CHAPTER X.

REPTON TILE-KILN.

At various times and places within the precincts of Repton Priory tiles have been dug up. In the year 1851 the British Archæological Association held a Congress at Derby, and a visit was made to Repton. Its members examined, among other interesting things, some remarkably fine specimens of encaustic tiles, which Dr. Peile, then Headmaster, had dug up, on or about the site of the Priory Church, but it was not till the year 1866 that the kiln itself was discovered. This discovery cannot be better described than in the words of Dr. Pears, quoted from _The Reliquary_, January, 1868.

“Through the months of October and November, 1866, the boys of Repton School were busily engaged in levelling a piece of uneven grass land within the Old Abbey (Priory) Wall. During the work they came unexpectedly upon patches of a stiff red clay, quite unlike the ordinary soil of the place, with here and there fragments of encaustic tiles, such as have from time to time been found in other parts of the Old Abbey (Priory) grounds. Presently they found a considerable number of whole tiles of various patterns, in two rows of layers, placed face downwards. On the sixth of November they struck upon brickwork, so covered and choked with the clay and broken tiles that it was extremely difficult to clear it.” When the accumulated mass of broken tiles and clay had been cleared away, it proved to be a tile-kiln, “one of the most perfect mediæval kilns hitherto unearthed in England.” It consisted of two chambers, side by side, seven feet six inches long, two feet six inches wide, and about one foot ten inches high. Six arches of chamfered bricks or tiles, specially made for the purpose, supported a flat roof. Between the arches were recesses wide enough to receive the tiles placed there to be burnt, hundreds of which were found piled up one upon another, but, as they were unburnt, they were soft and pliable, and soon crumbled away. Among the _débris_, however, many whole tiles and fragments were found, greatly varying in pattern. The more perfect specimens were placed over the fire-place in the old “big school,” and formed a most interesting mantel-piece. When the room was dismantled in 1889 they were taken down and placed in a cupboard in the inner room till a suitable place can be found for them.

During the excavations made in 1883-5 on the site of the Priory Church, many more tiles were discovered which, with many carved stones, have been affixed to the old north aisle wall, where they can be seen in various stages of decay, suffering from the effects of exposure to our climate.

Among the tiles discovered in 1866, Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt writes, (_Reliquary, Jan. 1868_), “are examples different in form, as well as in material and design, from any others which had come under my notice, made of light stone-coloured clay, the foliated pattern in very high and bold relief, and covered with a rich green glaze.” One consists of the crowned