Fragment of a medieval lead-glazed earthenware floor tile from King Alfred Terrace, Winchester. The tile is inlaid with white clay and then glazed with a clear lead glaze. Two keys are visible on the base of the tile. There would have been five keys on

Floor tile fragment

Medieval, about 1396

Found on the site of Hyde Abbey in the garden of 8, King Alfred Place, Winchester, Hampshire in 1996

Glazed inlaid floor tile fragment with a pattern of intersecting circles and a floral centre. This design is found on complete tiles in Winchester Cathedral and in Winchester College audit room, having been previously in the vestry there. Records from the College note the purchase of 8000 tiles with this and a number of other designs for the vestry from William Tylere of Otterbourne, south of Winchester, in 1396. The white clay used for inlay came from Farnham, the red clay being obtained from the Otterbourne claybeds. This tile fragment is evidence that Hyde Abbey also purchased tiles made at Otterbourne about this time. Presumably the tile was broken in the destruction which followed the surrender of Hyde Abbey to Thomas Wriothesley, Henry VIII's Commissioner for the dissolution of Hampshire's monasteries in 1538.