The manufacture of earthen vessels was one of the earliest, as it was one of the most widespread industries. From the end of the Stone Age onwards wherever suitable clay was to be found, the potter plied his trade. The Romans, who had brought the art of potting to a high pitch of excellence, introduced improved methods into Britain, where numerous remains of kilns and innumerable fragments of pottery testify to the industry and the individuality of the Romano-British potters. Several quite distinct types of pottery have been identified and are assignable to definite localities. Great quantities of black and grey wares, consisting of articles of common domestic use, ornamented for the most part only with broad bands of darker or lighter shading, were made in Kent near the Medway, the finer specimens being associated with Upchurch. From the potteries in the New Forest[377] came vases of greater ornamental and artistic execution, but it was the neighbourhood of Castor in Northamptonshire that occupied in Roman times the place held in recent times by Staffordshire. Round Castor numbers of kilns have been found,[378] and the peculiar dark ware, with its self-coloured slip decoration, occurs all over England, and also on the Continent.

Romano-British kilns have been found in a great number of places, some of the best preserved being at Castor,[379] in London,[380] at Colchester,[381] Radlett (Herts.),[382] and Shepton Mallet (Somerset).[383] Speaking generally they consisted of a circular pit, about 4 to 6 feet in diameter, dug out to a depth of about 4 feet: in this was a flat clay floor raised some 2 feet from the bottom of the pit by a central pedestal. Into the space between this floor, or table, and the bottom of the pit came the hot air and smoke from a small furnace built at one side of the pit, or kiln proper. On the clay table, which was pierced with holes for the passage of the heat and smoke, were ranged the clay vessels to be baked, and these were built up in layers of diminishing diameter into a domed or conical structure, the layers being separated by grass covered with clay, the whole was then covered in with clay, leaving only an aperture in the centre at the top,[384] and the furnace lighted.

The early medieval kilns appear to have been very similar in construction to those just described, or of even simpler construction. If we may take literally the statement that a potter at Skipton paid 6s. 8d. in 1323 'for dead wood and undergrowth to burn round his pots'[385] it would seem that here a primitive combination of furnace and kiln in one was in use. At a later date the usual construction was probably something similar to those found at Ringmer, in Sussex,[386] which seem to belong to the fifteenth century. Here the kilns were built of bricks or blocks of clay cemented by a sandy loam which vitrified under the influence of the heat to which it was subjected. The beds of the kilns enclosed longitudinal passages covered in with narrow arches, the spaces between which served to transmit the hot air to the superimposed clay vessels. The hearths were charged through arched openings at their ends with charcoal fuel.

To render the pottery non-porous, it was necessary to glaze it,[387] and from an early period lead has been used for this purpose. A twelfth-century description of the process says[388] that the surface of the vase is first to be moistened with water in which flour has been boiled, and then powdered with lead: it is then placed inside a larger vessel and baked at a gentle heat. This process gives a yellow glaze, but if green is required—and green was the colour most often used in England in the medieval period—copper or bronze was to be added to the lead. The same authority gives a recipe for a leadless glaze: baked potter's earth is powdered and washed and then mixed with half its weight of unbaked earth, containing no sand; this is then worked up with oil and painted over the surface of the vase.

Potters are mentioned at Bladon (Oxon.), Hasfield (Gloucs.), and Westbury (Wilts.), in Domesday,[389] but apart from casual references in place names[390] and in descriptions of individuals[391] the documentary history of early English pottery is scanty. Kingston on Thames may have been an early centre of the trade, as in 1260 the bailiffs of that town were ordered to send a thousand pitchers to the king's butler at Westminster.[392] At Graffham, in Sussex, in 1341, one of the sources of the vicar's income was 'a composition from the men who made clay pots, which is worth 12d.,'[393] but the most common form of entry is a record of sums paid by potters for leave to dig clay. Thus at Cowick in Yorkshire,[394] in 1374, as much as £4, 16s. was 'received from potters making earthen vessels, for clay and sand taken in the moor of Cowick.' Similar entries occur here every year for about a century, while at Ringmer, in Sussex, small dues of 9d. a head were paid yearly by some half a dozen potters for a period of well over two hundred years.[395] Still earlier, in 1283, a rent of 36s. 8d., called 'Potteresgavel,' was paid to the lord of the manor of Midhurst.[396]

The type of pottery produced does not seem to have varied to any great extent in the different districts.[397] At Lincoln it seems to have been the custom to decorate some of the vessels by means of stamps: some of these stamps, in the form of heads, may be seen in the British Museum. But the use of stamps for decorating pottery is found also at Hastings. One distinctive variety of earthenware, however, arose about the beginning of the sixteenth century: it is a thin hard pottery, dark brown in colour, well glazed, and usually decorated with elaborate patterns in white slip. From its being found in large quantities in the Cistercian abbeys of Yorkshire—Kirkstall, Jervaulx, and Fountains—it has received the name of 'Cistercian ware,' but there is at present no direct evidence of its place of manufacture.[398]

Closely connected with pottery is the manufacture of Tiles, the material being in each case clay, and the kilns used being practically identical. At what period the manufacture of tiles, which had ceased with the Roman occupation, was resumed in England is not certain, but from the beginning of the thirteenth century they play an increasing part in the records of building operations. The frequency and devastating effect of fires, where thatched roofs were in use, soon led to the use of tiles for roofing purposes in towns even when the authorities did not make their use compulsory, as was done in London in 1212, and at a much later date, in 1509, at Norwich.[399] The importance, for the safety of the town, of having a large supply of tiles accessible at a low price was recognised, and in 1350, after the Black Death had sent the prices of labour and of manufactured goods up very high, the City Council of London fixed the maximum price of tiles at 5s. the thousand,[400] and in 1362, when a great tempest had unroofed numbers of houses and created a great demand for tiles, they ordered that the price of tiles should not be raised, and that the manufacturers should continue to make tiles as usual and expose them for sale, not keeping them back to enhance the price.[401] It was probably the same appreciation of the public advantage that led the authorities at Worcester in the fifteenth century to forbid the tilers to form any gild, or trade union, to restrain strangers from working in the city, or to fix a rate of wages.[402]

The Worcester regulations also ordered that all tiles should be marked with the maker's sign, so that any defects in size or quality could be traced to the party responsible. Earlier in the same century, in 1425, there had been many complaints at Colchester of the lack of uniformity in the size of the tiles made there,[403] and at last it became necessary in 1477 to pass an Act of Parliament to regulate the manufacture.[404] By this Act it was provided that the clay to be used should be dug, or cast, by 1st November, that it should be stirred and turned before the beginning of February, and not made into tiles before March, so as to ensure its being properly seasoned. Care was to be taken to avoid any admixture of chalk or marl or stones. The standard for plain tiles should be 10½ inches by 6¼ inches with a thickness of at least ? inch; ridge tiles or crests should be 13½ inches by 6¼, and gutter tiles 10½ inches long, and of sufficient thickness and depth. Searchers were to be appointed and paid a penny on every thousand plain tiles, a half-penny on every hundred crests, and a farthing for every hundred corner and gutter tiles examined. Infringement of the regulation entailed fines of 5s. the thousand plain, 6s. 8d. the hundred crest, and 2s. the hundred corner or gutter tiles sold. 'The size of the tiles is probably a declaration of the custom, the fine is the price at which each kind was ordinarily sold in the fifteenth century.'[405]

These regulations throw a certain amount of light upon the processes employed in tile-making, and further details are obtainable from the series of accounts relating to the great tileworks in the Kentish manor of Wye,[406] extending from 1330 to 1380. In 1355 the output of ten kilns (furni) was 98,500 plain, or flat, tiles, 500 'festeux'[407] (either ridge or gutter tiles), and 1000 'corners.' The digging of the clay and burning of the kilns was contracted for at 11s. the kiln, a thousand faggots were bought for fuel[408] at a cost of 45s., and another 10s. was spent on carriage of the clay and faggots. The total expenses were therefore £8, 5s., and as plain tiles sold here for 2s. 6d. the thousand, festeux at three farthings each, and corners at 1s. 8d. the hundred, the value of the output was about £14, 15s. In 1370, when thirteen kilns belonging to two tileries turned out 168,000 plain tiles, 650 festeux, and 900 corners, we have a more elaborate account. Wood was cut at the rate of 15d. for each kiln; clay for the six kilns of one tilery was 'cast' at 14d. the kiln and 'tempered' at the rate of 1s. 6d., but for the seven kilns of the other tilery payment was made in grain. The clay was carried to the six kilns for 4s., and prepared[409] for moulding into tiles for 7s.; the actual making and burning[410] of the tiles was paid for at 14s. the kiln, and an extra 12d. were given as gratuities to the tilers. Next year the output was considerably reduced, because in one tilery 'the upper course of the kilns (cursus furni) did not bake the tiles fully, nor will it bake them until extensive repairs are done,' and in the other tilery only four kilns were prepared, and one of these had to be left unburnt until the next year, owing to the lack of workmen. It was possibly for the defective kiln just mentioned that a 'new vault' was made in 1373 at a cost of 6s. 8d.—with a further 8d. for obtaining loam (limo) for the work. Two years later repairs were done to the buildings of a tilery, which had been blown down by the wind. But the chief blow was struck to the industry here by the increasing difficulty of obtaining workmen. The work may have been unhealthy, for it is noteworthy that the Ringmer potters were on more than one occasion wiped out by pestilence:[411] the effects of the Black Death in 1350 on the Wye tilers are not recorded, but in 1366 as a result, apparently, of the second pestilence two small tileries, one of three roods, and the other of 1½ acres, which had been leased for 7d. and 14d. respectively, lost their tenants, and in 1375 mention is made of the scarcity of workmen, 'who died in the pestilence at the time of tile making.' In 1377 Peter at Gate,[412] who for the past few years had hired a number of kilns at 20s. a piece, only answered for four kilns 'on account of hindrance to the workmen, who had been assigned to guard the sea coast, and on account of the great quantity of rain in the autumn, which did not allow him to burn more kilns.' In the same year, and also two years later, another tilery was unworked for lack of labour.

The tileries at Wye belonged to the Abbot of Battle, and there were tile kilns at Battle itself in the sixteenth century,[413] and probably much earlier, as in the adjoining parish of Ashburnham in 1362, there was a 'building called a Tylehous for baking (siccandis) tiles.'[414] Just about the same time, in 1363, we find 'a piece of land called Teghelerehelde' in Hackington,[415] close to Canterbury, granted to Christian Belsire, in whose family it remained for over a century, as in 1465 William Belsyre leased to John Appys and Edmund Helere of Canterbury 'a tyleoste with a workhouse' lying at Tylernehelde in Hackington for two years for a rent of 26s. 8d.[416] With the 'tyleoste' William Belsyre handed over 15,000 'tyle standardes'—worth 18d. the thousand, eighty 'palette bordes and three long bordys for the kelle walles.'[417] Various building accounts show that there were extensive tileries at Smithfield; for Guildford Castle the tiles came from Shalford, and for Windsor chiefly from 'la Penne.' In the north tiles were made before the end of the thirteenth century at Hull, amongst other places, but one of the chief centres was Beverley. About 1385 the monks of Meaux complained that 'certain workmen of Beverley who were called tilers, makers and burners of the slabs (laterum) with which many houses in Beverley and elsewhere are covered,' had trespassed on the abbey's lands at Waghen and Sutton, taking away clay between the banks and the stream of the river Hull without leave, to convert into tiles. The monks seized their tools, their oars, and finally one of their boats, but the Provost of Beverley, on whose fee the tileries were, supported the tilers in their claim to dig clay in any place covered by the waters of the Hull at its highest.[418] Some thirty years earlier, in 1359, the list of customary town dues at Beverley included 'from every tiler's furnace fired ½d.,'[419] and in 1370 Thomas Whyt, tiler, took a lease of the tilery of Aldebek from the town authorities for four years, at a rent of 6000 tiles.[420]

So far we have been dealing with roofing tiles, or 'thakketyles,' but from the middle of the fourteenth century onwards with increasing frequency, we find mention of 'waltyles' or bricks. For building a new chamber at Ely in 1335 some 18,000 wall tiles (tegularum muralium) were made at a cost of 12d. the thousand.[421] They seem to have been introduced from Flanders, and are frequently called 'Flaundrestiell,'[422] as, for instance, in 1357, when a thousand were bought for a fireplace at Westminster at 3s. 2d.[423] At Beverley, in 1391, three persons acquired from the gild of St. John the right to take earth at Groval Dyke, paying yearly therefor 3000 'waltyles,'[424] and in 1440 Robert Collard, tile-maker, took 'le Grovaldyke on the west side of le demmyng' at a rent of 1000 'waltyl.'[425] It was probably more particularly with regard to brick kilns than to ordinary tile kilns that the regulations drawn up in 1461[426] ordered that, 'on account of the stench, fouling the air and destruction of fruit trees, no one is to make a kiln to burn tile nearer the town than the kilns now are, under penalty of a fine of 100s.' The term 'brick' does not seem to have come into common use much before 1450, about which time the use of the material became general.

In addition to roof tiles and wall tiles, there were floor tiles. References to these occur in many building accounts. At Windsor, in 1368, 'paven-tyll' cost 4s. the thousand, and a large variety 2s. the hundred, while plain roof tiles were 2s. 6d. the thousand.[427] These were probably plain red tiles, but at Westminster in 1278 we have mention of the purchase of 'a quarter and a half of yellow tiles' for 7d.[428] Tiles with a plain yellow or green glazed surface are of common occurrence in medieval buildings, and in many churches and monastic ruins pavements of inlaid, so-called 'encaustic,' tiles remain more or less complete.[429] In the case of these inlaid tiles the pattern was impressed or incised before baking, and then filled in with white slip, the whole being usually glazed. Some of the patterns thus produced were of great beauty and elaboration, and it would seem that they were often designed, if not actually made, by members of monastic houses. The finest known series are those discovered at Chertsey Abbey, and it is possible that the remarkable examples in the chapter-house of Westminster Abbey,[430] which date from c. 1255, are by the same artist. In the case of the Abbey of Dale in Derbyshire,[431] and the priories of Repton and Malvern,[432] the kilns used for making these inlaid tiles have been discovered, and similar kilns, not associated, so far as is known, with any religious establishment, have also been found at Hastings.[433] The manufacture of these inlaid tiles in England gradually died out towards the end of the fifteenth century, and has only been revived in recent years.

It is curious that although there is abundant circumstantial evidence of Glassmaking in England, during the medieval period, direct records of the manufacture are extremely scarce, and practically confined to a single district. From the early years of the thirteenth century, Chiddingfold and the neighbouring villages on the borders of Surrey and Sussex were turning out large quantities of glass. Laurence 'Vitrarius' (the glassman) occurs as a landed proprietor in Chiddingfold about 1225, and some fifty years later there is a casual reference to 'le Ovenhusfeld,' presumably the field in which was the oven or furnace house, of which the remains were uncovered some years since.[434] It is possible that in the case of glassmaking, as in the case of many other industries, improvements were introduced from abroad, for in 1352 we find John de Alemaygne[435] of Chiddingfold supplying large quantities of glass for St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster.[436] In one batch he sent up three hundred and three weys (pondera) of glass, the wey being 5 lbs., and the hundred consisting of twenty-four weys, being, that is to say, the 'long hundred' of 120 lbs. A little later he sent thirty-six weys, and soon after another sixty weys were bought at Chiddingfold, probably from the same maker. The price in each case was 6d. the wey, or 12s. the hundred, to which had to be added about 1d. the wey for carriage from the Weald to Westminster. In January 1355-6 four hundreds of glass were bought from the same maker for the windows of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, at 13s. 4d. the hundred.[437]

Towards the end of the fourteenth century the family of Sherterre, or Shorter, became prominent in the Chiddingfold district,[438] and on the death of John Sherterre in 1380 his widow engaged John Glasewryth, of Staffordshire, to work the glass-house for six years, receiving 20d. for every sheaf (sheu)[439] of 'brodeglass' (i.e. window glass), and 6d. for every hundred of glass vessels made. This is interesting as showing that glass vessels were made here; the evidence of inventories, however, seems to show that glass was as a whole very little used for table purposes, though a few pieces of the beautiful Italian glassware might be found in the houses of the wealthy. The family of Shorter were succeeded by the Ropleys, and they in turn by the Peytos, who carried on the trade during the whole of the sixteenth century, and as late as 1614, thus well overlapping the modern period of glassmaking, which began with the coming of the gentilshommes verriers from France early in the reign of Elizabeth.[440]

Glass must have been made in many other districts where fuel and sand, the chief requisites for the manufacture, were plentiful, but it is difficult to identify any sites of the industry. In 1352 John Geddyng, glazier, was sent into Kent and Essex to get glass for St. Stephen's, Westminster,[441] but where he went and whether he was successful, is not known. 'English glass' is found in use at Durham in 1397,[442] and at York in 1471.[443] For York Minster sixteen sheets (tabulae) of English glass were bought from Edmund Bordale of Bramley buttes for 14s. 8d. in 1478,[444] and at an earlier date, in 1418, we find three seams, three weys of white glass bought from John Glasman of Ruglay (Rugeley) at 20s. the seam of twenty-four weys,[445] but whether these men were glass makers, or merely glass merchants, cannot be determined. That the industry, so far at least as real stained glass is concerned, was not flourishing in England in the fifteenth century is shown by the fact that Henry VI., in 1449, brought over from Flanders John Utynam to make glass of all colours for Eton College and the College of St. Mary and St. Nicholas (i.e. King's) Cambridge. He was empowered to obtain workmen and materials at the King's cost, and full protection was granted to him and his family. He was also allowed to sell such glass as he made at his own expense, and 'because the said art has never been used in England, and the said John is to instruct divers in many other arts never used in the realm,' the King granted him a monopoly, no one else being allowed to use such arts for twenty years without his licence under a penalty of £200.[446] Most glass of which we have any account was bought through the glaziers of the larger towns; but to what extent they made their own glass we cannot say. A certain amount, especially of coloured glass, was imported, and the York accounts show 'glass of various colours' bought in 1457 from Peter Faudkent, 'Dochman' (i.e. German), at Hull,[447] 'Rennysshe' glass bought in 1530, Burgundy glass in 1536, and Normandy glass in 1537,[448] while in 1447 we find the executors of the Earl of Warwick stipulating that no English glass should be used in the windows of his chapel at Warwick.[449]

To any one who knows the beauty of English stained glass this stipulation may seem strange, but it must be borne in mind that our cathedral windows derive their glories not from the maker, but from the painter, and that the glass is but the medium carrying the designs of the artist. English glass as a rule, prior at any rate to the fifteenth century, was white and received its decoration after it had left the glass-house. The process may be gathered from the account of St. Stephen's in 1352. Here we find John of Chester and five other master glaziers employed at a shilling a day drawing designs for the windows on 'white tables,' presumably flat wooden tablets, which were washed with ale,[450] which served no doubt as a size or medium to prevent the colours running. About a dozen glaziers were employed at 7d. a day to paint the glass, and some fifteen, at 6d. a day, to cut or break the glass and join it,[451] which they apparently did by placing it over the painted designs, this being presumably done before it was painted. The glass thus cut into convenient shapes was held in place over the design by 'clozyngnailles,' and when it had been painted was joined up with leads, lard or grease being used to fill the joints. For the painting silver foil, gum arabick, jet (geet), and 'arnement' (a kind of ink) were provided.[452] Possibly the stronger colours were supplied by the use of pieces of stained glass, as purchases were made of ruby, azure, and sapphire glass.