They were usually worn under leather or fabric shoes to raise the wearer's foot above the mud of the unmade road, not to mention commonly dumped human effluent and animal dung.

The heyday of the clog in Britain was between the 1840s and 1920s and, although traditionally associated with Lancashire, they were worn all over the country, not just in the industrial North of England.

[a] In the past the English tended to employ Welsh and West Country alder, Scottish birch and Lincolnshire willow for the soles.

The traditional method of construction starts with gangs of itinerant woodsmen who would buy a stand of timber for the felling.

[12] The regular gangs would operate in a similar fashion to coppice workers and circulate around 12 stands in 12 years to allow regrowth.

[14] The billets were roughly shaped with a stock knife and a deep notch put in where the sole and heel meet.

[14] The clog blocks were then generally stacked up in open pyramids to allow the air to circulate and seasoned for a few months.

[14] The offcuts and waste was sold on, either as pea-sticks and firewood to provide money for food or else as fuel to the wool dyeing trade.

[14] Grew & Neergaard summise that a similar method was used in medieval times, in part from an illustration in the Mendel Housebook.

A workman is shown using a small hand adze for finishing pattens with drawknives (or possibly stock knives) hanging on the wall behind.

At the lighter end are various styles of sandals, then through shoe types to industrial, farming and army boots.

According to Grew and de Neergaard it is "resilient and extremely durable when wet, [and] has been the favourite material for clog-making in England right up to the present day".

[15][16] It was popular in the hot industries (steel making for example) because replacement woods could be quickly made,[3] and it was rarely constantly damp.

They were comfortable when standing at machinery all day, indeed the safety toecap made only fits a shallower sole with less "cast".

In a 1920s government survey of rural trades and crafts it was stated that the Welsh would pay double for Sycamore.

Sycamore can be worked wet without being seasoned as it is the most stable of woods, indeed it must be if the traditional carving tools are used, as it dries too hard to be commercially viable, possibly the reason it was little used.

Anyone caught flouting the law was subject to a hundred shilling (£5) fine, half of which was paid to the Fletchers.

Kip full grain leather was a Water Buffalo hide impregnated with tallow, oils and waxes; it was made in India.

The presence of wax and oil made the leather hard, and necessitated a heated Half Round Bottom Glazer for shaping over the last.

During the nineteenth century, competitions were held, and professional clog dancers performed in the music halls.

Clog fighting (or shin-kicking), also known as 'purring', was a combative means of settling disputes in the mill towns of Lancashire.

The cartoon popularised the existing use of cloggie to refer to people from the Northern industrial areas, particularly Lancashire.