A rather moribund ash (Fraxinus excelsior) tree beside Ashbourne Road, just outside Buxton, Derbyshire, holds many pairs of shoes, mostly trainers in its branches.  Most of the pairs seem to be about the same size, and it appears that few, if any, shoes have been added in recent months.

It seems that shoes were first placed in this tree in the early years of the present century; according to Sara Hannant, in her Mummers, Maypoles & Milkmaids (2011):  ‘Buxton teenagers created the Shoe Tree in the summer of 2006 by throwing pairs of shoes, tied together by their laces, into the highest branches of the tree.’

Photographed August 2023.

Update, May 2025:  The tree is now dead and sawn down (before or after dying?).  A few shoes remain  attached to the fallen tree, one pair of which looked relatively new, but several of which were covered in moss, suggesting that they had been thrown into the tree a long time ago.  There were also shoes, which it’s assumed had fallen from the tree, half covered by vegetation on the ground.

Photographed 28 May 2025.