Marty Pickands wrote:

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Perhaps the small size was intended to indicate that they were for the
Little
People, therefore a charm to keep the fairies away? Or perhaps it's just
that children's shoes, quickly outgrown, are more expendable.
............
The other probably significant feature of this practice to me is that it's
usually
just one shoe. Again, is there a symbolic reason for this, or just that
we have the surviving member of a pair of worn out shoes?
............
I'm still curious about the prevalence of childrens' shoes. The few shoe
caches I have seen or heard of from the Hudson Valley have been adult......
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The lack of contemporary documentation about this practice leaves the
reason for it wide open to speculation.
The childrens¹ shoes I¹ve seen here (and there are quite a lot) are often
quite 
small (eg for a three-year-old) but also extremely worn. They appear to have
been
worn by several children and passed on down the line until beyond all
further use.
The number of childrens¹ shoes found is well above what I would expect to
see 
if selection was random. The conclusion is that the shoes of children were
preferred 
for this purpose. 
Equally open to speculation is the fact that the great majority of finds
consist of 
single shoes or perhaps a number of single shoes.
There are a number of mysteries associated with this practice and we are a
long way 
from definitive answers.

Ian Evans
Byron Bay, NSW
Www.oldhouses.com.au