It's the first shoe tree of spring.
It's the first shoe tree of spring.
(News)
Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland); 4/27/2006
SHOES do grow on trees after all - and here is the proof.
This is Scotland's first shoe tree, which is already blossoming.
The craze was said to have started when a scorned woman threw her ex-lover's boots into the branches to get her own back on him.
But others began adding trainers, stilettos, boots and sandals to the tree, which is beside the A70 near Balerno, in West Lothian.
The idea started in the US and has been seen in films including Big Fish, starring Ewan McGregor, and Wag The Dog.
Publican Bobby Lewis, of the town's Grey Horse Inn, said: "It's become a tourist attraction already and drivers have been stopping to take photos."
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Sat 18 Feb 2006
The mysterious shoe tree on the A70 near Balerno.
That tree's branches shoe look peculiar!
STEWART COOPER
IT is a mystery which has puzzled thousands of passing motorists for weeks.
A tree beside the busy A70 near Balerno has suddenly begun to bloom - with pairs of shoes.
Cowboy boots, high heels and trainers have been found hanging from the branches of the tree over the last few weeks, leaving passers-by baffled.
The shoe tree - which is quickly becoming the Lothians' latest tourist attraction - is currently decorated with around 20 items of footwear dangling up to 20ft up in its branches.
While no-one knows how the Lothians tree began, similar trees have bloomed in the US where they can be found near highways in states such as California, Nevada, Michigan and Arkansas. One theory is that the hanging of shoes from trees is a precursor to good luck.
Local publican Bobby Lewis of the Grey Horse Inn, Main Street, Balerno, said the tree had been the talk of the bar and said he was preparing to fling a pair of his own shoes into the branches.
"My father-in-law told me about it a couple of months ago, but I was only able to clock it last week because there's so many trees along that stretch of the road," he said. "I notice there's now white cowboy boots on it. I think it's brilliant. The story I was told was that somebody, for some reason, threw a pair of boots from their van and they wrapped themselves round the tree.
"Apparently, there were some visitors over from Germany who saw it and they told someone that it was a custom in some parts of the world to throw boots around the tree for good luck.
"I think word of mouth has spread and people have been throwing shoes at it ever since. It's become a tourist attraction already and drivers have been stopping to take photos. I've got some old pairs of shoes that I only wear for gardening, so I'll probably throw a pair around it soon."
Susan Wales, 58, a West Lothian Council legal assistant who commutes to work along the A70 from her Colinton home, said she couldn't believe her eyes when she first spotted shoes on the tree four weeks ago.
"It started off with just a couple of pairs of walking boots and more and more have been added," she said. "I put an appeal on a noticeboard at work but nobody knew anything about them. I was beginning to think I was imagining it at first. It is quite bizarre.
"It is not a small tree, but not massive either so it's certainly possible for people to put them up. Whether they would use a ladder or whether it's possible to climb up I don't know."
Balerno councillor Allan Laing wondered whether the shoes were the work of disgruntled constituents unhappy with the condition of the road.
He asked: "Is this a silent protest about the poor state of this very busy road or, indeed, about the fact that children living at the Balerno end of this road cannot walk safely to school because there is no pavement?
"Both of these points have been raised by me with city development on a number of occasions."
The tree is on the north side of the A70, around 300 yards east of the B7031 junction.
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=256302006
Last updated: 18-Feb-06 14:16 BST