POTTERY—TILES, BRICKS
The manufacture of earthen vessels was one of the earliest, as it
was one of the most widespread industries. From the end of the Stone
Age onwards wherever suitable clay was to be found, the potter plied
his trade. The Romans, who had brought the art of potting to a high
pitch of excellence, introduced improved methods into Britain, where
numerous remains of kilns and innumerable fragments of pottery testify
to the industry and the individuality of the Romano-British potters.
Several quite distinct types of pottery have been identified and are
assignable to definite localities. Great quantities of black and grey
wares, consisting of articles of common domestic use, ornamented for
the most part only with broad bands of darker or lighter shading, were
made in Kent near the Medway, the finer specimens being associated
with Upchurch. From the potteries in the New Forest[377] came vases of
greater ornamental and artistic execution, but it was the neighbourhood
of Castor in Northamptonshire that occupied in Roman times the place
held in recent times by Staffordshire. Round Castor numbers of
kilns have been found,[378] and the peculiar dark ware, with its
self-coloured slip decoration, occurs all over England, and also on the
Continent.
Romano-British kilns have been found in a great number of places,
some of the best preserved being at Castor,[379] in London,[380]
at Colchester,[381] Radlett (Herts.),[382] and Shepton Mallet
(Somerset).[383] Speaking generally they consisted of a circular pit,
about 4 to 6 feet in diameter, dug out to a depth of about 4 feet:
in this was a flat clay floor raised some 2 feet from the bottom of
the pit by a central pedestal. Into the space between this floor, or
table, and the bottom of the pit came the hot air and smoke from a
small furnace built at one side of the pit, or kiln proper. On the clay
table, which was pierced with holes for the passage of the heat and
smoke, were ranged the clay vessels to be baked, and these were built
up in layers of diminishing diameter into a domed or conical structure,
the layers being separated by grass covered with clay, the whole was
then covered in with clay, leaving only an aperture in the centre at
the top,[384] and the furnace lighted.
The early medieval kilns appear to have been very similar in
construction to those just described, or of even simpler construction.
If we may take literally the statement that a potter at Skipton paid
6s. 8d. in 1323 'for dead wood and undergrowth to burn round his
pots'[385] it would seem that here a primitive combination of furnace
and kiln in one was in use. At a later date the usual construction was
probably something similar to those found at Ringmer, in Sussex,[386]
which seem to belong to the fifteenth century. Here the kilns were
built of bricks or blocks of clay cemented by a sandy loam which
vitrified under the influence of the heat to which it was subjected.
The beds of the kilns enclosed longitudinal passages covered in with
narrow arches, the spaces between which served to transmit the hot air
to the superimposed clay vessels. The hearths were charged through
arched openings at their ends with charcoal fuel.
To render the pottery non-porous, it was necessary to glaze it,[387]
and from an early period lead has been used for this purpose. A
twelfth-century description of the process says[388] that the surface
of the vase is first to be moistened with water in which flour has been
boiled, and then powdered with lead: it is then placed inside a larger
vessel and baked at a gentle heat. This process gives a yellow glaze,
but if green is required—and green was the colour most often used in
England in the medieval period—copper or bronze was to be added to the
lead. The same authority gives a recipe for a leadless glaze: baked
potter's earth is powdered and washed and then mixed with half its
weight of unbaked earth, containing no sand; this is then worked up
with oil and painted over the surface of the vase.
Potters are mentioned at Bladon (Oxon.), Hasfield (Gloucs.), and
Westbury (Wilts.), in Domesday,[389] but apart from casual references
in place names[390] and in descriptions of individuals[391] the
documentary history of early English pottery is scanty. Kingston on
Thames may have been an early centre of the trade, as in 1260 the
bailiffs of that town were ordered to send a thousand pitchers to the
king's butler at Westminster.[392] At Graffham, in Sussex, in 1341, one
of the sources of the vicar's income was 'a composition from the men
who made clay pots, which is worth 12d.,'[393] but the most common form
of entry is a record of sums paid by potters for leave to dig clay.
Thus at Cowick in Yorkshire,[394] in 1374, as much as £4, 16s. was
'received from potters making earthen vessels, for clay and sand taken
in the moor of Cowick.' Similar entries occur here every year for about
a century, while at Ringmer, in Sussex, small dues of 9d. a head were
paid yearly by some half a dozen potters for a period of well over two
hundred years.[395] Still earlier, in 1283, a rent of 36s. 8d., called
'Potteresgavel,' was paid to the lord of the manor of Midhurst.[396]
The type of pottery produced does not seem to have varied to any great
extent in the different districts.[397] At Lincoln it seems to have
been the custom to decorate some of the vessels by means of stamps:
some of these stamps, in the form of heads, may be seen in the British
Museum. But the use of stamps for decorating pottery is found also at
Hastings. One distinctive variety of earthenware, however, arose about
the beginning of the sixteenth century: it is a thin hard pottery, dark
brown in colour, well glazed, and usually decorated with elaborate
patterns in white slip. From its being found in large quantities in the
Cistercian abbeys of Yorkshire—Kirkstall, Jervaulx, and Fountains—it
has received the name of 'Cistercian ware,' but there is at present no
direct evidence of its place of manufacture.[398]
Closely connected with pottery is the manufacture of TILES, the
material being in each case clay, and the kilns used being practically
identical. At what period the manufacture of tiles, which had ceased
with the Roman occupation, was resumed in England is not certain, but
from the beginning of the thirteenth century they play an increasing
part in the records of building operations. The frequency and
devastating effect of fires, where thatched roofs were in use, soon
led to the use of tiles for roofing purposes in towns even when the
authorities did not make their use compulsory, as was done in London
in 1212, and at a much later date, in 1509, at Norwich.[399] The
importance, for the safety of the town, of having a large supply of
tiles accessible at a low price was recognised, and in 1350, after the
Black Death had sent the prices of labour and of manufactured goods
up very high, the City Council of London fixed the maximum price of
tiles at 5s. the thousand,[400] and in 1362, when a great tempest had
unroofed numbers of houses and created a great demand for tiles, they
ordered that the price of tiles should not be raised, and that the
manufacturers should continue to make tiles as usual and expose them
for sale, not keeping them back to enhance the price.[401] It was
probably the same appreciation of the public advantage that led the
authorities at Worcester in the fifteenth century to forbid the tilers
to form any gild, or trade union, to restrain strangers from working in
the city, or to fix a rate of wages.[402]
The Worcester regulations also ordered that all tiles should be marked
with the maker's sign, so that any defects in size or quality could
be traced to the party responsible. Earlier in the same century, in
1425, there had been many complaints at Colchester of the lack of
uniformity in the size of the tiles made there,[403] and at last it
became necessary in 1477 to pass an Act of Parliament to regulate the
manufacture.[404] By this Act it was provided that the clay to be used
should be dug, or cast, by 1st November, that it should be stirred and
turned before the beginning of February, and not made into tiles before
March, so as to ensure its being properly seasoned. Care was to be
taken to avoid any admixture of chalk or marl or stones. The standard
for plain tiles should be 10½ inches by 6¼ inches with a thickness of
at least ⅝ inch; ridge tiles or crests should be 13½ inches by 6¼, and
gutter tiles 10½ inches long, and of sufficient thickness and depth.
Searchers were to be appointed and paid a penny on every thousand
plain tiles, a half-penny on every hundred crests, and a farthing
for every hundred corner and gutter tiles examined. Infringement of
the regulation entailed fines of 5s. the thousand plain, 6s. 8d. the
hundred crest, and 2s. the hundred corner or gutter tiles sold. 'The
size of the tiles is probably a declaration of the custom, the fine
is the price at which each kind was ordinarily sold in the fifteenth
century.'[405]
These regulations throw a certain amount of light upon the processes
employed in tile-making, and further details are obtainable from the
series of accounts relating to the great tileworks in the Kentish manor
of Wye,[406] extending from 1330 to 1380. In 1355 the output of ten
kilns (_furni_) was 98,500 plain, or flat, tiles, 500 'festeux'[407]
(either ridge or gutter tiles), and 1000 'corners.' The digging of the
clay and burning of the kilns was contracted for at 11s. the kiln,
a thousand faggots were bought for fuel[408] at a cost of 45s., and
another 10s. was spent on carriage of the clay and faggots. The total
expenses were therefore £8, 5s., and as plain tiles sold here for 2s.
6d. the thousand, festeux at three farthings each, and corners at 1s.
8d. the hundred, the value of the output was about £14, 15s. In 1370,
when thirteen kilns belonging to two tileries turned out 168,000 plain
tiles, 650 festeux, and 900 corners, we have a more elaborate account.
Wood was cut at the rate of 15d. for each kiln; clay for the six kilns
of one tilery was 'cast' at 14d. the kiln and 'tempered' at the rate
of 1s. 6d., but for the seven kilns of the other tilery payment was
made in grain. The clay was carried to the six kilns for 4s., and
prepared[409] for moulding into tiles for 7s.; the actual making and
burning[410] of the tiles was paid for at 14s. the kiln, and an extra
12d. were given as gratuities to the tilers. Next year the output was
considerably reduced, because in one tilery 'the upper course of the
kilns (_cursus furni_) did not bake the tiles fully, nor will it bake
them until extensive repairs are done,' and in the other tilery only
four kilns were prepared, and one of these had to be left unburnt
until the next year, owing to the lack of workmen. It was possibly for
the defective kiln just mentioned that a 'new vault' was made in 1373
at a cost of 6s. 8d.—with a further 8d. for obtaining loam (_limo_)
for the work. Two years later repairs were done to the buildings of a
tilery, which had been blown down by the wind. But the chief blow was
struck to the industry here by the increasing difficulty of obtaining
workmen. The work may have been unhealthy, for it is noteworthy that
the Ringmer potters were on more than one occasion wiped out by
pestilence:[411] the effects of the Black Death in 1350 on the Wye
tilers are not recorded, but in 1366 as a result, apparently, of the
second pestilence two small tileries, one of three roods, and the other
of 1½ acres, which had been leased for 7d. and 14d. respectively, lost
their tenants, and in 1375 mention is made of the scarcity of workmen,
'who died in the pestilence at the time of tile making.' In 1377 Peter
at Gate,[412] who for the past few years had hired a number of kilns
at 20s. a piece, only answered for four kilns 'on account of hindrance
to the workmen, who had been assigned to guard the sea coast, and on
account of the great quantity of rain in the autumn, which did not
allow him to burn more kilns.' In the same year, and also two years
later, another tilery was unworked for lack of labour.
The tileries at Wye belonged to the Abbot of Battle, and there were
tile kilns at Battle itself in the sixteenth century,[413] and probably
much earlier, as in the adjoining parish of Ashburnham in 1362,
there was a 'building called a Tylehous for baking (_siccandis_)
tiles.'[414] Just about the same time, in 1363, we find 'a piece of
land called Teghelerehelde' in Hackington,[415] close to Canterbury,
granted to Christian Belsire, in whose family it remained for over
a century, as in 1465 William Belsyre leased to John Appys and
Edmund Helere of Canterbury 'a tyleoste with a workhouse' lying
at Tylernehelde in Hackington for two years for a rent of 26s.
8d.[416] With the 'tyleoste' William Belsyre handed over 15,000 'tyle
standardes'—worth 18d. the thousand, eighty 'palette bordes and three
long bordys for the kelle walles.'[417] Various building accounts
show that there were extensive tileries at Smithfield; for Guildford
Castle the tiles came from Shalford, and for Windsor chiefly from 'la
Penne.' In the north tiles were made before the end of the thirteenth
century at Hull, amongst other places, but one of the chief centres
was Beverley. About 1385 the monks of Meaux complained that 'certain
workmen of Beverley who were called tilers, makers and burners of the
slabs (_laterum_) with which many houses in Beverley and elsewhere are
covered,' had trespassed on the abbey's lands at Waghen and Sutton,
taking away clay between the banks and the stream of the river Hull
without leave, to convert into tiles. The monks seized their tools,
their oars, and finally one of their boats, but the Provost of
Beverley, on whose fee the tileries were, supported the tilers in their
claim to dig clay in any place covered by the waters of the Hull at its
highest.[418] Some thirty years earlier, in 1359, the list of customary
town dues at Beverley included 'from every tiler's furnace fired
½d.,'[419] and in 1370 Thomas Whyt, tiler, took a lease of the tilery
of Aldebek from the town authorities for four years, at a rent of 6000
tiles.[420]
So far we have been dealing with roofing tiles, or 'thakketyles,' but
from the middle of the fourteenth century onwards with increasing
frequency, we find mention of 'waltyles' or bricks. For building
a new chamber at Ely in 1335 some 18,000 wall tiles (_tegularum
muralium_) were made at a cost of 12d. the thousand.[421] They seem
to have been introduced from Flanders, and are frequently called
'Flaundrestiell,'[422] as, for instance, in 1357, when a thousand were
bought for a fireplace at Westminster at 3s. 2d.[423] At Beverley, in
1391, three persons acquired from the gild of St. John the right to
take earth at Groval Dyke, paying yearly therefor 3000 'waltyles,'[424]
and in 1440 Robert Collard, tile-maker, took 'le Grovaldyke on the west
side of le demmyng' at a rent of 1000 'waltyl.'[425] It was probably
more particularly with regard to brick kilns than to ordinary tile
kilns that the regulations drawn up in 1461[426] ordered that, 'on
account of the stench, fouling the air and destruction of fruit trees,
no one is to make a kiln to burn tile nearer the town than the kilns
now are, under penalty of a fine of 100s.' The term 'brick' does not
seem to have come into common use much before 1450, about which time
the use of the material became general.
In addition to roof tiles and wall tiles, there were floor tiles.
References to these occur in many building accounts. At Windsor, in
1368, 'paven-tyll' cost 4s. the thousand, and a large variety 2s.
the hundred, while plain roof tiles were 2s. 6d. the thousand.[427]
These were probably plain red tiles, but at Westminster in 1278 we
have mention of the purchase of 'a quarter and a half of yellow tiles'
for 7d.[428] Tiles with a plain yellow or green glazed surface are
of common occurrence in medieval buildings, and in many churches and
monastic ruins pavements of inlaid, so-called 'encaustic,' tiles remain
more or less complete.[429] In the case of these inlaid tiles the
pattern was impressed or incised before baking, and then filled in with
white slip, the whole being usually glazed. Some of the patterns thus
produced were of great beauty and elaboration, and it would seem that
they were often designed, if not actually made, by members of monastic
houses. The finest known series are those discovered at Chertsey Abbey,
and it is possible that the remarkable examples in the chapter-house
of Westminster Abbey,[430] which date from _c._ 1255, are by the same
artist. In the case of the Abbey of Dale in Derbyshire,[431] and the
priories of Repton and Malvern,[432] the kilns used for making these
inlaid tiles have been discovered, and similar kilns, not associated,
so far as is known, with any religious establishment, have also been
found at Hastings.[433] The manufacture of these inlaid tiles in
England gradually died out towards the end of the fifteenth century,
and has only been revived in recent years.
It is curious that although there is abundant circumstantial evidence
of GLASSMAKING in England, during the medieval period, direct
records of the manufacture are extremely scarce, and practically
confined to a single district. From the early years of the thirteenth
century, Chiddingfold and the neighbouring villages on the borders
of Surrey and Sussex were turning out large quantities of glass.
Laurence 'Vitrarius' (the glassman) occurs as a landed proprietor in
Chiddingfold about 1225, and some fifty years later there is a casual
reference to 'le Ovenhusfeld,' presumably the field in which was the
oven or furnace house, of which the remains were uncovered some years
since.[434] It is possible that in the case of glassmaking, as in
the case of many other industries, improvements were introduced from
abroad, for in 1352 we find John de Alemaygne[435] of Chiddingfold
supplying large quantities of glass for St. Stephen's Chapel,
Westminster.[436] In one batch he sent up three hundred and three weys
(_pondera_) of glass, the wey being 5 lbs., and the hundred consisting
of twenty-four weys, being, that is to say, the 'long hundred' of 120
lbs. A little later he sent thirty-six weys, and soon after another
sixty weys were bought at Chiddingfold, probably from the same maker.
The price in each case was 6d. the wey, or 12s. the hundred, to which
had to be added about 1d. the wey for carriage from the Weald to
Westminster. In January 1355-6 four hundreds of glass were bought from
the same maker for the windows of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, at 13s.
4d. the hundred.[437]
Towards the end of the fourteenth century the family of Sherterre, or
Shorter, became prominent in the Chiddingfold district,[438] and on the
death of John Sherterre in 1380 his widow engaged John Glasewryth, of
Staffordshire, to work the glass-house for six years, receiving 20d.
for every sheaf (_sheu_)[439] of 'brodeglass' (_i.e._ window glass),
and 6d. for every hundred of glass vessels made. This is interesting as
showing that glass vessels were made here; the evidence of inventories,
however, seems to show that glass was as a whole very little used for
table purposes, though a few pieces of the beautiful Italian glassware
might be found in the houses of the wealthy. The family of Shorter were
succeeded by the Ropleys, and they in turn by the Peytos, who carried
on the trade during the whole of the sixteenth century, and as late as
1614, thus well overlapping the modern period of glassmaking, which
began with the coming of the _gentilshommes verriers_ from France early
in the reign of Elizabeth.[440]
Glass must have been made in many other districts where fuel and sand,
the chief requisites for the manufacture, were plentiful, but it is
difficult to identify any sites of the industry. In 1352 John Geddyng,
glazier, was sent into Kent and Essex to get glass for St. Stephen's,
Westminster,[441] but where he went and whether he was successful, is
not known. 'English glass' is found in use at Durham in 1397,[442] and
at York in 1471.[443] For York Minster sixteen sheets (_tabulae_) of
English glass were bought from Edmund Bordale of Bramley buttes for
14s. 8d. in 1478,[444] and at an earlier date, in 1418, we find three
seams, three weys of white glass bought from John Glasman of Ruglay
(Rugeley) at 20s. the seam of twenty-four weys,[445] but whether these
men were glass makers, or merely glass merchants, cannot be determined.
That the industry, so far at least as real stained glass is concerned,
was not flourishing in England in the fifteenth century is shown by the
fact that Henry VI., in 1449, brought over from Flanders John Utynam to
make glass of all colours for Eton College and the College of St. Mary
and St. Nicholas (_i.e._ King's) Cambridge. He was empowered to obtain
workmen and materials at the King's cost, and full protection was
granted to him and his family. He was also allowed to sell such glass
as he made at his own expense, and 'because the said art has never
been used in England, and the said John is to instruct divers in many
other arts never used in the realm,' the King granted him a monopoly,
no one else being allowed to use such arts for twenty years without his
licence under a penalty of £200.[446] Most glass of which we have any
account was bought through the glaziers of the larger towns; but to
what extent they made their own glass we cannot say. A certain amount,
especially of coloured glass, was imported, and the York accounts
show 'glass of various colours' bought in 1457 from Peter Faudkent,
'Dochman' (_i.e._ German), at Hull,[447] 'Rennysshe' glass bought in
1530, Burgundy glass in 1536, and Normandy glass in 1537,[448] while
in 1447 we find the executors of the Earl of Warwick stipulating
that no English glass should be used in the windows of his chapel at
Warwick.[449]
To any one who knows the beauty of English stained glass this
stipulation may seem strange, but it must be borne in mind that our
cathedral windows derive their glories not from the maker, but from the
painter, and that the glass is but the medium carrying the designs of
the artist. English glass as a rule, prior at any rate to the fifteenth
century, was white and received its decoration after it had left the
glass-house. The process may be gathered from the account of St.
Stephen's in 1352. Here we find John of Chester and five other master
glaziers employed at a shilling a day drawing designs for the windows
on 'white tables,' presumably flat wooden tablets, which were washed
with ale,[450] which served no doubt as a size or medium to prevent the
colours running. About a dozen glaziers were employed at 7d. a day to
paint the glass, and some fifteen, at 6d. a day, to cut or break the
glass and join it,[451] which they apparently did by placing it over
the painted designs, this being presumably done before it was painted.
The glass thus cut into convenient shapes was held in place over the
design by 'clozyngnailles,' and when it had been painted was joined
up with leads, lard or grease being used to fill the joints. For the
painting silver foil, gum arabick, jet (_geet_), and 'arnement' (a kind
of ink) were provided.[452] Possibly the stronger colours were supplied
by the use of pieces of stained glass, as purchases were made of ruby,
azure, and sapphire glass.