Tile, floor tile

Floor tile decorated with a grotesque face. Many medieval houses had floors of beaten earth. The rich could afford decorated floor tiles like these, which were also used in churches. The patterns were stamped and inlaid with creamy white clay so as to be durable. This is one of many floor tiles that were made in the village of Penn, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, where Henry the tiler, John the tiler, and Symon the pavier were at work by 1332. In 1352 the Penn tileworks provided 10,000 floor tiles for Windsor Castle at a rate of 6 shillings a thousand.