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Plate VIB. Part of a pinnacle found in association with grave
in the north aisle of the nave. It may have come from a tomb originally
covering the grave and bears remains of red paint and gilding.
APPENDIX II
MEDIEVAL FLOOR-TILES (Figs. 5 and 6)
MARK HORTON, BA.
Only in four areas of the excavation was tile flooring found in situ. Six
tiles of design 1 figured here were found across the entrance to the apse
of the south transept, arranged diagonally and partly covered by a
blocking wall of uncertain date. Plain tiles of group VIII were found in
situ on the threshold of the doorway between the cloister and the
church in the central bay of the south aisle. Others were similarly
situated at the entrance of the narrow apartment immediately south of the
chapter house. Tile mosaic, of group VII, was found in isolated areas in
front of the step into the apsidal chapel. It also occurred, not in
situ, in a position and at a depth indicating that it covered the
floor of the presbytery before the late-medieval rebuilding. All the
remaining tiles were found in destruction levels.
On the basis of fabric, technique of manufacture and
design, the tiles can be divided into eight groups:
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Group I.
1-7. Fragments of decorated tiles, 5 in. square and 1 in. to 1.2 in.
thick, of orange-red fabric with gritty temper and occasional gravel
inclusions. Each has slightly bevelled sides with no keying, and they have
been shaped by cutting. White slip decoration, 1/16
in. thick, has been applied over impression,2 and has been
incompletely wiped off, the design being much smudged. They have a pale
greenish glaze, and have been badly fired with many cracks. The core and
upper surface is grey. No. 6 has evidence of kiln-stacking, the tile having
been laid flat and face down in the kiln. No. 4 has been scored before
firing and broken diagonally after.
There are no good parallels for this group; local manufacture
seems likely, of possibly late-thirteenth-century date.
Group II.
8 and 9. Two fragments of tiles with streaks of yellow in the fabric and a
fine grit temper; steeply bevelled sides with no keying; shaped by
2 P.J. Drury and G. D. Pratt, ‘A
late thirteenth and early fourteenth Century Tile Factory at Danbury, Essex’,
Med. Arch., xix (1975), 92—165
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