INDUSTRIES 



deed of 1465,* and Potterswick in Sandridge." 

 The first documentary reference appears on the 

 Pipe Rolls of Henry II,s where from 1158 to 

 1 1 67 the Sheriff of Hertfordshire accounts for 

 a yearly payment to WilUam ' Pottarius ' of 

 30J. $d. This, it may be pointed out, is equiva- 

 lent to a penny a day, and it is tempting to 

 infer that Wilham was employed at that rate 

 of wages to supply the royal household with 

 earthenware. No hint is given of the where- 

 abouts of his kilns, and the earliest mediaeval 

 pottery kilns of which we know anything in 

 Hertfordshire appear to be those of which 

 traces were found in 1892 at Gustard Wood 

 Common, near Wheathampstead.* The earthen 

 vessels and potsherds found, some of which are 

 now in the County Museum at St. Albans, show 

 the thumb-pressed base and other characteris- 

 tics of 14th-century pottery. The manufacture 

 of earthenware continued in this neighbourhood 

 for several centuries, a potter being presented 

 for taking clay on Harpenden Common to make 

 pots in 1573,® and one Torpen, a potter, being 

 in the same way presented as late as 1733 for 

 taking clay from Balmwell Wood in Harpenden.* 

 At the end of the 14th century, in 1397, we find 

 John Potter amerced for digging in the lord's 

 warren at Great Munden,' and next year the 

 same man was attached for debt by the seizure 

 of divers earthen pots.* 



The commonest type of domestic earthenware 

 of the 17th to early 18th century, numerous 

 fragments of which are found in many parts of 

 the county, is that having a red earthenware 

 body covered with a thick lead glaze, coloured 

 dark brown or almost black by the addition of 

 manganese or iron. Although Staffordshire was 

 the chief seat of its manufacture, it is possible, 

 as Professor Church ' points out, that much of it 

 was produced wherever a small potter's kiln 

 existed. At a disused brickfield near Kens- 

 worth numerous fragments and a few perfect 

 examples of this ware have from time to time 

 been found, the colour and nature of the clay 

 approximating in character very closely to that 

 of the soil.^" In the County Museum, St. Albans, 

 are to be seen certain examples of mediaeval 

 and later pottery found in the county which 

 have been moulded by hand (not turned on the 

 wheel), and in these there is noticeable the same 

 fine red clay body as employed in the local 

 manufacture of tiles." One is almost tempted 



1 Anct. D. (P.R.O.), C 754. 



^ Occurs 1585 {Herts. Gen. and Antlq.), ii, 58. 



' Pipe R. Hen. II (Pipe R. Soc), passim. 



* Proc. St. Albans Arch. Assoc. 1892, p. 7. 



* r.C.H. Herts, ii, 295. « Ibid. 

 '' Ct. R. (Gen. Ser.), portf. 175, no. 11. 



8 Ibid. 



' ' English Earthenware,' S. K. Handbook, 20. 



1° Inform, from Mr. G. E. Bullen. 



" Ibid. 



to assign such occasional and crudely 'fashioned 

 specimens to local origin. 



Possessing abundant supphes of brick earth, 

 and having always before them the object 

 lesson of the great abbey church of St. Albans, 

 built largely of Roman tiles, or bricks, from the 

 ruins of Verulamium, it was only natural that 

 the men of Hertfordshire should practise tile- 

 making from an early period. There is evidence 

 that roof tiles were made at Berkhampstead in 

 the early part of the 13th century ,1^ and it is 

 probable that most of the elaborate decorated, 

 so-called encaustic, paving tiles used in St. 

 Albans Abbey Church were made locally. No 

 place of origin is assigned for the tiles bought 

 in 1282 and 1286 at ^d. the hundred for repairs 

 at Shenley,^* but they were probably made 

 locally, as there was a ' tylhouse ' here in 1386.^* 

 For building operations at King's Langley the 

 chief source of the tiles was ' Botelee.'"^^ In 

 1362 as many as 123,500 tiles were bought from 

 Roger ' Tiller ' and his partners, with which to 

 roof the buildings injured by the great storm,'^* 

 and also a new mill and barn. The price of 

 these tiles was ^s. 6d. the thousand, while 1,150 

 * riggetill and hepetill ' (i.e., ridge and hip tiles) 

 bought at the same time cost 5^. the hundred.^' 

 Four years later 3,000 flat tiles were bought of 

 Richard Tielere, of ' Botelee,' at 4^. 6d. the 

 thousand and 200 hollow tiles at 4J'. 6d. the 

 hundred, but at the same time 3,000 flat tiles 

 were bought from Simon Molder, of Ruislip (co. 

 Middlesex), at only ■^s. the thousand.^* In 1369 

 more tiles were bought of John Rod, Richard 

 Tyler and Walter Ordwy, of ' Botelee,' and 500 

 Flemish tiles were bought in London for 3^-., a 

 price which suggests that they were bricks, for 

 which Flemish tiles was the common term, 

 rather than ornamental paving tiles, which are 

 sometimes so called. Tiles were also bought at 

 this time from John Rede of le Leyhull at 45-. 

 the thousand, and 5,000 tiles, as well as a large 

 quantity of broken tile for making a road, were 

 obtained from Rickmansworth. 



At Sacombe, in Broadwater Hundred, there 

 was attached to the manor-house in 1420 ' a 

 building for the making of tiles, '^' and in 1475 

 Sir John Say had a kiln at Bedwell, 500 ' tiles 

 called Breks ' being sold that year for 3.f.^'' It 



^ V.C.H. Herts, ii, 1 62, quoting Close Roll of 1 224. 



" Mins. Accts. bdle. 868, no. 13, 15. 



" Rentals and Surv. (Gen. Ser.), R 297. 



1' The identity of this place is uncertain, and it is 

 possible that it was outside the county. 



1^ This was the storm of 8 January 1362, which 

 caused such a demand for tiles that a special order was 

 given against tilers charging extra for their tiles or 

 labour (Riley, Mem. ofLond. 308). 



i? Exch. K.R. Accts. bdle. 466, no. 2. 



1* Ibid. no. 3. 



1' Chan. Inq. p.m. 15 Hen. VI, no. 2. 



i*" E. Herts. Arch. Sec. iv (2), 193. 



265" 



34 



