Lossenham Project Blog

With just under three weeks of excavation on Lossenham Friary under our belts, we have already amassed a sizeable assemblage of finds. Many of these are still to be washed, and all need to be categorised, sorted, packaged, recorded and then seen by relevant specialists. There is thus lots of work ahead to be done on the finds, a task that will only grow as we excavate more of the site. But this doesn’t stop us taking an informal look at some of the finds, to see what they can tell us about England’s most recently discovered monastic site. I thought we’d start with some of the most evocative finds made so far, the glazed floor tiles.

A diverse range of decorated glazed floor tiles are known from Aylesford friary, founded by the Carmelites in 1242, less than five years before Lossenham. It is believed that most of the tiles at Aylesford came from tile kilns along the Thames. So far, no decorated glazed tiles have been found at Lossenham; all those seen to-date are plain, and none have been found in situ. These might prove to be from kilns nearer to Lossenham, perhaps at Rye, but determining that will be the job of a specialist in medieval ceramic building material (CBM). What we can say is that we now have several complete, and many fragments of, medieval glazed tiles at Lossenham, recovered from all four trenches. The tiles are of several sizes. Most are just over an inch thick (25-30mm). The most common type seems to be tiles with a yellow (or very light brown) glaze, measuring just over 5 inches (127-133mm) square. This type has been recovered from trenches 2 and 4. From trench 4 a very similar, but slightly smaller (4.5 inches, 116-118mm) tile has been recovered, whilst trench 2 produced part of a larger version, measuring just under 6 inches (150mm) square. Multiple fragments of inch thick, yellow-glazed, tiles from all four trenches indicate that these types are found across the site.

A smaller number of tiles have a dark green glaze, which can appear almost black when worn. An example from trench 2 measures 5 inches square, and thus may have been laid in combination with similarly sized yellow tiles to form a chequerboard pattern. A ditch in trench 3, however, produced part of a much larger, green-glazed tile, this measuring at least 8.5 inches by 6.5 inches (minimum 218x166mm), though still being only a little over an inch thick. Fragments of tiles with similar dark green glaze were also found in trench 2, as well as being recovered as general surface finds.

Finally, in trench 1, which has exposed the corner of a large masonry building that may be the refectory, in addition to multiple fragments of yellow-glazed tiles, two fragments of a much thinner tile, just over half an inch thick (15mm) were found. These have a light green glaze and do not appear to have been found anywhere else on the site so far. However, these thinner tiles might be easily mistaken for peg tiles (roof tiles), and more may yet emerge from amongst the finds that are still to be washed. In any case, we can expect more medieval floor tiles to be found as the excavation progresses. If we are lucky some will be found in situ, and some decorated examples may yet turn up. Ultimately, they will have a lot to tell us when reported on by a specialist. For now, it is fascinating to handle them and imagine those who walked across them when they formed the floors of the friary.