Richard Berenger (A.D. 1771), in his History and Art of Horsemanship, states that a horseshoe was found in the tomb of Childeric I. of France[1146] (d. A.D. 481). Berenger gives an illustration of the shoe, copied from De Montfaucon; it has four nail-holes on each side, and looks remarkably like the modern article. Mr Tozer asserts that iron shoes came into regular use in the first half of the sixth century (A.D.). Yet General Pitt-Rivers describes and figures horseshoes ([Fig. 83] A, 83 B) which were found in the Romano-British settlements of Woodyates and Woodcuts, in Cranborne Chase. He records other specimens, and asserts that the people of that period shod their horses with iron[1147]. Professor Ridgeway, while believing it improbable that the Angles brought with them any particular shape of horseshoe[1148], reproduces from the Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society Professor T. McKenny Hughes’s
Fig. 83. A, B. Portions of small horseshoes, much corroded, found by Pitt-Rivers in Cranborne Chase. The worn fragment, B, exhibits three holes, with T-shaped nails. There is a calkin at k, formed by turning up the lower surface of the shoe. C. Ancient horseshoe found by Mr E. C. Youens, at Edenbridge, Kent. The shoe, which is formed of wrought iron, is markedly concavo-convex, the convex surface being the lower one. The “wale-holes” are very near the edge. There is no raised rim. D. Side view of the same shoe. E. Small horseshoe, Guildhall Museum, London. Roman layer, City. The curve is sinuous, the holes are elliptical, and the calkins are well formed.
drawings of seven Old English shoes, two of which, the circular and the split types, would appear to be rather primitive.
We need not linger over the allusion to horseshoes in Domesday Book. The reference to the blacksmiths of Hereford, who were liable to be called upon to make horseshoes for the king at a fixed rate, is well known to most students.
The circular horseshoe, which has just been mentioned, and which is occasionally dug up in the Fens, is still commonly employed in Northumberland. Through the kindness of the Rev. Hastings M. Neville, of Ford, Cornhill-on-Tweed, I am enabled to give illustrations of this form of shoe (Figs. [84], [85]). The shoe, which has been somewhat abraded by wear, is markedly convex on the lower surface, and correspondingly concave where it is fitted to the hoof. In this respect it resembles the broad shoe ([Fig. 83] C, D) of the ordinary outline, discovered in making a main drainage trench at Edenbridge, Kent. This latter specimen is now in the possession of Mr C. E. Youens, of Dartford, through whose courtesy a sketch has been obtained. As in the Northumbrian example, the “wale-holes” are very near the margin; but while the iron of the former shoe is carried completely round to give support behind, the Edenbridge specimen does not even possess calkins—that is, portions projecting downward at the “heel.” The Edenbridge shoe appears to be Mediaeval, but it may perhaps be Saxon, or even of earlier date. The specimen should be compared with the Mediaeval examples in the Guildhall Museum.
The circular form of shoe, according to Mr James Weatherston, the blacksmith at Duddo, near Norham, Northumberland, is advantageous to a horse which has a weak “toe” or heel. This shape has been used from time immemorial. Sometimes a leather sole, covering the whole foot, is placed between the hoof and the circular shoe. Again, a detachable iron plate, or “complete shoe,” is occasionally screwed on to the outside surface of the round one, so that, by removing the plate, the horse’s foot can be examined without interfering with the shoe. In this case, the leather sole is omitted. The screws or “cogs” are square-headed, and project to such a degree that the animal walks on them alone.