Monument record 0216500000 - YONDER LODGE, Elm Road, TYLERS GREEN: kiln

A sherd from jug handle was donated by Verulamium Museum, St Albans, history unknown. Marked in ink: 'Tylers Green from site of kiln opposite Horse and Groom'. Red fabric with grey core, stabbed, yellow-green glaze. This sherd with the nearby placename of Potters Cross (B4) led to a search for a kiln. Large quantity of pottery including ?wasters found in kitchen garden of Yonder Lodge and in wood to east, perhaps dumped from garden. Fabric is mainly unglazed, sandy, brick red with some over-fired examples. There are at least 9 rims and other sherds from jar forms, plus rims and sherds from plates and dishes along with plentiful roof tile (B1-6).
A study of chemical composition of ceramics has been made (B7).
In 1937, the author Loyd Haberly first suggested Penn tiles were decorated, not by first stamping the tile with the design and then filling in the depression with white clay, but by a method that combined both processes and as more economic - the stamp was first dipped into white clay/slip. The size of the tile was also reduced to an average of 4.5 inch x 0.75in thick making then lighter and easier to handle and transport. A paviour was working at Penn in 1322. Three men were assessed on their stocks of tiles and lime at that time - Henry Tyler, Simon the pavyer, and the John the tyler. The total tax payable by these three was 6s 4 1/4d - almost as high as the tax payable by the Lord of the Manor. Henry Tyler's stock was assessed as 10 2/7 pence per thousand tiles (roof tiles). The stocks of Simon the payver and John the tyler were both valued at 2s per thousand (probably floor tiles). Evidence for the continuation of the trade exist in records of sales for the period after the Black Death where roof tiles seem to have sold at 2s - 3s 6d per thousand and floor tiles from 6s -8s per thousand. In 1368, reference is made to a John Paviere in the enquiry in the murder of the vicar of Penn. A William Pavyer is recorded as a member of a jury in 1479. A house at Tyle Ende, Penn is referred to in a lease in 1512 suggesting that tile making was still in progress, but it is believed that decorated floor tile making died out at the end of the 14th century (B8).
The author notes that the best documented tilery is that at Penn with its products being used by the King's Clerk of Works in Royal building between the 1330s-1380s. The tiles were selling for about 6s per thousand at the kiln and the customer paid for their transportation. It is suggested that the tiles were laid by experts attached to the tileries. Penn tiles were sold to sites along the Thames from Oxford to London and up the Wey as far as Guildford. There seems to be three qualities. The early tiles are the largest and best fired with human figures, animals, inscriptions and some heraldry. Tiles of the next series, after the Black Death, are smaller and less well-fired and the decoration includes large numbers of repeating patterns based on one tile or a group of four tiles. The tiles of the later group from the 1380s tend to be smaller still and overfired with a purple-brown or orange colour. The white decoration is often smudged. The three styles may represent three generations of tilers. The floor tile industry was probably added to an existing roof tile industry, which continued after the floor tiles industry ceased (B9).