490 ON THE PRICE OF BUILDING MATERIALS. 



derived from very distant localities, that the average given 

 for the eighty years 1371-1350 denotes with still greater 

 certainty the rate at which a thousand tiles could be procured 

 generally through the country. This is, as the reader will 

 observe, is. ^\d. Nor should we hesitate to accept the average 

 for the last fifty years as at 4$-. 7!^., that is, the article rose 

 on the whole about sixty-seven per cent, over the prices which 

 prevailed before the Plague. The increase during the twenty 

 years which followed immediately on the Plague was greater, 

 being about one hundred per cent. 



Some of these tiles are manufactured for sale. Thus Battle 

 Abbey made tiles at Wye, sales for this place being given 

 under the years 1318, 1369, 1370, 1372, 1373, 1394? the amount 

 sold being very considerable, and the price relatively to other 

 localities being low, though not lower than the rate at which 

 a very large purchase is made at Southampton in the year 1382. 

 Though these large sales at low prices tend to depress the 

 decennial averages of the last thirty years below the fact, yet it 

 will be clear, from examining the evidence, that a considerable 

 fall took place universally in the last part of the period a . 



Tiles were fastened, as now, by pins. These are bought 

 in early times by the thousand, and up to the date in which 

 the great changes took place in the value of labour were sold 

 at \d. to \\d. After this time the price rises on the 



a By an act of 17 Edw. IV, (1477), it was provided, that in order to secure the supply of 

 good tiles for the future, the clay should be digged or cast on or before Nov. i, that it 

 should be stirred and turned before Feb. I, and should not be made into tiles before 

 March I ; that in case malm, marl, or chalk be found near the clay, such substances 

 should be fenced off; that the clay should be carefully tried, in order that no stones be 

 contained in it; that the standard measure for plain tiles should be io| in. by 6}, and the 

 thickness not less than five-eighths of an inch ; that roof tiles or crests should be of the 

 same thickness, be 13^ in. long, and 6| broad; that gutter tiles should be lo| in. long, 

 and of sufficient thickness and depth ; that to secure uniformity, searchers should be 

 appointed, empowered to demand a penny for every thousand plain tiles, a halfpenny for 

 every hundred crests and roof tiles, a farthing for every hundred corner and gutter tiles 

 certified ; and lastly, a fine of 55. a thousand for plain tiles, 6s. 8d. a hundred fur cres>t and 

 roof tiles, 2s. a hundred for corner or gutter tiles sold but not made in accordance with this 

 act, should be levied. 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. 



