Medieval decorated tile fragment recovered from George Street, Bridgwater


birds3m - 186Kb


birdsbw2 - 220Kb

The tile is similar to that illustrated supra in Ward Perkins JB, Proc Som Arch Nat Hist Soc 1941, LXXXXVII, Plate IX 4 and described as a variant of Cleeve, No 25 viz "a version of a very common Wessex design, which is found in a wide number of varieties ". The tile is illustrated in Harcourt J, J Brit Arch Assoc 2000, 153 52 as no. 44 of Group 5 and 6.
Lowe BJ, in "decorated Medieval Floor Tiles of Somerset, " 2003 ISBN 086 183 366 X illustrates the tile on p.78 code 147 and describes a Glastonbury Abbey example (p25) "Addorsed birds in a circle with their beaks touching leaves of sprouting tree and arrowheads in corners.". Four scoop keys are present. In the George St fragment, there is part of one scoop.
Date: late thirteenth century.


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Web page dated 14 March 2006