First unearthed during the excavation of the Priory Church and Crypt which took place in 1900, this tile is dated between 1280-1399. Painted in white on the earthenware tile is a mounted knight brandishing a sword in his left hand. The tile was produced in the Farrington Road Kiln in the thirteenth century and is the earliest type ever recovered within the Priory.  An example of the ‘Westminster’ type, first identified in Westminster Abbey, this type of tile is distinctive because of their size, the clay used to make them and their poor quality. In total, forty-three varieties of Westminster tile have been found on the site of the Priory, twenty-two of these having been previously unknown. You can view fifteen of these tiles here.  

Tiles such as this would have been used to decorate the floor of the Priory and were one of the most common types of floor tile used in London during the middle ages. They were easier to fire and lay than lead-glazed tiles which had been used prior to the 1250s and 1260s. Westminster tiles have been found across the country, demonstrating how interconnected different parts of England were during the middle ages. Archaeological surveys suggest that the tiles were first used in the inner precinct buildings of the Priory, and then were later reused in the outer precinct during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.  

The 1900 excavation team not only uncovered the footings of church’s round nave but they also recorded and saved large numbers of architectural fragments. Notes on the excavation kept by the church warden and participant H. W. Fincham are in our archive. The excavation was the result of a new wave of interest in the site after Fincham began to clear the crypt in 1890. At the time, the slum buildings against the south wall of the church were being cleared and public subscription contributed to the renovation of the crypt.  

Sources: 

Betts, I, Medieval Westminster Floor Tiles, Museum of London Archaeology Service, Monograph 11 (2002).  

Sloane, Barney and Gordon Malcolm, Excavations at the priory of the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, Clerkenwell, London, Museum of London Archaeology Service (2004).  Information on the history of excavations at the Priory can be found pg. 8-11 and information about the varieties of floor tile can be found pg. 322-326.