Wellington boots — wellies to everyone — are knee-high waterproof rubber boots, and they are a genuine necessity in a country this wet and this muddy. Almost every British household has a pair by the back door.
The Duke
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, asked his shoemaker in 1817 to modify the Hessian riding boot: softer leather, cut closer to the leg, hard-wearing enough for battle but smart enough for the evening. The result was named after him and became instantly fashionable among gentlemen wanting to imitate the hero of Waterloo.
Those were leather. The rubber boot arrived in 1853, when Hiram Hutchinson bought the rights to Charles Goodyear’s vulcanised rubber process and began manufacturing waterproof footwear for farmers — who until then had worked in the fields in clogs or bare feet.
The wars
Wellingtons became standard issue in the First World War, when the flooded trenches of the Western Front made waterproof footwear a medical necessity — trench foot disabled tens of thousands of men. Over a million pairs were produced. Soldiers took the habit home, and the boot moved permanently into civilian life.
What they are worn for
- Farming and gardening — the original job, and still the main one.
- Dog walking in an English winter, which is mostly mud.
- Festivals — Glastonbury in particular, where they are not optional in a wet year.
- Puddles, by every child in Britain, enthusiastically.
Hunter
The best-known brand, founded in Scotland in 1856, holder of royal warrants, and the maker of the dark green boot that became a class signifier in its own right. Green Hunters worn with a waxed jacket read as county, horsey and rural-establishment; the company later produced them in bright colours and sold enormous numbers to festivalgoers, which the traditional customers regarded with some suspicion.
The welly-wanging
Britain has a competitive sport of throwing wellington boots as far as possible, contested at village fêtes and country shows across the country. It is called welly wanging, there are recognised rules about boot size and throwing style, and Upperthong in West Yorkshire claims to be its home.
This is entirely typical: give the British a piece of practical rural equipment and within a century they will have invented a championship for throwing it.