People have been left mystified after excavation efforts between two small Welsh towns unearthed more than 400 shoes – and two theories have tried to explain what happened
Locals living in two quiet Welsh towns have been left baffled after hundreds of old shoes were excavated from the sand on their shared local beach.
Around 437 decades old shoes were unearthed from the Vale of Glamorgan coastline by construction crews carrying out a major rockpool restoration project on four beaches. The vast majority of the shoes were found in the towns of Ogmore and Llantwit Major, home to just 878 and 9,486 people respectively.
The finds – made as part of an environmental initiative led by Beach Academy and supported and funded by the Vale Local Nature Partnership – appear to come from “times past”, the organisation said.
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A Beach Academy spokesperson told Wales Online: “They resemble shoes from times past rather than modern styles, mainly adult males’ and children’s shoes. 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.
“We have no idea how long they have actually been trapped there – many stories, I’m sure.” The shoes are being uncovered from rockpool zones on four beaches in the Vale.
Of the total, 293 were found at Ogmore, 134 at Llantwit Major, nine at Penarth and one at Whitmore Bay. At Ogmore alone, 200 shoes were removed in just one week, highlighting how deeply embedded some of the footwear has become within the coastal environment.
The project has undertaken 15 rockpool restoration sessions since September, with volunteers working to remove long-standing marine litter in an effort to restore the rockpools to their original natural state. Several theories have been put forward following the discovery in a bid to explain how such a large number of shoes ended up along the shoreline.
The strongest theory so far has linked them to a 19th century ship the Frolic, which struck Tusker Rock around 150 years ago while carrying a cargo of shoes and other goods from Italy. It is believed the shoes were washed up the Ogmore River and periodically reappear, particularly when erosion of the riverbank exposes them.
Another possible explanation lies in Bridgend’s industrial past. The town was once famous for shoemaking, particularly around 1960, when more than 50,000 pairs of boots and shoes were being produced each week. According to the spokesperson, cobblers would often dump old boots that could not be mended into the river at Portobello, where they may eventually have been carried out to sea.
The discovery has sparked intrigue on social media, with one person commenting, “We often find parts of old leather shoes down that way. The soles are always very small like a child’s shoe.”
Another said: “There were loads washed up about a year ago too, down Newton.” Despite the mystery surrounding the origins of the shoes, Beach Academy stresses that the focus of the project remains firmly on environmental restoration. The organisation pointed out that the shoes form only a small part of the wider problem.
The spokesperson added that more than 12,000 items of litter have already been removed from the coastline, and that this work has “barely scratched the surface”. They said: “We wish to restore rockpool habitats back to their original natural state by removing marine litter that has been there for some time, either embedded in sediment or trapped in the rocks. Beach Academy is now appealing for more volunteers to join the effort.”
The spokesperson added: “Volunteers are needed. People can join us.”
