Red earthenware with the letters 'Thomas' in relief and reversed. Made in the Bawsey tilery. Said to have been in the priory at Castle Acre in Norfolk. English (Norfolk), ca.1375-1400

Tile of red earthenware moulded in low relief with the name 'Thomas' in Lombardic capitals reversed.

Transferred from the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street

This object was transferred from the Museum of Practical Geology and was said to have been found in Castle Acre, Norfolk and supposed to have been made at Bawsey, Lynn in the 14th century.
(1998/99) The Time Team found a fragment of a tile with 'Thomas' on it in the church at Bawsey St James. Bawsey and Castle Acre are only a few miles apart. They speculated that the 'Thomas' on the tile probably refers to Thomas de Wigginhall who was prior at Castle Acre from ? until 1376.

The British Museum has similiar tiles excavated at Bawsey Kiln. Three others were said to have been found at Spalding Church in Lincolnshire, Knipton Lodge, Bawsey, and at Castle Acre Priory in Norfolk. The V&A tile is also said to have come from the priory in Castle Acre. Castle Acre was a Benedictine Priory founded in about 1089.

Spalding Church is dedicated to St Mary and St Nicholas (unknown how old dedication is). It was founded as a Benedictine Priory in 1051 by Thorold de Bokenhole and was rebuilt in 1294. Apparently, the Church of St Mary and Nicholas was built on the site of or incorporated a Chapel dedicated to St Thomas Becket.

Sue Cleary, President of the Spalding Gentlemen's Society, has confirmed that an agreement between the priory in Spalding and the local community exists and is dated to 1284. In this agreement, a new parish church was to be erected on the site of the Chapel of St Thomas Becket. It is said that the south transept side chapel of the new parish church was dedicated to Thomas the Martyr and was built in 1315. The 1284 document resides in the Britihs Museum (BM, Cole MSS).

Said to have been in the priory at Castle Acre in Norfolk.

A major tile industry was in operation at Bawsey, near King's Lynn in the years around 1376. The tiles produced there were distributed widely in East Anglia, especially in the more populous northern areas, but also to the south and east of King's Lynn, where the tiles could readily be transported over the region's extensive network of inland waterways. The Bawsey tilery is known for the production of relief-decorated tiles, featuring birds, animals, heraldry or inscriptions. These designs were stamped into the surface of the tiles before they were fired using carved wooden blocks. When the wooden stamp for this particular tile was carved, the design was not reversed, as it should have been. In consequence, its inscription, 'Thomas', reads backwards.

5663-1901