A Medieval Tile Kiln Site at Magdalene Street, Drogheda

County Louth Archaeological and History Society

A Medieval Tile Kiln Site at Magdalene Street, DroghedaAuthor(s): Kieran CampbellSource: Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, Vol. 21, No. 1(1985), pp. 48-54Published by: County Louth Archaeological and History SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27729605 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 00:52

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

County Louth Archaeological and History Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.202 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 00:52:47 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=clahs

http://www.jstor.org/stable/27729605?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


A Medieval Tile Kiln Site

at Magdalene Street, Drogheda By Kieran Campbell

In the 1950 issue of this Journal Tempest reported on the discovery of medieval floor tiles near

the Magdalene Tower, Drogheda, which is the sole surviving remnant above ground of the Dominican

Friary (Tempest 1950). The tiles were found at a depth of two feet when foundations for a new house were being dug on the west side of Moore's Lane which crosses the site of the friary, and were

described as 'set side by side', presumably in a laid floor, and extending a short distance to a wall.

The tiles remain in the possession of the Williams family, for whom the house was built, with the

exception of a number which were donated to the Millmount Museum, Drogheda, where they are now on display.

A change in ownership of the house in 1984 resulted in a levelling of the garden with a

mechanical excavator which caused part of the boundary wall on the north-west side of the house to

fall. In 1985 the house was sold again and the wall rebuilt. A large number of floor tile fragments and

other pieces of fired clay were recovered by the writer from a section-face at the edge of the garden

and spoil from a trench dug for the rebuilding of the wall. The tiles are wasters or rejects from the

tile-making process and some of the non-tile pieces have been identified by Mrs Elizabeth Eames as

kiln floor. The kiln debris, which includes floor tiles, roof ridge tiles, kiln furniture and structural

tiles, had abutted a clay-bonded stone wall, 0.70m thick, one side of which had been reddened by heat. An examination of the section-face indicated this was part of a tile kiln the greater part of which

had been destroyed by the removal of the garden in 1984. While it is unlikely that further investigation will recover a full plan of the kiln, waster heaps and evidence for ancillary buildings may yet survive

in the vicinity. The tiles belong to Eames' Irish-Cheshire-Salop group of square line-impressed tiles, found mainly in Leinster, north Wales and Cheshire (Eames 1985, 34), and are usually dated to the

fourteenth or fifteenth century. Tile wasters have previously been recognised on Irish sites (Fanning 1981, 16) but the kiln in Magdalene Street is the first to be discovered in Ireland and the first in either

Britain or Ireland to be associated with the manufacture of line-impressed tiles of this group. The tiles

found in 1950 bear the same designs as the wasters from the kiln. Although found only 14m from the

kiln there can be no doubt that the majority of the 1950 finds, whether in situ or not, had been used in a floor since most show signs of wear and have mortar adhering to their under-sides. According to

information from Mr B. Williams only those tiles which it was necessary to move in order to excavate

the foundations were actually taken out of the ground. The remaining tiles were covered with sheets of

paper and reburied. At the time of writing it is not known if the levelling of the garden has interfered

with these tiles.

The following account of the finds from the 1950 investigation and from the recent disturbance

includes floor and ridge tiles of a type different to those produced in the kiln, and pottery which may or may not be associated with its use. All the finds must be considered unstratified.

LINE-IMPRESSED TILES

Line-impressed tiles were made by impressing a design, by means of a wooden or metal stamp,

on a prepared slab of soft clay, applying a lead glaze and firing the tile in a kiln. Five designs are

represented on the tile wasters from the kiln site (Fig. 1: 1-5). There were no complete tiles among the wasters. Consequently the designs are reconstructed from fragments and in the case of designs 2 and 3

48



A Medieval Tile Kiln Site at Magdalene Street, Drogheda 49

Fig. 1. Line-impressed tile designs from the kiln (1-5), Lewes group inlaid tile (6), roof ridgetile (7, 8). Scale 1:4.

using also tiles from the laid floor which it can be shown were produced from the same stamps. All the

tiles are 121-124mm square and 26-28mm thick, and where glazed have a brown or green-brown

glaze. The fabric is fine with few visible grits and the tiles vary in hardness from soft apparently

unglazed poorly-fired tiles to tiles which have been overfired to a near stoneware or which have a

blistered glaze or expanded tile body. Some are in a usable condition but may have broken during manufacture. There is evidence in the case of designs 2 and 3 that wooden stamps were used. The

stamp for design 2 had a slight crack across the centre which has left thin ridges of clay upstanding in

the impressed lines of the finished tiles. On several wasters bearing design 3 the impression of wood

grain can be seen and it is still evident on a worn glazed tile from the floor. Damage to the same stamp is shown by a gap in one of the cusped triangles next to the inner circle, indicating where a small piece

of wood had broken off.

Design 5 is not present among the 1950 finds but a worn and mortared half-tile of this type is with

the recent finds. Designs 1, 2 and 3 form the majority of the tiles in both groups of finds (Table 1 ). All



s///////////' ///////////*

O

IS f

10

o I" s

10cm

Fig. 2. Structural tiles and kiln furniture.

(Heat-affected

edges are shown stippled; glaze on 9 and 10 is shown hatched.)




the designs have previously been found on other sites in Drogheda and elsewhere in Ireland (Table 2). In Drogheda they have occurred either as stray finds in the grounds of the medieval parish churches of

St Mary and St Peter (Campbell 1986), or in excavations in Shop Street (Sweetman 1984) and

James Street. A complete design 1 tile is on display in St Peter's Church of Ireland. A tile decorated

with design 5 was found in 1985 on a building site at the north end of Duleek Street close to

Millmount. The Shop Street tiles are most likely to have come from St Saviour's Chapel which lay

close-by the excavated site (Kelly 1940); the attribution of the James Street tiles is uncertain but they may be related to the Hospital of St James. It is interesting that the same cracked stamp noted above in

connection with the kiln was also used to make the design 2 tiles found at St Mary's, Shop Street and

probably James Street. The design 3 tile fragments from Shop Street appear to be the same as those

from the kiln, while the St Mary's and James Street tiles of this design were made from a different

stamp which had a pointed rather than circular motif in the corner angles. All five designs are present on tiles in the British Museum collection where four are listed as being of unknown provenance and

possibly of Cheshire manufacture, while the other design (4) is represented on two tiles, one from St

Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and the second possibly also Irish (Eames 1980, designs 206, 188, 178, 215, 216). A further line-impressed tile found in 1950 does not occur among the tile designs from the

kiln. It bears the lion rampant (Eames' design 162) and is found also at Mellifont (Stalley 1980, Fig. 45:2), in situ at Swords Castle (Fanning 1975, Fig. 22:3), at Trim Castle (Sweetman 1978, 176), and at Norton Priory, Cheshire (Eames 1980, 93), but has not otherwise been recorded from Drogheda.

ROOF RIDGE-TILES

Eight fragments of a well-made type of ridge-tile were found among the paving tile wasters. All

the fragments are probably wasters although only two are certainly so. They appear to be in the same

fabric as the paving tiles and are oxidised to a light red colour. It is possible to construct a profile from

the fragments (Fig. 1:7,8); the length of a complete tile is not known. The tiles have an average thickness of 22-24mm, or twice the thickness of the ridge-tile type usually found on excavations in

Drogheda. The flat top is surmounted by crests which have been trimmed with a knife or trowel. In at

least one case the crest has been separately applied. Each crest is decorated with two incised vertical

strokes. Decoration on the general body of the tile consists of either vertical lines continued from the

crests or two pairs of wavy lines running horizontally. Both types of decoration do not appear on the same tile. The tiles are partially covered with a thick brown glaze. The under-sides are sand-marked

and have occasional stab-marks made with the finger which would have aided keying to mortar.

A small number of ridge-tiles of this type has been excavated by the writer at James Street,

mostly in fifteenth and early sixteenth-century contexts, but occurring also with roof-slate and pantile

fragments in a probable seventeenth-century context. At Magdalene Street three pieces of thin

(13mm) ridge-tile with reduced core fabric were found, one of which was illustrated by Tempest (1950, lower photo, on right). This is a common type of tile found widespread as stray finds in the

town.

KILN FURNITURE AND STRUCTURAL TILES

A large number, circa 250, of plain unglazed pieces of tile was recovered which are the remains

of the demolished kiln (Fig. 2). There were no complete tiles, the maximum intact length is 150mm

and the standard width is in the 130-140mm range. The fragments are 30mm thick, occasionally 24-28mm, and most are smooth on one broad surface and rough on the other. Clay was used as the

bonding agent and thin layers (l-5mm) adhere to many of the tiles. One irregular lump of clay has an



52 County Louth Archaeological and Historical Journal

impression in relief of part of design 1 suggesting that paving tile wasters were used in the

construction or repair of the kiln. On many of the structural tiles one edge has been cracked and

blackened by the repeated exposure to heat in the kiln. The shapes appear originally to have been

square or rectangular (Fig. 2:1,2), or rectangular with one or two corners chamfered off (Fig. 2:5,6). On the face of one tile there is a shallow groove 30mm wide and 4mm deep (Fig. 2:4). Many of these

features are paralleled on tiles from Danbury, Essex, illustrated by Drury and Pratt (1975, 123 and

Fig. 54). The clay bonding on one of the Magdalene Street tiles (Fig. 2:1) bears a pattern of squares bisected by diagonal lines, appearing as very fine relief lines. This must have been incised on the

neighbouring tile in the structure of the kiln and was perhaps intended to depict an arrangement of

half-tiles in a pavement.

There are some eighteen smaller items of clay which are of uncertain use. The rectangular- or

triangular-sectioned bars (Fig. 2:7,8) may be structural but twelve small wedges, some with droplets of glaze, could have been used as props when the paving tiles with their bevelled edges were being stacked in the kiln (Fig. 2:9,10).

INLAID TILES

There are two varieties of inlaid tile on the site. The first consists of large tiles 152mm square and

40mm thick with inlay 3-7mm deep. The fabric is often reduced and there are scoops made in the

under-sides with a pointed trowel. Two tiles have trefoil sprays in the general style of those illustrated

by Bradley and Manning from Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny (1981, Fig. 5:6-11) but here on a

much larger tile. There is a tile with diagonal bands and a fragment of a border tile. Two rectangular

plain tiles (Tempest 1950, lower photo, on left) would appear from their size to belong to this group. All have a green glaze. The second variety are tiles of the 'Lewes' group (Eames 1980, 209-10) distributed mainly in Sussex and now thought to be imports from France. The tiles are 17-2 lmm thick

and when complete are quite small at 102mm square. Of the four designs present two are also found at

James Street (one is Eames' design 2387), another has a close parallel at Crutched Friars, London

(Ward-Perkins 1975, Fig. 81:66) on which the reconstruction presented here is based (Fig. 1:6), and a

fourth is too worn to be identified.

The large inlaid tiles are likely to be thirteenth century in date. The Lewes group may be as late as the late fourteenth century (Eames 1980, 210).

OTHER FINDS

Pottery finds were three glazed jug-sherds of fourteenth/fifteenth-century date and of local

manufacture, and a broad late-medieval Saintonge strap handle. There were two small pieces of red

earthenware pantile and a North Devon gravel-tempered ridge-tile fragment, both of which should

date to the late-seventeenth or early-eighteenth century (Sweetman 1984, 188, 193).

DISCUSSION

Some twenty-five kilns making medieval tiles have been excavated in Britain and the sites of

many more are known (Eames 1985, 4, map). Given its importance as the only tile kiln so far found in

Ireland it is unfortunate that so little of the Magdalene Street kiln has survived. What had probably survived into recent years was the furnace, which produced the heat to fire the tiles stacked above it in

the oven. At present all that can be said about the construction of the kiln is that the furnace walls

appear to have been built of stone upon which stood fire-bars built of tile. Reddened soil observed in




the section-face suggests an internal measurement of 2.20m for one side, making it roughly the same

size as kiln 1 at Danbury and twice the size of the line-impressed mosaic tile kiln at Norton Priory, Cheshire (Greene and Johnson, 1978, 31). The site is most likely lying within the precincts of the

friary which to judge from Newcomen's map of Drogheda in 1657 was an extensive area lying between Magdalene Street and Rope Walk on the south and the town wall on the north. The kiln itself

is situated 19m north and 35m west of the Magdalene Tower, the belfry of the friary church, and is

just 3m from the town wall which was uncovered nearby. From the limited number of designs present it would appear that the kiln was a temporary affair set up to supply the immediate needs of the friary and perhaps other churches and religious houses in the town rather than a commercial tilery.

Petrological analysis of other Drogheda tiles, especially those made with the same stamp, might be

useful in establishing whether all the tiles were produced in the same kiln, except that the same

tile-makers would probably have utilised the same clay source even if a number of kilns had been built

in different parts of the town.

Line-impressed tiles are generally given a late fourteenth- or fifteenth-century date in Ireland

(Fanning 1981, 13) although there is evidence to suggest that production begins in the earlier part of

the fourteenth century (Fanning 1975, 81). A date for the kiln must await further work on the site and on other sites in Ireland relating to the medieval tile industry, such as in situ pavements and other

kilns. In Drogheda the Dominican friary received grants or indulgences for repairs in 1399, 1401, 1468 and 1496 (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 224). However the kiln need not refer to any of these

dates since there were certainly other building episodes in the lifetime of the friary of which there is now no record. One such episode is the erection of the Magdalene Tower for which Leask (1960, 134) has postulated a date in the early fourteenth century. The products of the kiln, floor tiles and roof tiles,

suggest a new building or a major alteration. The paved area discovered in 1950 16m north of the nave

of the church would seem to be the floor of one of the cloistral buildings rather than the church itself.

The layout of the friary is unknown not to mention its development through three centuries from 1224

to the Dissolution. Fortunately a sufficiently large area of undisturbed ground probably still exists in

the neighbourhood of the Tower and under the temporary school buildings on the site for excavation in

future years to answer some of these questions.

Table I Numbers of tile fragments of each design found in 1950 and 1985-6.

Designs 12 3 4 5 1950 6 30 8 1 0 1985-6 10 12 13 4 3

Table 2 Some other sites where the Magdalene Street designs occur. Brackets indicate a design variant.

Designs 12 3 4 5

St. Peter's, Drogheda X - -

X -

St. Mary's, Drogheda - X (X) X

Shop Street, Drogheda X X X X X

Jarr?es Street, Drogheda X X (X) - X

Duleek Street, Drogheda - - - -

X

Greenoge, Co Meath - - - -

X



54 County Louth Archaeological and Historical Journal

Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin X X - X -

St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin X X - X -

St Audoen's, Dublin - -

X -

X

St Mary's Abbey, Dublin X

St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny X X - - X

Duiske Abbey, Co Kilkenny X - - - -

Sources: Eames* 1980, Campbell 1986, Fanning 1984, Graves and Prim 1857, King 1984.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to record my thanks to the following : Mr Frank Smyth and Mr Nicholas Callan for

permission to visit the site; Mr Barry Williams for access to the tiles in his possession; Mrs Elizabeth

Eames for information on the French origin of the Lewes group of tiles; Mr Victor Buckley for

information on the Duleek Street tile and for his help at the site.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bradley and Manning 1981 J. Bradley and C. Manning, "Excavations at Duiske Abbey, Graiguenamanagh, Co

Kilkenny'1. P.R.I.A., 81C. 397-426.

Campbell 1986 K. Campbell, "Some Medieval Floor Tiles from Drogheda", Jn. Old Drogheda Soc, 5,

(1986), 14-20.

Drury and Pratt 1975 P. J. Drury and G. D. Pratt. "A Late Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth-Century Tile Factory at

Danbury. Essex", Medieval Archaeology, 19, 92-164.

Eames 1980 E. Eames. Catalogue of Medieval Lead-Glazed Earthenware Tiles in the Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities, British Museum, London. 2 vols.

Eames 1985 E. Eames. English Medieval Tiles, London.

Fanning 1975 T. Fanning, "An Irish Medieval Tile Pavement : Recent Excavations at Swords Castle, county Dublin1', J.R.S.A.L, 105. 47-82.

Fanning 1981 T. Fanning, "The British Museum Catalogue of Medieval Tiles - a Review, incorporating the

Irish evidence1', N.M.A.J., 23, 9-16.

Fanning 1984 T. Fanning, "Decorated pavement tiles1' in Sweetman 1984.

Graves and Prim 1857 J. Graves and J. G. A. Prim. The History, Architecture and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church

of St Canice, Kilkenny. Dublin.

Greene and Johnson 1978 J. P. Greene and B. Johnson, "An Experimental Tile Kiln at Norton Priory, Cheshire", Medieval Ceramics, 2. 31-42.

Gwynn and Hadcock 1970 A. Gwynn and R. N. Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses : Ireland. London.

Kelly 1940 M. Kelly. "The Church of St Saviour's, Drogheda", C.L.A.J., IX, 4, 346-51.

King 1984 H. A. King, "A Medieval Tile from Greenoge, Co Meath". Riocht na Midhe, VII, 3, 63-6.

Leask 1960 H. G. Leask, Irish Churches and Monastic Buildings, Vol. II. Dundalk.

Stalley 1980 R. A. Stalley, "Mellifont Abbey : A Study of its Architectural History", P.R.I.A., 80C, 263-354.

Sweetman 1978 P. D. Sweetman. "Archaeological Excavations at Trim Castle, Co Meath", P.R.I.A., 78C, 127-98.

Sweetman 1984 P. D. Sweetman, "Archaeological Excavations at Shop Street. Drogheda, Co Louth",

P.R.I.A., 84C, 171-224.

Tempest 1950 (H. G. Tempest). "Tiles from Old Dominican Friary, Drogheda". C.L.A.J., XII. 2, 182.

Ward-Perkins 1975 J. B. Ward-Perkins. Medieval Catalogue. London.



Documents

A Medieval Tile Kiln Site at Magdalene Street, Drogheda