A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



is probable that Hitchin was another centre of 

 the manufacture at this time, as the 15th-century 

 house known as the Coopers' Arms Inn was 

 formerly the haU of the Tilers' Gild,^^ and the 

 survival of the name Tilehouse Street ^ suggests 

 that the gild were concerned not only with the 

 affixing but also with the making of tiles, 

 ' tilehouse ' being the common name for a 

 tilery. At Napsbury, shortly before the Dissolu- 

 tion, the last Abbot of St. Albans when making 

 a lease of the manor reserved the Tylehouse 

 and the land where clay was dug for making 

 tiles and bricks.^ Somewhat earher, in 1508, 

 the Prioress of SopweU leased the manor of 

 Corsers in Ridge to Agnes Brook at a rent 

 of ^4 loj. and a yearly render of 4,000 tiles 

 and 2 quarters of stone Ume, and in 1532 the 

 reversion of the manor was granted to the Duke 

 of Norfolk on the same terms.^ In the lease 

 to the duke was included a tile kiln, which passed 

 to St. Albans Abbey and was afterwards 

 annexed to Tyttenhanger. The kUn was said 

 to be in decay when it was granted to Sir 

 Thomas Pope after the Dissolution, but was 

 leased by Sir Thomas Pope Blount to Harry 

 Brocke in 1594 and still belonged to Sir Thomas 

 at his death in 1639.^' 



From the 15 th century onward bricks occupy 

 a position of increasing importance, either in 

 conjunction with tiles or by themselves. They 

 were made as early as 1425 at Rickmansworth, 

 2,000 ' breks ' being bought from John Flete 

 of that place for chimneys at King's Langley at 

 6s. Sd. the thousand.2* Another 500 bricks 

 were bought at the same time in St. Albans. 

 The bricks used at Hatfield both for the bishop's 

 palace in the 15 th century and for the house 

 erected by the Earl of Salisbury early in the 



17th century were probably of local manufac- 

 ture, as were those used for Tyttenhanger 

 House.^' Littie of interest can be said about 

 this industry, important though it undoubtedly 

 was and is as a source of employment. A 

 brickfield is mentioned at Shenley in 1614,'' and 

 there are occasional references to brickmakers, 

 as, for instance, Edward Marshall of Kempton 

 in 1668,*' Ohver Maine and Thomas Deely of 

 Winslow*" in 1708, Joseph Sanders of Hemel 

 Hempstead and John Hays and William 

 Hutchins of Rickmansworth in 1714** and 

 George Humberstone of Graveley in 1746.'* 

 During the i8th century Harpenden was one of 

 the chief centres; in 1728 and again in 1742 

 several persons were presented for digging chalk 

 and clay to make bricks on Harpenden Common 

 and Nomansland, and in 1759 there were brick 

 kilns on the common.^ G. A. Cooke,** writing 

 in the first quarter of the last century, describes 

 an elaborate railway drawn by a horse for the 

 conveyance of bricks from Cheshunt Park to 

 the Lea. Originally large quantities of furze 

 were burnt in the kilns, and these were con- 

 structed so that the flame came into direct 

 contact with the bricks. The bricks themselves 

 were packed in such a way that the ' heads ' or 

 ends were exposed, and owing to this system of 

 firing a slight amount of true homogeneous glaze, 

 together with a darkening of the surface, was pro- 

 duced.*' At the present time the chief centres 

 of brick and tile-making are Hemel Hempstead 

 and Hitchin, but the industry is widely dis- 

 tributed over the whole county, with fields at 

 Watford, Elstree and Barnet in the south, Tring 

 and Berkhampstead in the west, St. Albans. 

 Welwyn and Stevenage in the centre, and 

 Buntingford and Bishop's Stortford in the east. 



PLASTER WORK 



Examples of ornamental plaster work, or 

 pargeting, are more commonly met with in the 

 eastern half of the county and are really allied 

 to what may be called the Essex plaster crafts. 

 The most usual form, often called ' combed 

 work,' was produced by the use of an instrument 

 resembling a comb with short teeth, by means 

 of which the surface of the wet plaster was 

 scored with a variety of simple patterns 

 resembhng basket-work, scales, &c. TTiis form 

 of ornament may have had an early origin, and 

 many examples occur on houses of late 16th- 

 century date, but it is often impossible to be 



certain that the plaster is original. Moreover, 

 the method continued in use down to the middle 

 of the 19th century and has recently been 

 revived. The earHest form would appear to be 

 that in which the whole surface of the external 

 plaster was covered with one pattern, only 

 interrupted by the openings made for doorways 



31 F.C.H. Herts, iii, 5. 



M Ibid. 3. 



23 Ibid, ii, 416. 



"* Ibid. 390. 



!5 Ibid. 



se Exch. K.R. AccU. bdle. 466, no. 11. 



'^ A quantity of what seemed to be refuse from 

 brick kilns was found in the grounds of Tyttenhanger. 

 (Inform, from the Editor V.C.H.) 



28 V.C.H. Herts, ii, 265. 



'5 Herts. Gen. and Antiq. ii, 1668. 



90 Ibid, iii, 311. 



" Ibid. 375, 377- 



32 Ibid, ii, 142. 



w V.C.H. Herts, ii, 295. 



** J Topog. and Statistical Deser. of the Counlj ef 

 Hertford (i&zs), 62. . ^ . , ^ , 



^ From local information obuined at K-eniworUi 

 by Mr. G. E. Bullen. 



266 



