An unusual matter referred to us recently was the discovery of a collection of hidden objects in a house in the St Helier town centre. This is a Crown property that was being refurbished. Many people will be familiar with the historic practice of hiding symbolic objects in houses as a means of deflecting malevolent influences, sometimes taking the form of a ‘witches bottle’ or a piece of iron. These are always carefully placed out of sight. A common hiding place was a ledge in a chimney flue, or the narrow space under the eaves, and iron was sometimes placed under a door threshold so as to protect the entrance into a house or barn.
It might be assumed that this practice would have died out by the early 19th century but these finds, in a house built in c1841, show this assumption to be incorrect – these superstitious beliefs were clearly still strongly held at this time. In this house, in the chimney flue at roof level, building contractors found a child’s single leather shoe, heavily worn, which could only have been placed there as the house was being constructed. Single shoes are often used in this manner as they were thought to repel entry by unkind spirits. The Northampton Museum and Art Gallery has been recording concealed shoes in the UK since the 1950s and their register now stands at 2000 finds involving almost 3000 individual shoes. Our shoe has been added to this list.
But it was not only shoes that were specifically concealed behind walls and under floors in this house. Other objects also came to light, as can be seen in the photograph of the entire cache. Some of these were presumably concealed deliberately otherwise they would simply have been thrown away. These include a Marmite jar, other bottles and an Oxo tin, an iron trivet, and a couple of paint tins. Also found was an un-labelled photograph of a two-storey rural house which one of our Section members immediately recognised. He followed up with the current owners who reported that they had also found Marmite jars hidden in their property. There’s obviously a research project for someone here.
Anyone who happens to find objects hidden in this way is encouraged to report them to the Société for recording. We also recommend that such items should be retained within the property, where possible, as they provide an additional layer of history.
Stuart Fell
Architecture Chair
