Archaeologia Cantiana Vol. 88 1973 page 144

   2. Chalk voussoir of vaulting rib found with several other identical pieces in rubble inside the west end of the chapter house. Remains of a thick coating of lime-wash cover parts of the surface. Twelfth century.
   3. Purbeck marble base, from scatter of debris overlying floor of warming house. It may have been the base of one of a pair of shafts supporting the fireplace hood. The moulding is matched by late-twelfth-century bases in Chichester Cathedral.
   4. Fragment of moulding composed of chamfer with roll and frontal fillet. Found in north transept. Remains of lime-wash on surface. Fine-grained freestone-probably Greensand. Most likely thirteenth century.
   5. Section of chalk moulding with broad fillet. West end of chapter house. Thirteenth century or later.
   6. Fragment of keeled roll from north transept. Material similar to no. 4. Probably thirteenth century.
   7. Fragment of moulding from north alley of cloister. Fine-grained freestone. Late-medieval Perpendicular.
   8. Large section of ragstone moulding with glazing groove indicating that it formed one side of a window. Lying on ground surface outside west end of nave. It has the wide hollow or 'great casement' characteristic of the late-medieval Perpendicular style and may have come from the west tower or porch.

FLOOR-TILES

Tile Mosaic (Fig. 5)
   As previously mentioned, numerous scattered small glazed titles were found, particularly in the areas of both transepts, and sporadically in other parts of the abbey. They constitute clear evidence that floors of plain, two-colour tile mosaic formerly existed at Boxley, very similar to those at other Cistercian houses such as Byland, Fountains, Meaux, Melrose, Newbattle, Newminster, Rievaulx and Sawley. In fact, this was a distinctive Cistercian feature, and it is considered that the tiles were in all cases almost certainly made close to where they were used.²⁰ Boxley is known to have been a centre of tile-making in the Middle Ages,²¹ and there can be little doubt that the tile mosaic as well as some other types of decorated floor-tiles described below were local products.
Tile mosaic occurs also in Continental Cistercian houses and the technique may have come to Britain through the medium of the Order. It was derived from Italian cosmati work done in coloured
   ²⁰ E. S. Eames, Medieval Tiles, London, 1968. 5. The only example of a kiln at present known to have produced tile mosaic was at Meaux, near Beverley. Med. Arch., v (1961).
   ²¹ L. R. A. Grove, Arch. Cant., lxxii (1958), 216-8.

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