Mysterious Boots - Mystery Solved!

A little news - my other half contacted the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, home of the biggest shoe collection *in the world* (why haven't I been there?!)

One of their staff sent him a very helpful reply:

"I can quite definitively say they are ice skate boots. We have a very similar pair in the collection by Lilley & Skinner. They are almost the same colour of leather and have that very distinctive seam down the vamp (toe). When you look at the holes in the soles they are exactly the shape of skates. In fact you can clearly see the shape of the skate attachment. The area is very clean and has a faint black line. Outside of this area it is much more grubby and black. Saxone were a very large company producing many shoes over their manufacturing life. They made men's, women's and children's and this included boots for ice skates. Our Lilley & Skinner pair date to the 1920s. Yours could easily date to post First World War to 1920s."

So - that's quite a 'final answer' on this topic! They were indeed ice-skates. Thanks again to all of you lovely ladies who spent so much time looking at pictures and investigating boots for other sports!