Get Involved

This website is to encourage members of the public to look out for boot scrapers.

To add images and information about boot scrapers in your locality or elsewhere in the UK or the world to this website, please send them to: bootscrapers.history@gmail.com

We need to act now, before these fascinating architectural accessories are taken away in the process of 21st century modernisation in towns and cities. In the last five years I have frequently seen 'sawn off' boot scrapers, all that remains of the scraper has been levelled to the stone step where the scraper once proudly sat.

If you share a passion for boot scrapers or want to learn more about boot scrapers there are images and lots of information here. There is much more to come about boot scrapers over the next few months, so watch this website and get involved.

FIND BOOT SCRAPERS ON THIS WEBSITE

Look at the menu pages, towns and cities are listed, streets are named where you can find boot scrapers.

Turn to any page to find boot scrapers and further information about the boot scrapers.

Go to one of the towns or cities listed and follow one of the heritage trails.

You can get involved and send images of boot scrapers and information about boot scrapers in your area to bootscrapers.org@gmail.com, or just contact us on the email address to let us know where boot scrapers can be found.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Take a close up and wide angle photograph of a boot scraper; photograph the building where the boot scraper can be found. Note date of all photographs taken.

Note the address: house number, street name, town, post code(if you have it) and any information about the boot scraper.

Please provide accurate information, any unusual features / stories / memories / linked to the boot scraper or about the building where it’s found.

Ensure each image is identified and labelled correctly. An iphone image is acceptable.

Usually, it is not required to enter private property to take a photograph of a boot scraper. If you feel it is necessary to enter private property always ask permission first from the owner of the property.

WHERE TO FIND BOOT SCRAPERS

Searching for boot scrapers in your locality is a wonderful way to get to know the place where you live or another city. You will usually find boot scrapers in the oldest part of a city or town in the narrow streets and alleys or wide thoroughfares lined with Georgian or Victorian buildings. Look outside palatial residential developments, churches and public buildings, often finding not one but two boot scrapers each side of a large doorway. You may find boot scrapers within railings or on horse drawn carriages, or somewhere else.

FURTHER YOUR RESEARCH

You can further your own research in the local history department of your city library. The internet is a great resource for information to find out how streets developed. The national census compiled every ten years from 1851 will provide information about the people who lived in the buildings or how buildings were used.