Hundreds of 19th-Century Leather Shoes Wash Up on a Beach, Leaving Locals and Experts Guessing
On a random Thursday, something weird washed up on the shores of Ogmore-By-Sea: not a sea creature, but hundreds of leather shoes. On December 18, the non-profit group Beach Academy bumped into about 200 leather footwear off the shore in the Vale of Glamorgan during a rockpool restoration project. Surprisingly, the number of shoes increased to 437 over the week, as per IFL Science. The organization believes that the footwear isn't modern but possibly belonged to an ancient group of people. "They resemble shoes from times past rather than modern styles, mainly adult males and children," Beach Academy said in a Facebook post. "We are slowly excavating them from rockpool zones where they have been embedded into sediment or trapped in rocks as part of our Rockpool restoration project," the announcement added.
The organization insinuates that there might be a history behind when and how these shoes got trapped in the rocks. This might seem like a bizarre occurrence to most, but the locals confirmed that the same incident happened before. They reacted to the Facebook announcement post, sharing their encounters with the leather shoes years ago. "I have found loads of them. Years ago, a section of the River Ogmore bank near Portobello House fell away, revealing hundreds of old shoes," one user commented. "There's still loads in the river," they added. Some footwears were wrecked, possibly from being submerged in water for so long. However, some exceptions were in surprisingly good condition.
The design is far from modern, which led experts to connect it to the 19th century. A local shipwreck that occurred around the same time might also be a reasonable explanation for the leather shoes extravaganza. “The strongest theory is that the shoes come from a shipwreck called the Frolic that hit Tusker Rock about 150 years ago. It was carrying shoes and cargo from Italy," the organization told the outlet in a statement. "They were washed up the Ogmore River, and every now and then they appear, especially when there has been erosion of the river bank,” they explained. While shoes washing up on the South Wales sea shore is quite bizarre it thankfully didn't come with feet attached, something North America witnessed between 2007 and 2019.
In an eerie case, about 21 human feet, along with shoes, washed up on the shores of the Salish Sea in the U.S. and Canada. However, there is an explanation behind the bizarre phenomenon. In 2007, the sneaker industry boomed, and buoyant soles were introduced with light foams and air pockets in the sneakers to make them lighter, providing comfort and shielding feet from crabs and fish. When dead bodies entered the sea, most of the flesh decomposed or was eaten, while the shoe-encased feet remained intact and afloat. During strong tidal currents, these creepy and floating bits washed up to the nearby shores.
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