J. Stopford. Medieval Floor Tiles of Northern England. Pattern and Purpose: Production Between the 13th and 16th Centuries.

J. Stopford. Medieval Floor Tiles of Northern England. Pattern and Purpose: Production Between the 13th and 16th Centuries. J. STOPFORD. Medieval Floor Tiles of Northern England Northern England, The North or North of England is a rather ill-defined term, with no universally accepted definition. Its extent may be subject to personal opinion and many companies or organisations have differing definitions as to what it constitutes. . Pattern andPurpose: production between the 13th and 16th centuries. xvii+393 pages,181 b&w & colour illustrations, 69 tables. 2005. Oxford: Oxbow;1-84217-142-9 hardback 40 [pounds sterling]. In this encyclopaedic Adj. 1. encyclopaedic - broad in scope or content; "encyclopedic knowledge"encyclopediccomprehensive - including all or everything; "comprehensive coverage"; "a comprehensive history of the revolution"; "a comprehensive survey"; "a comprehensive education" study of medieval floor tiles, Jenny Stopfordentices her readers to grapple with to enter into contest with, resolutely and courageously.See also: Grapple a multi-dimensional puzzlecomprising a 'rich combination of art historical and archaeologicalinformation' (p. 4). The corpus of surviving material and acomprehensive gazetteer gazetteer(găz'ĭtēr`), dictionary or encyclopedia listing alphabetically the names of places, political divisions, and physical features of the earth and giving some information about each. form the backbone of an ambitious treatise A scholarly legal publication containing all the law relating to a particular area, such as Criminal Law or Land-Use Control.Lawyers commonly use treatises in order to review the law and update their knowledge of pertinent case decisions and statutes. thatranges confidently from production and patronage to technology andtransport. A chronological account of distinctive regional trends fromthe thirteenth to sixteenth centuries demonstrates the significance andimportance of floor tiles in the field of medieval studies. Systematic research using consistent methods of recording on aregional scale requires both specialist knowledge and stamina. Thedescription, illustration and interpretation of 34 principal tile groupsand the analytical gazetteer of over 100 sites in the study areaconstitute a major synthesis that will be of longstanding value tofuture scholarship. The wider significance of this research, however,lies in the evidence that helps to unravel the relationship betweentile-makers and the buildings in which their products were used; toestablish when, where and why ceramic tiled floors were laid in bothecclesiastical and secular contexts; and to understand variations in theorganisation of production and distribution over time and in differentlocalities. The Cistercians and other reformed monastic institutions introducedplain ceramic mosaic tiling to the north of England. Manufacture ofthese tiles was labour-intensive; laying the intricate patterns was askilled task carried out in collaboration with the stonemasons engagedin grand schemes of church renovation and extension. Small kilns wereset up on monastic granges and the tilers would have been engaged forseveral years on the vast floors at Cistercian houses in the region.Although some products may have been copied, the excavated material bestfits the model of a mobile workforce. The selective introduction of ceramic mosaics to these northernmonasteries is very different from the more widespread popularity offloor tiles in the south of England at this time. By c. 1300, however,the manufacture of two-colour tiles was firmly established in theregion, supplied both to religious houses and secular customers--'asuccessful transition had been made from moving between majorinstitutions to supplying a wider range of people from a fixedbase' (p. 35). After c. 1350 most of the decorated tiles werebrought in from outside. The area around York and Hull, for example, wassupplied from Nottinghamshire via the River Trent. The repertoireincluded quasi-personalised designs that 'may have had a strongappeal to rising members of the aristocracy' (p. 43). To the westof the Pennines, demand seems to have been met locally in the fourteenthcentury by tile-makers and/or potters working in the vicinity of themonasteries where tiled floors were sometimes being introduced for thefirst time. 'One of the major changes in pavement design in the latemiddle ages was the introduction of plain glazed tiled floors, a largeproportion of which are thought to have been imported from the LowCountries' (p. 46). Ubiquitous chequered chequeredor US checkeredAdjective1. marked by varied fortunes: a chequered career2. marked with alternating squares of colourAdj. 1. flooring in both secularand religious buildings was entirely different from the bespoke be��spoke?v.Past tense and a past participle of bespeak.adj.1. Custom-made. Said especially of clothes.2. Making or selling custom-made clothes: a bespoke tailor. mosaicsof the thirteenth century. With the resumption of locally produceddecorated tiles in the later fifteenth century, however, some floorswere once again laid in pre-determined patterns. Later, though, poor quality decorated tiles were being laidindiscriminately. 'The overall inconsistency in the stamps,manufacture and layout of these tiles suggested that by 1500 productionhad been broken down into separate processes, with manufacture detachedfrom marketing and delivery' (p. 59). High quality tile mosaics of the thirteenth century remained insitu In place. When something is "in situ," it is in its original location. at the Dissolution by which time tiled floors occurred both amongthe smaller monastic houses and in parts of buildings where tiles hadhitherto not been used, notably in heated rooms (p. 66). In domestic andreligious contexts alike the installation of tiled floors also coincideswith attention to cleanliness CleanlinessSee also Orderliness.Cleverness (See CUNNING.)Berchtaunkempt herself, demands cleanliness from others, especially children. [Ger. Folklore: Leach, 137]catcontinually “washes” itself. and the presence of furniture requiring alevel surface (p. 63). Jenny Stopford has distilled so much from her analysis of medievalfloor tiles in the north of England that one is tempted to think this isthe last word on the subject. Her approach sets the standard for otherregions where contrasting trends in production, distribution and usewould benefit from the same kind of disciplined synthesis. She hasidentified the opportunity for further collaboration with specialists inthe Netherlands (p. 83) and there is scope to extend the scientificanalysis reported in the appendix (pp. 352-62). The reality remains,however, that comprehensive regional studies of material culture requirea degree of tenacity and resources that are becoming increasinglyscarce. This volume is an indispensable guide to a vast and complexrange of material--well indexed and with an enviable bibliography. Itprovides the framework for adding new clues to the intriguing puzzle of'pattern and purpose'. ANTHONY D.F. STREETEN Kings Sutton, Northamptonshire, UK