Tiles through time

Today we will be looking at medieval tiles, how different types of tiles were manufactured, materials used and some examples you can see in our churches. If you were lucky enough to snap up a copy of Hans Van Lemmen’s ‘Medieval Tiles’ in our recent book sale, you might have already read about this topic in more depth. If not, this blog will hopefully provide a concise overview based on Van Lemmen’s research.

A short history of (medieval) tiles in Britain

The history of a larger tile industry in Britain begins in the thirteenth century according to Van Lemmen. Tiles were favoured over packed earth floors at the time, because they were more durable, increased hygiene and added a decorative element, particularly to Gothic churches and monasteries. However, they were also expensive. 

The practice of creating tiled floors, may have been brought to Britain by craftspeople from France, where this custom originated. It might be that French tilemakers originally travelled from building site to building site, for example from one monastery to the next, built kilns there and produced the tiles on site. Kilns could afterwards be used to fire roof tiles as well. When it comes to large scale projects such as Fountains Abbey, where 2700 square metres of mosaic floors were tiled in the thirteenth century, it is likely that lay brothers assisted the craftspeople with free labour. These devout people would have laboured for the glory of God alone. 

Factors that led to the decline of the tile industry in Britain in the sixteenth century were the Dissolution of the Monasteries and an influx of tiles from Italy. 

Much later, as interest in Gothic buildings soared in the nineteenth century, many medieval tiled floors were excavated and rediscovered. With the Gothic revival came a revival of ‘medieval’ tile production in Britain, with manufacturers creating either faithful replicas of medieval tiles or ‘pseudo-medieval’ designs. This type of ‘medieval’ tile became known as ‘encaustic’ tile, which is derived from the Greek word for ‘burnt’ and based on a Victorian misunderstanding of medieval tilemaking techniques. Victorians assumed that two-coloured tiles had been manufactured through a process similar to enamelling in which colour would have had to be ‘burnt’ into the tile. The term ‘Inlaid tiles’ describes the technique more accurately, as you will see below. 

Medieval tools and Equipment

Equipment at the time was simple and the success of tile production relied primarily on the skill and experience of the craftsperson. Without modern day equipment used to measure temperature, it was impossible to gauge the exact temperature of the kiln, but tilers needed to get the kiln up to around 1000°C. So how did they do this? Medieval kilns (and you might still see similar examples used in experimental archaeology today) consisted of two or more rectangular furnace chambers, which had to be dug into the ground. Stoke-holes at the entrance of the furnace chambers allowed for the fire to be stoked. A rectangular chamber was then built on top of the furnace chambers, often from waste tiles, and would be separated from the furnace chambers by a floor of brick arches with gaps in between to let the heat from the fire pass through.

The tiles would be stacked inside the upper chamber to be fired, and the upper chamber would be temporarily covered with a roof of waste tiles to keep the heat contained.

Given the unpredictability of conditions and inability to measure temperature exactly results varied greatly from batch to batch.

Tilemaking was also a seasonal business, according to Van Lemmen. Clay was usually dug locally, left to ‘weather’ during the winter and then tiles would be fired during spring and summer. Metal or wooden shapes, moulds and stamps would be used to shape and decorate the tiles, after which they would be covered with a lead glaze before firing.

Types of tiles and how to tell them apart

Relief and line-impressed tiles date back to Anglo-Saxon times, but they weren’t widely used in ecclesiastical architecture until the late twelfth and early thirteenth century. Relief and line-impressed tiles are produced by stamping patterns into the clay. While relief tiles usually have wider lines and can be true reliefs (pattern is raised, background is sunk) or counter reliefs (pattern is sunk), line-impressed tiles feature motifs with thin lines akin to drawings.

Mosaic tiles were made by cutting different shapes out of clay with metal templates. These tiles were dyed different colours and laid in patterns. The different colours could be achieved by coating tiles in white slip (clay that has been diluted into a liquid) before applying the lead glaze to create lighter colours or applying the lead glaze directly to the red clay to create darker colours. Yellow was produced by coating the tile with white slip first and applying clear lead glaze and green by adding copper to the lead glaze. The simplest form of medieval tile mosaic was called ‘square-tile’, where square light and dark tiles were laid in checkered patterns. Some of the most complex patterns were circular pavements, which quickly fell out of fashion, probably due to their complexity. An even more rare and complex form of mosaic is the ‘opus sectile’: tiles were cut into human and animal forms, made to look yellow and set against a background of darker tiles. Oftentimes, an ‘opus sectile’ mosaic would portray biblical scenes. Tiles were sometimes scored to create ‘pseudo-mosaics’.

The term ‘two-colour tiles’ usually refers to tiles that have a yellow design set against a red or brown backgrounds. These tiles are produced as ‘inlaid tiles’ by stamping a deep impression into the clay and letting it dry – a wooden mould was used to make sure the tile held its shape during this process and a hammer was used to ensure sufficient depth of the impression – the indentation was then filled with a paste or liquid slip of white clay and excess white clay was scraped away. There were, however, a few different ways to ensure a two-tone effect. One of the most complicated methods is called ‘sgraffito’. This method involved covering the entire tile in white slip and cutting the motif into it, so that the motif was visible as darker lines, like a drawing. Excess slip was then cut away around the edges of the figures or patterns to reveal (after firing), yellow figures and shapes with dark red/brown details against a dark red/brown background. 

Source: Van Lemmen, H. (2000). Medieval Tiles. Place of publication: Shire Publications.