and secret tradition. But the room. The arrows indicate the approximate location of identity of their owners and of the per- the shoes in their voids on both sides of the flue. In an arrangement that was typical of the time, the chimney son or persons who concealed them was constructed with a flue system connected to firecannot be confirmed. This intriguing places in adjoining rooms. The chimney in which the concealment retains its mysteries. shoes were concealed served the fireplaces in the dining
room and drawing room. Below, Rhos-y-Medre as it is today. (Paul Sargaison, 4005 Fotografi)

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WARWICK Site of find Type of building/date Property owner Object type Location of object in building Glengallan, New England Highway 18km north of Warwick Homestead, masonry, 1867 Glengallan Homestead Trust. Phone 07 4667 3866. Email glengallan@aussiebroad band.com.au Cat Subfloor. Found under the drawing room by tradesman during renovations.

Top, Glengallan in 1875. (Image No. 6193, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland). Left, the carcass of the cat held by the tradesman who found it. (Image by Glengallan Homestead Trust). Above, the cat on display in a sealed case set into the floor of the room where it was found. (Image by Kay Cockram)

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APPENDIX TWO
covering the story: media reports

edia coverage of the initial phases of this research was widespread. It was essential to accumulate a significant number of finds to authenticate the ritual. I therfore actively sought media coverage in order to locate more caches. The following articles have appeared in print since 2004. Macey, Richard, Tails from the Crypt, Domain, Sydney Morning Herald, 29/4/04, 10. Lane, Bernard, Putting the Boot into Evil, The Australian, 3/5/04, 5. Anon, Did Witches worry European Settlers? Byron Shire Echo, 12/10/04. Hicks, Adam, Things we did to keep Witches at bay Northern Star, Lismore, 14/10/04, 3. Young, Kane, Nasty surprises warding off Evil, Sunday Tasmanian, Hobart, 16/1/05, 14. Duncan, Philippa, Dried cats lurk in Australias earliest Homes, The Examiner, Launceston, 18/1/05. Duncan, Philippa, Yesteryears Superstition still fits today, The Examiner, Launceston, undated but about 25/1/05. Duncan, Philippa, State search finds Shoe, Toy Stashes that kept Evil at bay, The Examiner, Launceston, 16/2/05. Hudec, Beverley, If only the Walls could talk, Real Estate, Manly Daily, 2/4/05, 5. Saurine, Angela, Remnants of a Superstitious Past, Real Estate, Hornsby Advocate, 10/3/05, 35. Saurine, Angela, Remnants of a Superstitious Past, Real Estate, Mosman Daily, 10/3/05, 69. Saurine, Angela, Remnants of a Superstitious Past, Real Estate, Northern District Times, 9/3/05, 5. Saurine, Angela, Remnants of a Superstitious Past, Real Estate, Hills Shire Times, 8/3/05, 5.

416

Saurine, Angela, Remnants of a Superstitious Past, Real Estate, North Shore Times, 11/3/05, 63. Gervais, Lisa, Hunt on for Citys Superstitious Past, Western Advocate, Bathurst, 19/4/05, 7. Jones, Terry, While Cat was away all Evil would prey, Western Advocate, Bathurst, 22/4/05, 4. Fitzgerald, Rowena, Old Wares: Discovering Hidden Meaning, Sydney Weekly Courier, 21/9/2005, 7. Devine, Miranda, Magical History lesson, Sun-Herald, 25/9/2005, 15. Saurine, Angela, A home with an anti-witch Shoe, Daily Telegraph, 6/10/05, 23. Bartok, Di, Why you leave a Dead Cat in the Attic, Mosman & Lower North Shore Daily, 20/10/05, 6. Anon, Beat Spooks, The Advocate, Ballina, 14/9/06, 17. Saurine, Angela, Keeping Witches away is a Shoe-in, Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 6/10/06, 23. Williams, Brian, Find delivers sole from evil, Courier-Mail, Brisbane, 31/10/06. Scanlon, Mike, The rite stuff, The Herald, Newcastle, 7/4/07, 12, 13 Howlett, Scott, Homes reveal hidden secrets, Parramatta Advertiser, 12/11/08, 2. Both specialist heritage and general interest journals have published accounts of finds made throughout Australia. Evans, Ian, Old Shoes tell a Surprising Story from Australias past, Reflections (National Trust, NSW), August October 2005, 20, 21. Evans, Ian, Old Shoes reveal a Secret from Australian history, Heritage NSW, summer 2005-2006, 6, 7. Evans, Ian, Charmed, Readers Digest, July 2006, 91 -96. Anon, Old houses harbor Secrets of Mythical Past, Heritage Matters, Perth, WA, April 2009, 8, 9.

417

Evans, Ian, A Shoe in for Protection, Spellcraft, winter 2009, 4, 5. Evans, Ian, Touching magic: A Strange Secret brought to Light, Trust News (National Trusts of Australia), August 2009, 1, 8, 9. Pickering, Gina, Royal George Reveals Hidden Bootie, Trust News (National Trusts of Australia), February 2010, 21.

radio interviews

I have spoken about deliberately concealed objects on almost every local ABC radio station in Australia, including those in every capital city, as well as a number of commercial stations. Some interviews were broadcast on ABC Radio National. Radio interviews on which I kept records are as follows. Saunders, Alan, Houses and Witchcraft, ABC Radio National, 1/5/04. Harmer, Wendy, Vega 93.5FM, Sydney, 8/9/05, 11.51 am. Gilbert, Graeme, 2SM, Sydney, 8/9/05, 9.12 pm McCrossin, Julie, ABC 702, Sydney, 9/9/05, 8.52 am. Wilton, Murray, Radio 2GB, Sydney, 12/9/05, 7.11 pm. Delaney, Anne, ABC Local Radio, Riverina, 16/9/05, 9.15 am. Levi, Scott, ABC Local Radio, Central Coast NSW, 16/9/05, 1.11 pm. Kilby, David, ABC Canberra, 26/9/05, 1.18 pm. Mangos, John, 2UE (Sydney and network affiliates), 27/9/05 Wylie, Fiona, ABC north coast (Lismore), 27/9/05, 9.38 am. Kelly, Fran, Breakfast, ABC Radio National, 27/9/05. Mangos, John, 2UE, 27/9/05, 2.16pm. Munro, Jane, ABC North Coast, NSW, 28/9/05. Daniels, Brooke, ABC mid north coast (Kempsey), 30/9/05.

418

Marney, Simon, Breakfast, ABC 702 (Sydney), 3/10/05. Kohn, Rachel, Secret House Rituals, The Ark, ABC Radio National, 18/10/05. Repeated 1/1/06. ONhiall, Rusty, Mysterious and Unexplained, Para-X internet radio: www.para-x.com, 2/11/09, 11.00am 12.00 noon

television coverage

Latham, Rebecca, Talismans, Rewind, ABC-TV, 9.30 pm, 17 October 2004. Emmett, Patrick, Is your Home hiding anti-witchcraft Charms? Stateline South Australia, 7.30 pm, 28/10/05. Berkman, Karen, ABC-TV News, Brisbane, 7.00 pm, 7 March 2007.

419

APPENDIX THREE
BRITISH RESEARCHERS AND INSTITUTIONS

ach of the people and institutions listed here has been contacted and, in most cases, visited, in the course of research for this thesis during several visits to the UK. These are the key people and organisations in this field of research. Owen Davies, Professor of Social History, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9AB UK. Professor Davies, widely recognised as an expert on witchcraft and magic in post-medieval Britain, has developed a plan for a systematic search throughout the United Kingdom for the material culture of folk magic. The centrepiece of this three-year project is intended to be a virtual museum, created by surveying and photographing all relevant items from museums, outdoor locations and private ownership to create a permanent web-based archive, with images, explanations, object biographies, and articles contextualising the material. The Deliberately Concealed Garments Project (www.concealedgarments.org), c/Textile Conservation Centre, formerly at the University of Southampton, Park Avenue, Winchester, Hampshire, and now at the University of Glasgow. Established in 1975, the TCC was first based at Hampton Court Palace. In 1998 it became part of the University of Southampton but was closed by the University on 31/10/2009. Glasgow University, working with the TCC Foundation, is creating a new Centre. The Deliberately Concealed Garments Project is now online at http://ehive.com/account/3580. The TCCs new website is at www.textileconservationcentre.co.uk/glasgow/. Timothy Easton, independent architectural historian. The Hall, Bedfield, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP13 7JJ. Phone +44 01728 628 380. Eastons particular interest is apotropaic marks. He also researches concealed objects and has studied many caches found in East Anglia and elsewhere in the UK. Jeremy Harte, Curator, Bourne Hall Museum, Spring St, Epsom, Surrey KT17 1UF, United Kingdom. Phone +44 20 8394 1301. Brian Hoggard, independent folk magic researcher and sometime PhD candidate, has been researching concealed objects in Britain for some years. Based in Worcester he works as a music teacher. His website is at www.apotropais.co.uk/.

420

Jason Semmens, Assistant Curator, Horsham Museum, 9 Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 1HE, United Kingdom. Phone +44 1403 254 959. Semmens is a published authority on Cornish folklore, folklore collectors, magical traditions and witch bottles. June Swann, MBE, Former Keeper of the Boot and Shoe Collection at Northampton Museums and Art Gallery, 1950 1987, and now consultant to Clarks Shoe Museum, The Shoe Museum, 40 High Street, Street, Somerset. Phone +44 0164 712 563 Boot and Shoe Collection, Northampton Museums and Galleries, Northampton, Northamptonshire. Various Shoe Heritage Development Officers. Phone 01604 837 282.

421

APPENDIX FOUR
ARCHIVES, LIBRARIES AND INSTITUTIONS

he following institutions and organizations were contacted during the course of this research. Many of them provided information and/or images.

Archaeological Leather Group, Peterborough, UK Archives Office of Tasmania, Hobart Australian Museum, Sydney Australian War Memorial, Canberra British Museum, London British Archaeology magazine Burnie Pioneer Village Museum, Burnie, Tasmania City of Mitcham, Torrens Park, SA Chiverton House Museum, Northampton, WA City of Sydney Archives, Sydney Cuming Museum, Southwark Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Canberra Department of Public Works (Queensland), Brisbane Deliberately Concealed Garments Project, Winchester English Heritage, London Fisher Library, University of Sydney Flinders University Archaeology, Bedford Park, SA Folklore Society, London Geraldton Historical Society, Geraldton, WA Glengallan Homestead and Heritage Centre, Warwick, Queensland Glenorchy City Council, Glenorchy, Tasmania Goulburn City Council, Goulburn, NSW Goulburn War Memorial and Museum, Goulburn, NSW Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College, London Hampshire County Council Museums & Archive Service, Winchester Historic Houses Trust of NSW, Sydney Historic Royal Palaces, London Manchester Museum, University of Manchester, Manchester Midlands Historical Society Museum, Maryborough, Victoria Migration Museum, Adelaide Mint Incorporated, Melbourne

422

Mitchell Library, Sydney Mount Horrocks Historical Association, Watervale, SA Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle, Cornwall Museum Victoria, Melbourne National Library of Australia, Canberra National Museum of Australia, Canberra Newcastle Region Library, Newcastle, NSW Newcastle Regional Museum, Newcastle, NSW Northampton Museums and Gallery, Northampton National Archives of Australia, Adelaide National Library of Australia, Canberra National Museum of Ireland, Dublin National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh National Museum of Wales, Cardiff National Portrait Gallery, London National Trust of Australia (NSW), Sydney National Trust of Australia (WA), Perth Outdoor Folk Museum, Belfast Parks and Wildlife Service, Hobart, Tasmania Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority, Port Arthur, Tasmania Powerhouse Museum, Sydney Queensland Museum, Brisbane Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Edinburgh St Brigids Convent of Mercy, Northbridge, WA St Georges Chapel Archives and Chapter Library, Windsor, UK Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin Society of Antiquaries, London Society of Genealogists, Sydney Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology, Pittsburgh Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, London State Library of NSW, Sydney State Library of Queensland, Brisbane State Library of South Australia, Adelaide State Library of Tasmania, Hobart State Library of Victoria, Melbourne State Records, NSW, Kingswood

423

Supreme Court of Victoria, Melbourne Sydney Bridgeclimb, Sydney Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office, Hobart Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart University of the Highlands and Islands, Shetland College, Lerwick University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana University of Western Australia Archaeology, Crawley, WA Unley Museum, Unley, SA Victoria and Albert Museum, London Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, Chichester Western Australian Museum, Perth, WA Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes Wellcome Images, London Wellcome Library, London Windsor and Districts Historical Society, Windsor, Queensland York Residency Museum, York, WA

424

APPENDIX FIVE

he following record of concealed cats found in Germany and elsewhere in Continental Europe, with a small number from the United Kingdom, was compiled by Dr. Petra Schad, City Archivist at Markgroningen, Germany. Dr. Schads office is at Marktplatz 1, 71706 Markgrningen. Phone 07145/93197-0. Email petra.schad@markgroeningen.de.

Fundorte im Landkreis Ludwigsburg, dann in Deutschland, dann Europa

(jeweils in alphabetischer Reihenfolge)

Stand:8.4.2010

Fundobjekt

Fundort

Fundbeschreibung

Gefunden bei

Lage des Gebudes Pfarrgasse, nahe der Kirche

1 Katze

Erstes DG, unter den Dielenbrettern auf Lehmwickeln, kein Spreuer zwischen den Dielenbrettern vorhanden, mittig im Flurbereich erbaut 1480 dd um 1573 laut dd um 1 Stockwerk aufgestockt

Datierung des Gebudes bzw. von Umbauten - erbaut 1461 - Umbau im Bereich des ersten Dachgeschosses 1510/11

Lagerort des Fundes Bei den Hausbesitzern (Fam. Kraemer) Stadtmuseum Hornmoldhaus BietigheimBissingen Beim Besitzer

4 Katzen (darunter 1 Jungtier)2

1 Katze3

Besigheim Pfarrgasse 10 Ehem. Pfrndhaus des Stifts Baden BietigheimBissingen Pfarrstrasse 8 Urkundlich 1511 1652 als Pfarrhaus belegt Lchgau Lange Gasse 23 Um 1750 gebaut in Dorfmauer integriert,

1 Katze4

In einem Radius von ca. 2,5 m; unter den Dielenbrettern des Dachbodens, ber der nordstlich gelegenen Bohlenstube Eine der Katzen steckte mit der Vorderseite des Kopfes in einer zementartigen Masse. Das Jungtier ist sehr stark beschdigt, Teile fehlen In der Decke der im EG befindlichen Stube, im Spreu der Deckenfllung. Die Stube liegt nach Norden

Nahe der Kirche auf dem ehem. Graben der Bietigheimer Burg, Haus und Scheune zeichnen den Verlauf des Burggrabens nach

1 Katze

Marbach, Marktstrae 40 Marbach, Rosengasse 10

Die Katze lag im 1. DG, sie hatte die Haltung eines Katzenbuckels

3 Menschenschdel5

Markgrningen, Friedhofmauer am Friedhofweg

Im Fundament der alten Friedhofmauer an der Westseite

- 1707 erbaut ber massivem lteren Kern. - 2stckiges Gebude, EG ursprnglich Stall und das 1. OG Wohnbereich war Vermutlich ursprngl. Mauer, Friedhof 1618 angelegt

Neuanlage des alten Friedhofteils, Mrz 2009

Zu den anderen Gebeinen, die man gefunden hat gelegt

Westseite des Friedhofes, ca. 10-12 m von der NW-Ecke entfernt

425

2 Katzen

Markgrningen Marktplatz 2 Privathaus - 1414 dd erbaut - 1604 umgebaut, zumindest zumindest 1 Katze erst danach eingezimmert Stadtarchiv/ -museum Markgrningen

direkt neben dem Rathaus an der Westseite des Marktplatzes gelegen

Schuh, linker

s. o.

unter den Dielenbrettern in 2 verschied. OGs gefunden. Ein schlsselhnlicher Gegenstand lag neben einer Katze, beiden Katzen fehlte die linke Vorderpfote. - unter den Dielenbrettern des 2. OGs ber der Bohlenstube (Nordosten) - unter den Dielenbrettern des 3. OGs ber dem Stuckzimmer = 1. DG, ihr Maul war weit aufgerissen Unter dem barocken Fuboden im 2. OG = Stuckzimmer (Sdosten) Herstellung des Schuhs: 15201540 - Fuboden von 1755 ? s.o. s.o. s.o. s.o. s.o. s.o.

Bartloser Schlssel

s. o.

Lederdschen 2 Katzen 6 - 1474 dd erbaut - 1572 umgebaut - 1491 dd erbaut - westl. Giebel um 1600 massiv erneuert Haus erst nach Abbruch der Stadtmauer erbaut (nach 1830) EG-Steinmauer aus 16. Jh., 1774 Umbau im EG und westl. 1. OG s.o. Abbrucharbeiten 2003 s.o.

s.o.

Bei einer mumifizierten Katze, deren linke Vorderpfote abgebrochen war unter den Dielen im 2. OG Im gestampften Erdboden des EG

Markgrningen Kirchgasse 20 Privathaus

unter den Dielenbrettern in 2 verschiedenen OGs gefunden

nicht mehr vorhanden nicht mehr vorhanden

1 Katze7

im Dachstock (= 1.oder 2. OG) unter den Dielenbrettern gefunden

ca. 40 m sdl. des Marktplatzes an einer vom ihm wegfhrenden Strae gelegen im Norden der Altstadt neben dem Schloss gelegen nicht mehr vorhanden Hilde Fendrich u. LDA s.o. auerhalb der ehem. Stadtmauer gelegen 60 m westl. des Marktplatzes entfernt gelegen s.o.

1 Katze8

unter Dielenbrettern gefunden (Stockwerk unbekannt)

Kalbsknochen

6 Nachgeburtstpfe, 1 davon mit Deckel 1 Katze

Markgrningen Schlossgasse 25 Obere Kelter Herrschaftl. Gebude Markgrningen Graf-HartmannStr. 5 Privathaus Markgrningen Finstere Gasse 17 Privathaus s.o.

Im Keller unter einer Erdschicht - es handelt sich um Unter- und Oberschenkel sowie Rippen von Metzger Wildermuth identifiziert Im Keller, ber den Kalbsknochen und unter einer Erdschicht s.o.

s.o.

Unter den Dielen des 2. OG, die Stube im 1. OG ging nach Norden (zur Strae hinaus) - der Katze fehlte die linke Vorderpfote, das Maul war weit aufgerissen

s.o.

Nicht mehr vorhanden

s.o.

426

1 Katze9

unter Dielenbrettern gefunden (Stockwerk unbekannt) Im Pfarrhaus Okt. 2005 bei Sanierungsarbeiten

Sanierungsversuch, dann Abbruch 1996

nicht mehr vorhanden

Ca. 20 m nrdl. des Marktplatzes gelegen

1 junger Hund Steinerne EG-Teile sind 1537 datiert; Fachwerkhaus von 1857

ber den Kreuzgewlben im sdlichen Seitenschiff

- 1446 dd erbaut - sptere Umbauarbeiten, u.a. Bohlenstube entfernt, evtl. im 18. Jh. Um 1280 erbaut, 18. u. 19. Jh. Sanierungsarbeiten

6 Katzen10

Markgrningen Marktbrunnengssle 4 Privathaus Markgrningen Bartholomuskirche Markgrningen Stelzengasse 4 Handwerkerhaus

1 Schuh11 3 Katzen Umbauarbeiten 1953, Einbau von 2 Dachstuben

s.o. - 1891/2 als 1stockiges Fachwerkhaus erbaut

nicht mehr vorhanden

2 Katzen12

Im 1. DG = ber der Stube im 1. OG; 2 Katzen in NO-Ecke ber der Stube in e-m Feld; 2 Katzen einzeln in benachbarten Feldern nach W; 2 Katzen in e-m Feld in SW-Ecke ber Treppenaufgang, des frheren Kamins (Esse der Werkstatt). 1 Schuh (Biedermaier?) in e-m Feld mit Katze 1 Schuh (Biedermaier?) in e-m Feld mit Katze - nebeneinander im gleichen Feld, 1 Katze war mehr verwest als die anderen - unter den Dielenbrettern im DG, nahe des Kamins der Strae zu nach Norden nichts bekannt

1 Katze13

s.o. Markgrningen Unterriexingen Hauptstrae 4 Privathaus Markgrningen Unterriexingen Glemsstrae 42, Privathaus Mundelsheim Hindenburgstr. 9 Privathaus 1575 erbaut von Amtsschreiber Johann Holderbusch 1594 erweitert Um 1850 erbaut

In der SO-Ecke des Hauses in der Decke ber der Wohnstube im 1. OG zwischen Spreuer gefunden Krper flach, langgestreckt

nicht mehr vorhanden Einige Objekte bei Manfred Baumgrtner s.o. s.o. s.o. s.o.

1 Katze14

Sachsenheim, Hohenhaslach An der Steige 1 Ladengeschft und Wohnrume s.o. s.o. s.o. s.o. s.o. S.o.

Im Bereich der Bhne (ehemaliger Schlafraum), dort im Boden

s.o.

s.o.

s.o.

3 Seitengewehre 1 Medizinflschchen Ca. 20 Eier 1 Holzkreisel 2 Seitengewehre

s.o. s.o. Sachsenheim, Kleinsachsenheim Neuweiler Str. 21 Privathaus

s.o. s.o. Unter den Dielen im Bereich des 1. DG

s.o. s.o. S.o.

s.o. s.o. Herr Hrer, Neuweilerstr. 22

Nahe dem Zentrum, nicht weit von Kirche und Rathaus entfernt

427

3 Katzen15

s.o.

3 Katzen unter Dinkelspreu im Dielenboden des Dachgeschosses ber der Kche und dem Kinderschlafzimmer

Um 1894 erbautes einstckiges, auen verputztes Fachwerkgebude

1 Katze16

Die linke Vorderpfote fehlte. In der Stubendecke, die Stuben gingen nach Norden Richtung Strae

Sanierungsarbeiten & Ausbau des Daches mit Gaupen April 2002 Abbruch 2001

Stadtmuseum Hornmoldhaus BietigheimBissingen

Nahe dem Zentrum, nicht weit von Kirche und Rathaus entfernt

1 Katze

Die linke Vorderpfote fehlte. In der Stubendecke, die Stuben gingen nach Sden Richtung Strae 1617 inschriftl., nach einem Stadtbrand

Abbruch ? 2000

2 Katzen17 ber Kreuz bereinander s.o. s.o. s.o. S.o. S.o. S.o.

Schwieberdingen Stuttgarter Str. 11 Privathaus Schwieberdingen Stuttgarter Str. 12 Gasthof Bren Vaihingen/Enz Mhlstrae 21 Privathaus beim Besitzer S.o S.o. S.o. .

unter den Dielenbrettern des 1. OG, in der Nhe eines Kamins

Nordwand des Hauses = ehem. Stadtmauer

s.o.

unter den Dielenbrettern des 2. OG, in der Nhe eines anderen Kamins

s.o.

Hinter dem Westkamin in der Decke

2 (Ziegen) Bocksfe in einem Getreidering18 Gesangbuch Andchtiger 1 Tonkrug (Nachgeburtstopf ?)

s.o.

Unter den steinernen Fubodenplatten im EG (ber dem Kellergewlbe) an der Nordecke

1 Katze19

**Abtsgmnd Untergrningen

auerhalb des Landkreises Ludwigsburg in alphabetischer Reihenfolge

Knochen einer Katze, die in den frischen Putz gedrckt waren

1 Katze20

Bad RappenauBonfeld Ehem. Gasthaus und Brauerei zur Krone

Im gestampften Boden des Gewlbekellers an der Nordwand im nordstlichen Bereich des Kellers. ber den Nachgeburtstpfen lag die mumifizierte Lngshlfte einer Katze

Fundort war der bergang vom gotischen zum Renaissance zeitlichen Bauteil, damit vor 1564 datierbar Der Umbau des Hauses wird um 1786 vermutet, der Keller auf ein lteres Datum geschtzt

Umbau des Hauses, 1998

Katzenmumie bei Renate Brggemann, der Besitzerin des Hauses

428

3 Nachgeburtstpfe) Bei im Erdgeschoss des Schlosses als Dauerausstellung s.o.

s.o.

s.o.

s.o.

s.o.

6 Bocksbeine 21

Bad Rappenau Wasserschloss

Im gestampften Boden des Gewlbekellers an der Nordwand im nordstlichen Bereich des Kellers. ber den Nachgeburtstpfen lag die mumifizierte Lngshlfte einer Katze Unter den Dielen des 1. OG ber dem Eingang in den Wohnbereich des Schlosses

2 Hasenschdel22 1739 gefunden ? Ca. 1997 s.o.

s.o.

Unter den Dielen des 2. OG, dem Wohn- und Schlafbereich

1 (junger) Hund23 1 Bocksfu24 ? Evtl. vor 1500 erbaut s.o. ltestes Haus, 1480 erbaut, 19. Jh. stark umgebaut s.o. s.o.

Erbaut um 1601 durch Eberhard von Gemmingen (1567-1611) Renovierungsmanahmen 1715, Umbauarbeiten 1830/32 Erbaut um 1601 durch Eberhard von Gemmingen (1567-1611) s.o. Ausgestellt im EG des Museums Besitzer (im Schloss) Mhle Eppingen Bei Mhle Eppingen s.o. s.o. 2 Katzen befinden sich im Rosensteinmuseum, 1 bei den Hausbesitzern

1 Katze25

Burgk, Schloss a.d. Saale Cleebronn Schloss Magenheim Ehrstdt

Wahrscheinlich 1403 (lebendig?) ber der Eingangsmauer des Schlosstores eingemauert In der Schlosskapelle in der Hohldecke auf einem Balken deponiert

in einer Kapelle ?

Eiserne Figur

s.o.

1 Grndonnerstagsei26

Eppingen Sog. Bosserthaus Kirchgasse s.o.

Unter Sandsteinplatten im 1. OG, ber der Kchendecke im 1. OG lagen Eiserne Renaissancefigur ca. 10-12 cm Minervagestalt In Decke 1. OG Echtes, in die Wand eingemauertes Hhnerei

Gegenber der Kirche s.o. s.o. Gebude im Ortskern, unweit von Kirche und Friedhof gelegen

In den Lehm der Decke (1. OG) eingedrckt

100 Lammfe Nachgeburtstpfe 3 Katzen27

s.o.

Im Keller

Grafenau, Im Hirschplan 11 Bauernhaus mit Scheune

Im Dielenboden

Triumpfkreuz mit mehreren Figuren

Halberstadt Dom

Am Hinterkopf Aussparungen fr die Aufnahme von Reliquien28

429

7 Katzen29

Illingen, Dillmannstrae 28 Ehemaliges Pfarrhaus Erbauung nach Bauhistorischer Untersuchung und dd um 1623 Sanierungsarbeiten im November 1999 Stadtmuseum Hornmoldhaus, BietigheimBissingen

Im 1. OG zwischen Spreu unter den Dielenbrettern Die sieben Katzen lagen in einer Reihe zueinander mit den Kpfen nach Osten (und damit zur Dillmannstrae) ausgerichtet in einem Raum an der Sdseite des Hauses, an verschiedenen Stelle im Haus auch Muse und Ratten Nach bauhistorischer Untersuchung erbaut ca. 15. Jahrhundert, Umbauten um 1650 Mittelalterlicher Burgtum Sanierungsarbeiten 2010 Sanierungsarbeiten 1997/98 Nicht mehr vorhanden

Im Zentrum des Ortes nahe der Kirche

1 Katze30

In der Decke unter dem Fuboden zwischen Erdgeschoss und dem 1. OG in der nordstlich gelegenen Stube

Haus gegenber der Kirche

8 Schuhe31

IllingenSchtzingen, Hauptstrae 42 ehemaliger Bauernhof Korschenbroich Schloss Liedberg NRW Burgturm 1576 erbaut 2005 bei Sanierungsarbeiten

In den Lchern von Gerstbalken in 12 m Hhe eingemauert, Schuhe (Mnner, Frauen, Kinder) ca. 300 Jahre alt

1 Katze32

Judas-Kopf mit Hohlraum 3 1 Katze 4

Mssingen Mittelgasse 9 Naumburg Domschatz

Bei Umbauarbeiten neben dem Kamin (Stockwerk? Himmelsrichtung? Was darunter?) Im hlzernen Hinterkopf befindet sich eine Vertiefung zur Aufnahme von Reliquien33

Neuhausen ob Eck Ehem. Pfarrhaus 1554 als ev. Pfarrhaus erbaut, 1897 Haus abgebrochen und 1898 am Ortsrand (mit Katze) neu errichtet ?

In der Decke der Wohnstube, im Balkenfach, das auf den Kachelofen zuluft, 1897/8 Katze hinterleg, Kopf der Katze lag nach Westen

1990 bei Sanierungsarbeiten ?

Der berlieferung nach soll es ein Spukhaus sein Haus nahe der Kirche in einem alten Bestattungsfeld. In der Nachbarschaft wurden bei Erdarbeiten Steinsarkophage gefunden

1 Katze35

RemshaldenBuoch Stuifenstrae 15

Im Fuboden

1 Katze

Bei Umbauarbeiten im DG des Fachwerkanbaues

1278 als steinernes Haus erbaut, 1537 um einen Fachwerkanbau erweitert

Heimatmuseum Reutlingen

Im Zwischenboden gefunden

Heimatmuseum Reutlingen

430

1 Paar Kinderschuhe, 1 linker Schuh

Reutlingen Oberamteistr. 22 Ehem. Pfleghof des Klosters Knigsbronn Reutlingen Kanzleistr. 24 Ehem. Schuhmacherzunfthaus

16./17. Jahrhundert Das Paar Schnrschuhe 19. Jh.; der Ballerinaschuh Anfang 20. Jh.

1 Schere36 Abbrucharbeiten Abbrucharbeiten

Riechen Fachwerkhaus mit EG aus Stein, 1500 1750-1800 ? 1746ff. erbaut Mhle in Eppingen s.o. Rosensteinmuseum Stuttgart

1 Katze 7

Sulzfeld

1 Katze38 1 Junger Hund

Unter den Dielen des 2. OG. Die Schere war zerstrt und die Spitzen lagen gegeneinander Im EG unter der Trschwelle des Eingangs zur Kche ?

2 Katzen39

Sulzfeld Stuttgart Schlossplatz Neues Schloss Herrschaftl. Gebude StuttgartWangen Biberacher Strae 50 Fachwerkhaus Nicht mehr vorhanden

1 Katze40 Gebude urkundlich das erste Mal im 13. Jh. erwhnt, mehrmals umgebaut, dd eines Stammes 1803

An der Wand zur Straenseite des Hauses fanden sich bei Sanierungsarbeiten nach Beschdigungen whrend des 2. Weltkrieges ber zwei nebeneinanderliegenden Fenstern zwei mit den Kpfen gegeneinander ausgerichtete, skelettierte Katzen Katzenmumie im 1607 angebauten Teil entdeckt Bei Umbauarbeiten 1985, das Gebude wurde bei dieser Gelegenheit bis auf den Gewlbekeller abgerissen

7 Katzen41

Tbingen, Kornhaus WildbergGltlingen Mhlehof 7 (alte Mhle)

Im Dielenfuboden der Kche im 1. Stock ber einem Gewlbekeller fand man sieben Katzen in Streuschtte, nebeneinander in reihenartiger, leicht abgerundeter Anordnung (sdstlich im Haus gelegen)

Nahe Kirche und Friedhof. Man vermutet in der Nhe den alten Herrensitz derer von Gltlingen

EUROPA
ob der Mauerteil auch so alt ist, ist unklar In der Decke des 1. OG in der Mitte des Hauses Der Kamin liegt an der Ostseite des Hauses Nicht mehr vorhanden Nicht mehr vorhanden Bei Renovierungsarbeiten 1990er Jahre Im Pub

1 Katze 1 Vogel42

Straburg Stadtmauer

Frankreich

In der Stadtmauer (1228 erbaut) Der Vogel knnte eine Krhe oder ein Raben sein

1 Katze43

Straburg Bruderhofgasse 7

Eines der ltesten Huser Straburgs

Abbruch der Stadtmauer 171825 Abbrucharbeiten 1911

1 Kinderschuh (16 cm lang)

Elsdon (Northumbria) Pub Bird in Bush

Grobritannien

Hinter dem Kamin des ca. 1740 erbauten Hauses.

431

3 Pferdekpfe ber dem Eingang zum nrdl. Seitenschiff , hinter Glas

1 Knochen

Elsdon (Northumbria) Pfarrkirche Manchester Kirche? Bei Renovierungsarbeiten 1890 (?) Im Kirchenschiff in einem Schrank

Im Kirchturm der um 1400 erbauten Kirche. Die Kpfe waren pyramidenartig gegeneinander gelehnt

Die Kirche wurde direkt neben einem Vorgngerbau erbaut.

1 Katze44

Pill (Passeiertal, Sdtirol)

Italien

1 Katze45

Volders

sterreich

Schuhfunde Mglicherweise entstand der Brauch in englang. Dort soll ein Mann den Teufel mit einem Stiefel gefangen haben (Quelle: LKZ, Kinderseite, 20. April 2010)

(Footnotes)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Hinweis von Regina Ille-Kopp, 2001, Auskunft von Familie Kraemer, Hhe der Katze 28,5 cm, Breite 41,5 cm. Ein Stck der Schwanzspitze ist abgebrochen und nicht mehr vorhanden Auskunft von Frau Claus, Bietigheim-Bissingen Auskunft von Ehepaar Odenwlder, Lchgau Auskunft von Architekt Matthias Weccard, Marbach 2003 Auskunft Bauarbeiter u. Werner Stollsteimer, Stadtbauamt Markgrningen, 2009 Auskunft von Prof. Siegfried Rsemann, frher Markgrningen 2001 Auskunft von Zimmermann Fritz Schinz, jun., Markgrningen 2001 Auskunft von Zimmermann Fritz Schinz, jun., Markgrningen 2001 Auskunft von Zimmermann Fritz Schinz, jun., Markgrningen 2001 Hinweis von Heiner Beck. Ausknfte von Zimmerleuten der Fa. Fritz Schinz 2005 Hinweis von Heiner Beck. Ausknfte von Zimmerleuten der Fa. Fritz Schinz 2005 Auskunft von Elisabeth Bader, Unterriexingen 2001 Auskunft von Angelika Fink, Mundelsheim 2008 Auskunft von Manfred Baumgrtner, Hohenhaslach Auskunft von Herrn Hrer, Kleinsachsenheim Auskunft des Baggerfhrers Stefan Lindner, Markgrningen 2001

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17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

Gre: eine Katze 40 cm von Schnauze zu Schwanzspitze und 27 cm der Krper; 26 cm der Krper der anderen darberliegenden Katze. Auskunft von Thomas Hitschler, Vaihingen/Enz 2000 Auskunft von Kurt Sartorius, Bnnigheim 2008 Auskunft von Dr. Hans-Heinz Hartmann Stadt Bad Rappenau (Hrsg.): Einweihung des restaurierten Wasserschlosses Bad Rappenau. Festschrift. Stadt Bad Rappenau (Hrsg.): Einweihung des restaurierten Wasserschlosses Bad Rappenau. Festschrift. Elke Lang, Schloss Burgk in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 1989, S. 32 Auskunft von Kurt Sartorius, Bnnigheim 2007 Auskunft von Frank Dhling, Eppingen 2000 Wird zum Schutz vor Blitzschlag benutzt. Auskunft von Frank Dhling, Eppingen 2000 Auskunft von Sabine Grtzinger, Grafenau Erluterung des Audioguide durch den Dom und das Dizesanmuseum, September 2008 Auskunft von Bernd Mittler, Illingen-Schtzingen Auskunft von Luise Lttmann Bietigheimer Zeitung, 20. April 2010 Zeitungsartikel Schwb. Tagblatt 2005, von Martin Holzinger, Tbingen, erhalten Erluterung im Laufe der Fhrung durch das Dizesanmuseum, Mai 2009 Auskunft von Jrgen Riedel, per Mail am 8. April 2010 Auskunft von Prof. H. G. v. Stockhausen Rituelles Werkzeug zerstren ist bekannt. Man wollte verhindern, dass die Parzen den Lebensfaden abschneiden. Auskunft von H. Dhling, Eppingen, Tel. 07262/87 08 Auskunft von Frank Dhling, Eppingen, Tel. 07262/87 08, 2000 Auskunft von Frank Dhling, Eppingen, Tel. 07262/87 08, 2000 Auskunft von Frau Stauss Zeitungsartikel Schwb. Tagblatt 2005, von Martin Holzinger, Tbingen, erhalten Auskunft von Reinhard Vogel Anzeiger fr elsssische Altertumskunde, 1912, S. 143/4 (der Hinweis darauf stammt von Ilse Fingerlin, Freiburg) Anzeiger fr elsssische Altertumskunde, 1911, S. 184 (Hinweis darauf stammt von Ilse Fingerlin, Freiburg) Dr. Harald Stadler von der Leopold-Franzens-Unversitt in Innsbruck lie eine Katzenmumie aus Volders und eine weitere aus Pill durch den Archozoologen Georg McGlynn untersuchen. Das Rntgenbild ergab in beiden Fllen eine Verschiebung des ersten Halswirbels (Atlas) sowie in einem Fall eine laterale Luxation im oberen Brustwirbelbereich. D. h. der Tierkopf war mit einer Hand nach vorne gerissen worden, whrend der Rcken des Tieres mit der anderen Hand festgehalten wurde. Dr. Harald Stadler von der Leopold-Franzens-Unversitt in Innsbruck

433