Hundreds of leather shoes were found washed up on a beach in Wales. Beach Academy is a volunteer based company that focuses on removing marine litter and reviving natural rockpool environments.

The team were clearing debris from the shore on December 18 when they found nearly 300 items, and since then, more have been found. Over 400 black leather shoes, which is believed to date from the Victorian Era, have been uncovered by the team, with there already being a theory as to where they may have come from.

Emma Lamport, Beach Academy founder, said: "The strongest theory is that the shoes come from a shipwreck called the Frolic, that hit Tusker Rocker about 150 years ago. It was carrying shoes and cargo from Italy.

"They were washed up the Ogmore River and every now and then they appear, especially when there has been erosion of the riverbank."

The Tusker Rock, which is located around two miles south-east of Ogmore in the Bristol Channel, is known as a "ship graveyard", and it is believed that the rock takes its name from the Tuska the Viking, who colonised the Vale of Glamorgan.

According to historic records, around 80 people were lost when the Froclic steam packet was wrecked on the rock on its way from Haverfordwest, Wales, to Bristol. There were no survivors.

It is said that bodies were washed ashore for months after the wreckage.

Beach Academy have removed more than 12,000 items of litter from beaches, but despite all the work, Ms Lamport says that the team haven't "even started to scratch the surface" of the cleanup task.

She added: "We wish to restore rockpool habitats back to their original natural state by removing marine litter that has been there for some time, either embedded in sediment or trapped in the rocks."