A boot covers the whole foot, ankle and part or all of the calf, some styles extending over the knee. As functional footwear, boots protect the foot and leg from the wet, mud, extreme cold, certain hazardous conditions and give extra ankle support, but they may also be stylish fashion items.

The earliest boots comprised separate soles, uppers and leg-coverings, but from c1000 BC they were commonly joined together as one item. Nomadic peoples and horsemen traditionally wore animal skin boots: for example, the Inuit of Alaska fashioned winter boots of caribou and sealskin and during the Middle Ages the Mongols brought soft leather boots to Europe from Asia. Boots were adopted by medieval knights and, as our system of heraldry developed from the insignia of mounted warriors, long boots became a device on coats of arms. In late-Elizabethan England, thigh boots were fashionable for riding and hunting. Throughout the early Stuart era soft cavalier-style boots were admired, until they were superseded in the late 17th century by stiff, thigh-length waxed-leather jackboots.

In the early-1700s long boots were relegated to riding, hunting and military use but half-boots remained popular, boot-wearing tradesmen being criticised in the press for emulating their social superiors. From the 1760s onwards towns acquired better paving and, as more people walked the streets, boot scrapers by the door of houses came into use. In the late 18th century the English country look became fashionable and, in a new spirit of democracy, gentlemen dressed like their grooms in sporting black and brown leather ‘top boots.’

During the early-1800s gentlemen favoured black ‘hessian’ boots featuring a centre-front V-dip and tassel, more elegant than the labourer’s sturdy ‘high-lows’ – laced ankle boots. Work boots were often hob-nailed and, as occupations in heavy industry multiplied, often featured protective reinforced toes. Male and female boots were fashionable throughout the Victorian era, especially elastic-sided boots and, from the 1850s, button boots. Boots always cost more than shoes. Flora Thompson in Lark Rise to Candleford, set in the 1880s/1890s, wrote: “Boots were often bought with the extra money the men earned in the harvest field.” Boots prevailed in the early 1900s but were superseded from the 1910s by modern shoes.