English Tilers

by Elizabeth Eames

Brightly coloured tiles, often decorated with enchanting scenes or designs, are among the most common and fascinating survivals from the medieval period. When decorated floor tiles were first introduced, tilers were specially commissioned to create elaborate pavements for wealthy, royal, and ecclesiastical patrons.

Before long, individual tilers branched out to manufacture decorated tiles and market them commercially. Soon, manor houses, merchant's houses, and parish churches were enlivened with thses colourful decorated floors.

Drawing partly on the material from her previous book, English Medieval Tiles (now out of print) and partly on new research, the author explainss how the tiles were made and decorated, how the tilers combined the production of elaborate floor tiles with plainer, more funcitonal roof tiles, and how they earned their living.

Genres: History

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first tilers to work in Britain were Roman military craftsmen who came over with Claudius' army in AD43.

Head to toe glossy pictures of tiles, maps, tiles, elevations, tiles and tools. My favourite is the gardening rotund but the knights on horses were also pretty groovy.