442 ON THE PRICE OF BUILDING MATERIALS, ETC. 



the Moor, ordinary bricks being at these two places 43-. and 

 4s. 6d. the thousand. In 1542 and 1545 Magdalen College, 

 Oxford, buys paving bricks at 6d. and $d. the dozen. In 1544 

 a few are again purchased at 6d. the dozen. In 1568 the same 

 College buys hearth bricks at 6\d. the dozen, and in 1569 

 paving bricks costs 8d. the dozen. Those of 1574 have been 

 already commented on. 



Slates are of very various sizes and qualities. The use of 

 this material for roofing was general in localities where -fissile 

 oolite was easily procured, as in Oxfordshire and other midland 

 counties. (See Vol. I, p. 493.) It is true that in the town of 

 Oxford tiles were used indifferently with slates, though not so 

 frequently, but in other places slates are the only material for 

 roofing important buildings. The cost of carriage is a very 

 important factor in the price of slates, even in places where 

 they are generally used, and makes the interpretation of values 

 very obscure and difficult. 



Sometimes again the slates were bought after they had been 

 shaped and holed, called bateratio ; sometimes in the raw state 

 (e.g. Vol. Ill, p. 430, iv). The size again varies, the distinction 

 between the three kinds generally discovered in the Oxford 

 accounts being that of 'common large,' middling, and small. 

 The Magdalen College account informs us that 200 common 

 large slates constituted a load. Slates are employed for roofing 

 at Radcliffe, Heyford, Kington, Weedon, Stert, Lullington, 

 Cambridge, Yeovil, Northleigh, Otterton, Roydon, Apuldrum, 

 Loders, Coleshull, Woodstock, Kibworth, Hawkesbury, Banwell 

 (near Bladon), Wolford, S. Dennis (Southampton), Stamford, 

 Sion, and Bradstone. Most of these localities are in the 

 midland counties, but some are in the east and south. It is 

 possible that those procured at Southampton, the Devon villages, 

 and the Sussex manors of Battle may have been foreign slates 

 from Angers. In 1569 Flemish slates are bought in London at 

 15$. the thousand, and ' Fensher ' slates at los. In 1578 five 

 hundred ' blue slates ' are purchased at Portsmouth at the rate of 

 6s. 8d. t a much lower price than that at which the produce of 



