Guess the Place

[Stewie]

Thank you MartinR. My next one for your deliberations, where was I when I took this photo?

[MartinR]

That's exactly what they were used for.

What I'm after is what the originals were used for and where.  Bragging rights if you can name the museum

Stewie got the what and where: Launching and recovering the Dungeness Lifeboat but Shoot999 gets bragging rights for landing in Chatham.

They are in the RNLI Historic Lifeboat Collection within The Historic Dockyard, Chatham.  They're called "Back Stays" and were used by the female launchers of the Dungeness lifeboat to stop them sinking into the shingle.  The "design", if you can call it that, originates from the 18thC and were used to walk across shingle.  Their use died out when tractor launching was introduced and also when in 1936 a concrete road was laid out towards Dungeness point.

Over to you Stewie.

[Stewie]

Is it something to do with either launching or recovering a lifeboat?

[MartinR]

Not that dark, the museum is indeed in Chatham.  Do I detect a tentative guess comming?

[shoot999]

Shot in the dark. Would the museum be in Chatham

[John Walker]

Not prototype Birkenstock sandals then😊 (much beloved of “Er indoors”)

 

[johnfilmer]

Not prototype Birkenstock sandals then😊 (much beloved of “Er indoors”)

[MartinR]

You've got the "where", it is indeed Dungeness.  The ones I illustrated were in a specific type of museum which reflects the specific use to which they were put.

[Stewie]

Judging from the picture, they seem to be on a shingle or pebbly beach. I found the attached picture showing similar footwear being worn by families at Dungeness. Presumably the large surface area helped spread the weight of a human making for easier walking on the shifting pebbles.

[MartinR]

No, nothing to do with gunpowder.  I've not heard of wooden soled footware of any sort being used around gunpowder, they can pick up stones, and stone against stone can lead to sparks ...

First clues this evening.

[grandarog]

From one of the Gunpowder works at Faversham.?
In the Museum at Oare Gunpowder Works Country Park.

[MartinR]

That wouldn't surprise me, but wrong part of the county and not marshes.

[Stewie]

I believe that in 'Great Expectations', Pip wears clogs like these when he walks to and from Rochester market from Cliffe Marshes.

[MartinR]

Here are a pair of clogs (in the broadest sense of the word).  They're  clearly replicas in a museum display case.  What I'm after is what the originals were used for and where.  Bragging rights if you can name the museum.

[Stewie]

Yes MartinE it is Fort Luton, well worth a visit just to see the two ‘time tunnels’ over to you