A COBBLER business in Settle has come to the rescue of a period costume collector.

Bernadette Atkinson, of Frills and Furbelows, Gargrave, had been searching for more than three decades for some pattens - wooden soles - but could only find them in museums.

"Pattens are wooden soles raised on an iron band which is about four inches high," she explained.

"They were worn to keep the wearer's feet dry in damp and muddy conditions such as in the laundry room whilst doing the weekly wash or when hanging out the washing."

She added that pattens were in use mainly in the 18th and 19th centuries though she does have catalogues dating as late as the 1920s which show some.

Mrs Atkinson works as a librarian in Gargrave and is well-known throughout the area for her collection of costumes and their accoutrements.

Pattens were something she had been searching for over the last 30 years. "Because they were made partly of wood they easily rotted and after use would most likely have been thrown on the fire.

"In many cases just the iron band would remain," she explained.

After delving into virtually every bric-a-brac and antique shop across the land, her husband suggested contacting Settle cobblers, Jim Nelson and his son Daniel, whose family been in the shoe making and repair business for seven generations.

"I took them whatever illustrations I had and they managed to make me two pairs," said a delighted Mrs Atkinson.

"They may not be original but a gap in my collection has been filled and I have a superb example of the Nelsons' skill which makes the pattens doubly precious to me."

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