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Tudor Wooden Shoe
Pattens were wooden shoes used over normal shoes to protect women's feet from the mud and refuse on the streets. Men wore thick leather boots. Pattens were removed before going indoors.
The wooden shoe, or patten, is made out of carved wood with two raised areas, one under the heel, and one under the ball of the foot. Nailed to the sole of the shoe are two semi circular pieces of leather. The wearer would place their foot on the wooden platform. The two pieces of leather meet over the top of the foot and are tied together by two laces threaded through two corresponding holes. This kept the patten attached to the foot.
The streets in our towns and cities are designed to allow people and vehicles to travel safely in separate sections; people on the pavements, cars on the road. Pavements are raised and paved with stone slabs, and roads are asphalted. Both are provided with drainage systems and are regularly maintained.
Tudor streets were very different. In the towns, people, horses and wagons jostled for position among overflowing gutters of refuse. In the country, roads were like farm tracks, muddy in the winter and dusty in the summer.
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