MEDIAEVAL FLOOR TILES. 1 37 



In the illustrations which I have placed in your hands I have 

 marked three distinct periods in our Fordington tiles.* 



I. Norman or Normandy tiles. 

 II. Early English made tiles. 

 III. Fourteenth Century tiles. 



I. Of the first period we have discovered only two 

 unobliterated examples the Catherine wheel and the quatrefoil 

 crossflory. These are both ot the same size, six inches square, 

 primitive in workmanship, of remarkable thinness compared 

 with the others, f inch thick, added to which the clay used in the 

 inlay design is as soft and friable as chalk or pipeclay and the 

 glaze is very thin. Altogether the chances of their being 

 durable for any length of time must have from the first been 

 most limited. Of this same period we discovered several larger 

 tiles y inches square, but not a vestige of any pattern remains 

 on them. One point in which these differ from later examples 

 is that the reverse of each tile has five rudely scooped finger 

 grips, which doubtless during their manufacture served to protect 

 the hands of the maker from the poisonous action of the lead 

 used in the glaze. These cavities not only lightened them for 

 transport purposes, but also gave them a firmer grip of the 

 mortar when they were eventually imbedded in floor position. 

 I feel sure they are of foreign manufacture, if not the work of 

 continental craftsmen resident in England. The pattern on one 

 of them is the wheel of St. Katherine, a very favourite subject 

 in foreign ecclesiastical art. On one of our bells at St. George's 

 we have the inscription " SANCTA KATERINA ORA PRO 

 NOBIS," and it is probable that the piscina and credence or 



* Parker in his Glossary says: "They are sometimes called Norman tiles, 

 possibly from the supposition that they were originally made in Normandy, and 

 considering the age and variety of specimens that exist in Northern France, this 

 idea may not be wholly erroneous." 



