Tile Gazetteer - Gloucestershire

ABENHALL

The Church of St Michael and All Angels, a medieval red sandstone structure standing on the edge of the Forest of Dean, was restored in 1873-4. On the altar dais are some unusual six-inch encaustic tiles: a complete set of the signs of the zodiac, in cream on black ground, with six tiles at each side of the altar. Behind this extraordinary (in an ecclesiastical setting) display is a mosaic and moulded terracotta reredos by Powell’s; it bears the words Holy Holy Holy and dates from 1884.

BRISTOL

Before exploring central Bristol, there is one worthwhile (but rarely accessible) ceramic location to be found on the eastern fringe of the centre, behind Temple Meads Station and beyond the floating harbour. St Vincent’s Works, Silverthorne Lane (at the junction with Gas Lane), was based on a galvanising plant taken over by John Lysaght in 1857, but it grew swiftly, encompassing a foundry, and in 1891-3 was completed by the addition of offices, whose initial plan was by Lysaght’s brother, the architect Thomas Lysaght. However, it seems he either died or left Bristol before much of the building work was completed, and the final design is due to the local architect R. Milverton Drake. He produced an L-shaped castellated block with fairytale-castle aspirations in which the various departments lead off from a domed octagonal lobby (Fig 76). This was an entrance hall intended to impress both workers and customers: it is faced in gleaming cream Doulton faience with panels of yellow and white relief patterned tiles, and green relief tiles on the staircase dado.[4] There are assorted faience grotesques and, at gallery height, a majolica-glazed faience arcade with more grotesques in the spandrels. Above this, just below the lantern, is a painted frieze, a golden armada in full sail; looking down, the observer sees a mosaic floor with an ornate border and the city’s coat-of-arms in the centre. It is an imposing space from all angles. The company, which exported prefabricated buildings, clearly saw its headquarters as part of the Bristol tradition of palatial mercantile premises. St Vincent’s Works was acquired by the wind energy engineering consultancy Garrad Hassan & Partners in 2000; their restoration of the office building in 2001 removed many unsightly 1960s and 1970s alterations.

From Temple Meads, the bulk of the city lies west along Victoria Street, but just before crossing the bridge over the Floating Harbour, turn left along the quayside pathway to find Redcliff Quay and Exploration (1991), a sculpture celebrating Bristol’s seafaring heritage, particularly the exploits of fifteenth-century mariners who sailed from the city to cross uncharted waters (Fig 77). The shiny ceramic obelisk - The Unknown Deep by Philippa Threlfall and Kennedy Collings - is topped with a steel armillary sphere designed and made by James Blunt, which functions as a sundial; the whole work was commissioned by the Standard Life Assurance Company. The design of the obelisk features sea monsters and serpents based on drawings from medieval bestiaries. Return to Bristol Bridge and cross the Floating Harbour; immediately to the right is Castle Park, in whose north-east corner is Only Dead Fish go with the Flow (1993), a sculpture in white-glazed ceramica do Douro by Victor Moreton.[5] Close to the waterside near the park’s centre is Fish (1993), a bronze water fountain, its bowl formed by erupting fishes, which stands on a brick and terracotta-tiled plinth. The ceramic original of the fountain, by Kate Malone (b1959), who was brought up in Bristol, may be seen in the foyer of Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, Park Row. Bronze was chosen as a medium for the fountain because of the vulnerability of three-dimensional ceramics to vandalism. After it was cast, Malone glazed the pot with complex layers of colour evoking deep sea images.

Back at the bridge, continue along the High Street into the narrow thoroughfare known as Broad Street, to reach the iconic - and in its time iconoclastic - facade of the Everard Building, now NatWest Insurance Services (Fig 78). The Everard Printing Works, designed by the architect Henry Williams with the ceramic facade by W. J. Neatby for Doulton’s, was completed in 1901. The first public sight of the building caused such a stir that the crowds had to be controlled by police for two days before the shock of the polychrome Carraraware facade wore off. The owner of the new Works, Edward Everard, intended his building to honour the masters of the art of printing, and initially favoured a Celtic theme. Neatby, however, put forward the design as executed, with Gutenberg and William Morris appearing on the first floor of the facade, both at work on their presses.[6] An angel hovers between the two printers and their alphabets, while in the gable above is an allegorical female figure representing light and truth. The whole is set back from the general building line of the street, and therefore all the more unexpected. The tile fixing was carried out by Walter Yoxall, a local craftsman; a plaque in the foyer (where there is another tile panel) commemorates his part in the enterprise. The Works was demolished in 1971, leaving the facade with new offices to the rear; round the corner at 1 John Street, however, there is a remnant of the old building: a red terracotta dragon (probably supplied by Barham Bros of Bridgwater) can still be seen peering into a downpipe. Today, the Everard Building is a monument to the lost cause of colour in the townscape. Around the time of its construction, the use of external colour was being discussed as part of the general concern about suitable architectural styles for the new century. The architect Halsey Ricardo (partner of William De Morgan during 1888-98) wrote in 1902: ‘We have tried mass and form, and light and shade, might we not now have an attempt at colour?’[7] The answer, despite the success of the Everard Building, was in the negative, although it has certainly come to be accepted, as its owner hoped, by ‘futurity’.

Wend your way down to the Centre Promenade, perhaps via Corn Street; on the north side amongst many impressive structures is the Commercial Rooms (now a bar), built in 1809-11 as a club for the city’s merchants; later remodelling included the addition of a green faience ceiling to its entrance lobby. The single-storey former Stock Exchange, on the left in St Nicholas Street, was built in 1903 and designed by Henry Williams; its fine interior, which featured in Pilkington’s trade literature, includes art nouveau tiling running up the oval stairwell from the basement.[8] Nearby in Clare Street is a typical Prudential Assurance building by Alfred Waterhouse, put up in 1899-1901. Its relatively unspectacular facade combines red terracotta, manufactured by J. C. Edwards of Ruabon, and pink granite. Rather more interesting is the former warehouse (1878) at 13 St Stephen’s Street, where red terracotta busts of Shakespeare, Milton and Tennyson gaze forth from a bright yellow glazed brick facade.

At the bottom of the hill is the broad expanse of the Centre Promenade; the main route leads south, but a deviation north at this point, into the main shopping area, will bring you to the Bristol Eye Hospital, opened on Lower Maudlin Street in 1986 (Fig 79). Decorating the front of the building are five massive carved-brick reliefs designed and sculpted by Walter Ritchie (1919-97), who was a pupil of Eric Gill during 1938-9. The panels, each measuring 5’ 7” by 12’, depict The Creation and were executed in 1983-6; the material was Ibstock Red Marl brick. The relief of Animal Life is especially attractive, with a giraffe, kangaroo and a multitude of other creatures cunningly interwoven. When installed, these panels were the largest non-reinforced brick reliefs ever carved.[9] From Centre Promenade, head south to Broad Quay and Broad Quay House (1981), looking out over Bordeaux Quay. On the eastern facade of this anonymous office block is a series of fifteen complex ceramic panels, each measuring about three foot by four foot, designed and made by Philippa Threlfall and Kennedy Collings. They were commissioned by Standard Life Assurance and depict elements of local maritime history.
West of the quayside is the triangular space of College Green, bounded by the Council House on the west and the cathedral to the south. On the north side is St Mark’s Chapel, which was built in the early thirteenth century and became the official place of worship for the Mayor and Corporation of Bristol in 1721; it is now owned by the City Council and known as the Lord Mayor’s Chapel, and - as well as a wealth of fabulous tombs - has a good Godwin pavement in its chancel. The splendidly perpendicular Poyntz Chapel, a chantry chapel to the south of the chancel, was added by Sir Robert Poyntz between 1510 and 1520; he was interred in the (unfinished) chapel in 1520. Sir Robert’s home, Acton Court near Bristol, was partly floored with late fifteenth century tiles made in or near Bristol; their design is ornate but their buff and brown colouring dull in comparison with the chapel’s colourful cuenca pavement. These latter tiles were probably brought back from Spain by Francis, third son of Sir Robert, in 1527.[10] The cuenca tiles, which have a wide variety of glazes, are likely to have been manufactured in Seville and have two main types of design, geometric patterns and Renaissance motifs including animals and heraldic symbols (Fig 80). It seems that Seville tiles were undergoing a brief period of popularity in Britain during the early sixteenth century, as a floor including tiles of the same origin and period, and with similar colouration, exists at The Vyne in Hampshire.[11] The floor of the Poyntz Chapel was successfully restored during 1992-3, and the tiles on the dais are normally visible, although the main floor area is now covered by a carpet.

Cross College Green and make for the steps at the east end of the Cathedral, which lead down towards the quayside. At the bottom, across Anchor Road, is the Tourist Information Centre in Anchor Square; on its west side is a full height ceramic map (2003) of the National Cycle Network by Marian Tucker, Sue Ford (a Bristol-based ceramicist) and Carol Arnold (Fig 81). Its 110 individual pieces were made from white stoneware paper clay, a combination of clay and paper pulp which has the same strength as normal clay but is less likely to shrink or warp; the clay was pressed into county-shaped moulds then fired three times. Several months of experimentation were required to produce a material which could withstand the elements. Similar ceramic maps featuring the Sustrans routes can be found on other cycle paths in Britain and Northern Ireland; one stands on Belfast’s quayside while the first was unveiled in Birmingham’s Centenary Square in 2000.[12] From Anchor Square, return to Temple Meads via Pero’s Bridge and Redcliffe Bridge.

Clifton

Heading out of the city centre towards Clifton, in Jacob’s Wells Road is the opulent buff terracotta of the former Hotwells Public Baths (1881-7), converted into a gymnasium around 1980; its architect was Josiah Thomas, Bristol’s City Surveyor. Immediately above the single-storey baths is a row of terraced houses which continue the buff terracotta theme almost to excess, using the material for assorted relief decoration as well as in vertical strips of patterned hollow bricks apparently acting as vents.

Half a mile west of Jacob’s Wells Road on Clifton Hill is Goldney House, now owned by the University of Bristol and known as Goldney Hall. The house was built around 1720 for the Quaker merchant Thomas Goldney, whose family created the garden to the south of the house, in which stands the Goldney Grotto. The grotto, dated 1739 (in shells) but constructed during the period 1737-65, is a substantial subterranean fantasy whose pillared interior - a miniature dance hall in scale - is decorated with a mixture of shells, quartz and rock crystal; there is also a cascade, a rock pool and a lion’s den. Once the walls of the enchanting grotto were complete it seems that the Goldneys turned their attention to the floor, which is a unique encaustic pavement formed from two types of red and buff marbled tile interspersed with plain buff tiles. Marbled tiles are made by wedging together clays of two colours; after slicing and rearranging the clay, the colours remain separate, forming streaks and random shapes running right through the tile. Thomas Goldney’s account book records that he bought quarry tiles from the Dale brick and tile works in Coalbrookdale, then paid Thomas Paty for ‘grinding, gageing and laying them’ during 1762-5.[13] The swirling colours of the floor enhance the weird atmosphere of the grotto.

Continuing into Clifton proper, the late nineteenth century butcher’s shop at 12 The Mall has a partly green-tiled facade and good interior tiling. Half a mile east in St Paul’s Road is St Paul’s Church, rebuilt in 1867 by the architect C. F. Hansom. The church has a good collection of Powell’s opus sectile work: the reredos, which cost £347 and was one of the firm’s largest commissions, was completed in 1903; two more panels followed in the same year, then two more in 1905 and another in 1906, by which time the church had become something of a Powell’s showcase (Fig 82). The firm supplied a further panel in 1910, then two war memorial panels in 1919 and the final three panels in 1923 and 1927 (two), taking the display of opus sectile work almost up to the point at which Powell’s ceased production. Together with the chancel tile pavement and the excellent set of Hardman stained glass windows, the opus sectile panels form part of an elaborate (and expensive) decorative scheme.[14]

Fishponds

At the Avon Orthopaedic Centre, Southmead Hospital, is a modern tile mural by Alan Lloyd showing a map and images of Avonmouth. The former site of Fishponds railway station in Station Road is now marked by a huge brick sculpture of a fish diving into a pond: Fish on its Nose by Doug Cocker.

CHELTENHAM

Cheltenham is something of a disappointment in ceramic terms. Many of its churches have hidden their encaustic tile pavements beneath carpeting, while its tiled shop interiors have disappeared completely, so it is only possible to recommend two secular sites and a trio of churches, the latter all by the town’s leading ecclesiastical architect John Middleton (1820-85), a designer of strongly polychromatic interiors. The best of his churches is All Saints Church, All Saints Road, on the northern edge of the town centre. It was built in 1866-8 (with alterations in 1877) and the vibrant interior, intended for Tractarian worship, includes nave and aisle pavements by Godwin and an elaborate Minton chancel pavement. The Lizard Serpentine Company supplied the Minton tiles. There is also a fine ironwork chancel screen and mural paintings at the west end.

West of All Saints in Winchcombe Street is a shop with delightful late nineteenth century tiled pilasters showing an assortment of well-detailed fish and fowl; it was the premises of Messrs Morris, fishmonger and poulterer. Right in the middle of Cheltenham, on the busy junction between High Street and St James’s Street, is the pub originally known as the Coopers Arms. Its lime green faience facade and red fascia (good lettering) make it easy to identify even allowing for the changes of name which so often afflict licensed premises. The pub was built in 1909 by the Cheltenham Original Brewery Company, its predecessor on the site having been destroyed by fire. Half a mile south-west of the High Street, the shopfronts of Montpellier Walk are supported by a series of tall caryatids, two of which are painted terracotta figures sculpted by John Rossi; the remainder are stone. The Walk was designed by the local architect William Hill Knight (1814-95) and put up between 1843 and around 1860. Rossi, who modelled the well-known caryatids on St Pancras Church, London during 1818-22, died in 1839, so it appears that he gained the contract for the Cheltenham caryatids in the mid 1830s but was only able to complete a few of the figures. Rossi’s terracotta caryatids (which were used as models for the stone figures) represented an unusual and unfashionable choice of material on the part of the young architect. A further half-mile south is the Church of St Philip and St James (1879-82), Grafton Road, another polychromatic feast designed by John Middleton. Here the encaustic pavement, which runs throughout, is by Maw & Co.

Charlton Kings

The patron of the Church of the Holy Apostles, London Road, was Charles Cook-Higgs; he lived nearby and donated the site and much of the construction costs. It was put up in 1865-71 to John Middleton’s design, but Cook-Higgs wanted to control the appointment of the incumbent and the church was not consecrated until after its patron’s death in 1884. The main feature of the interior is the scheme of stone carving, but there is also a good Godwin encaustic pavement in chancel and sanctuary, its tile designs including a stag’s head motif.

CIRENCESTER

In the Market Place, the centre of Cirencester, is the Church of St John the Baptist, the largest parish church in Gloucestershire; its excellent Godwin encaustic pavement, installed by George Gilbert Scott during his restoration of 1865-7, is currently under threat of replacement by marble flooring. The tiles seem never to have been a popular addition to the church, whose guidebook describes the nave tiling as Scott’s ‘only real mistake’; even before the altar was raised by a step in 1970, the brightly coloured sanctuary pavement had been ‘discreetly covered with carpet’.[15] At the far end of West Market Place is Black Jack Street and the superb Edwardian butcher’s shop of Jesse Smith & Co. The facade has much art nouveau lettering, including a stall riser reading ‘Pork Butchers’, and a four-tile pig’s head panel in the doorway. A little south of the centre in Watermoor Road is Holy Trinity Church, built in 1847-51 by George Gilbert Scott; there is a good Minton pavement in the chancel.

CLEARWELL

St Peter’s Church, an estate church erected in 1863-4 and designed by John Middleton, has one of his typically polychromatic interiors: horizontal stripes are formed from layers of white Bath stone and local blue and red Forest stone, and there is a Godwin encaustic tile pavement in the chancel, as well as a lavish reredos. The church remains very much as it was built.

COLESBOURNE

The Church of St James is set in the grounds of Colesbourne Park. On its exterior east wall is a single embossed tile, about a foot square and bearing a crucifix; it may be fourteenth century. The encaustic pavement in the chancel is probably by Godwin’s while the tiled dado, most of which was covered by panelling in 1921, was by Minton’s. A small patch of this glazed encaustic wall tiling is still visible, however, hiding behind a radiator.

COWLEY

St Mary’s Church (which stands in the grounds of Cowley Manor) was restored in 1871-2; the encaustic tile pavement is by Minton Hollins while the opus sectile reredos of 1875 was designed by Charles Hardgrave of James Powell & Sons. It cost £85 and shows the Last Supper, with accompanying text in small blue tiles.[16]

DAYLESFORD

The medieval home of the Hastings family was at Daylesford; the estate was sold off in 1715 but Warren Hastings, formerly Governor-General of Bengal, bought it back in 1788 and built the present house. He also rebuilt medieval St Peter’s Church, purchasing two angel head corbels from the Coade factory in 1817, but died the following year.  His grave, in the churchyard immediately east of the chancel, is marked by a fine Greek revival Coade stone monument.[17] The church itself was seen as unsuitable for modern worship by the 1850s and an almost completely new church was built in 1859-63; its architect was John Loughborough Pearson. There is an elaborate geometric pavement by Maw & Co inside, part of a largely untouched polychromatic decorative scheme.

FRAMPTON-ON-SEVERN

St Mary’s Church was consecrated in 1315, restored in 1850-2 and then again in 1869-70, the latter work being carried out by the gentleman architect Henry Woodyer; his main contribution was to enlarge the chancel. The east wall of the new chancel was faced with Powell’s eight-inch glass tiles, and there is an attractive sanctuary encaustic pavement by Godwin’s. An opus sectile reredos of the Last Supper, also by Powell’s and designed by Harry Burrow, completed the decorative scheme in 1878.

FRETHERNE

St Mary’s Church was rebuilt in 1846-7. The new church was commissioned by the Rev. Sir William Lionel Darell, who appears to have wanted a church suited to Tractarian worship, as his chosen architect was Francis Niblett (1814-83), the architect member of the Niblett family of nearby Haresfield Court and a member of the Cambridge Camden Society from 1845. Niblett eventually had a busy general architectural practice in Gloucestershire, but this early opportunity to build a complete church in accord with his own and the incumbent’s principles was the chance of an architectural lifetime. No expense was spared, and the result was a perfect, if small, vision of the Victorian version of medieval worship, with much colour and decoration; even the roof has fishscale patterned tiles. The nave has a brilliant geometric pavement in red, black, green, yellow, blue and white tiles, while the chancel and sanctuary have bright Minton encaustic pavements. Later additions to the church by the architect John West Hugall include the Tierney chapel (1857-9), which also has an encaustic pavement, and the ornate Darell chapel (1866-7).

GLOUCESTER

Gloucester Cathedral originated as the Benedictine monastery of St Peter, and its best-known medieval encaustic tiles - the Seabroke pavement - were laid during the abbacy of Thomas Seabroke (1450-7).[18] But this pavement is only one of the Cathedral’s many tile installations, which range from early medieval to late Victorian and include an unusual Minton memorial (Fig 83). A good view of the heart of this complex building may be obtained from the tribune gallery, which looks down on to the choir and presbytery, restored by George Gilbert Scott during 1867-73. At the east end is the Seabroke pavement, in front of the high altar; it was carefully restored in the early nineteenth century, and around 1873 the medieval tiles originally on the altar dais were removed to the south-east chapel of the tribune gallery. The Seabroke tiles are from Great Malvern and most of their twenty-nine different designs - apart from those bearing the arms of Abbot Seabroke - have also been found at Malvern Priory, although no original pavement is now extant at Malvern. Also in the Cathedral sanctuary are some Droitwich tiles of around 1370 which predate the Seabroke pavement.

George Gilbert Scott, who had been consulted about restoration proposals for the Cathedral in 1855, set out his proposed programme of restoration in 1867; it included preservation of the Seabroke pavement and paving the presbytery and choir with a mixture of marble and encaustic tiles. His proposals were accepted, and Scott commissioned Godwin’s of Lugwardine to produce copies of medieval tiles found around the high altar and elsewhere in the Cathedral. In the choir these were combined with black and white marble, while for the presbytery Scott designed eighteen white-on-black sgraffito marble squares depicting incidents from the Old Testament, which are used with the tiles and various coloured marbles to form an intricate decorative scheme. In the presbytery pavement, laid in 1871, is a plain-tiled area marking the presumed burial site of Duke Robert, eldest son of William the Conquerer, who died at Cardiff Castle in 1134. Seen from above, this is a dramatic pavement, full of life and colour, but opinion following its installation was not all in its favour. An observer writing in 1899 gave this verdict:

‘New tiles, ostensibly copied from the old ones, but of a different size, with an excessive glaze, and very stiff design and execution have been put down. It is hard to judge what the effect of the tiles would have been, as it has been quite killed by the white marble which has been mixed with them. The glaring white marble in the floor of the presbytery has been inlaid with biblical scenes filled in with black cement. It is possible from the triforium to get a general idea of the crudity and tastelessness of the pavement, which is so composed and arranged that time - the softener of all things - can never make it look appreciably better.’

East of the high altar is the Lady Chapel, where the sanctuary tile pavement dates from around 1475. The pavement is thought originally to have covered the entire floor area, but burials in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries resulted in the floor being relaid, with the surviving tiles being moved. Elewhere in the Cathedral are many more medieval tiles, notably in the chapel of St Edmund and St Edward (north-east), around the tomb of Edward II and in Abbot Parker’s chantry chapel (north ambulatory). The chapter house, whose medieval tiled floor had been boarded over in the seventeenth century, was restored in 1856-8 and a new tile pavement laid. This was made by Minton’s and kept as far as possible to the design of the original floor. The much brighter encaustic pavement in the Chapel of St Andrew, in the south transept, probably dates from 1866-8 when its excellent wall paintings were executed by Thomas Gambier Parry, making it a Highnam in miniature (see below). Finally, out in the east walk of the cloister is the unusual floor memorial of Lieutenant General Sir Giles Nightingall (d1829), a stone rectangle framed in polychrome Minton tiles. The tiles were added to the original memorial by the architect John West Hugall in 1865 in memory of the Rev. Sir W. L. Darell of Fretherne.[19] Hugall had built a chapel at Fretherne Church in memory of Darell’s father-in-law in 1857-9, and added the Darell chapel in 1866-7.

After the Cathedral, the rest of Gloucester is something of a ceramic anticlimax. However, turn southward to find Westgate Street and the redundant St Nicholas Church; its elaborate sanctuary wall tiling, in a slightly shocking red, dates from restoration in 1865. Just south in Upper Quay Street, on the facade of the extension to the Shire Hall, is a fine six-part ceramic mural by Peter Saysell, a potter from Bream in the Forest of Dean, depicting local scenes, including the new building itself, in bright colours and high relief; it was installed when the building was completed in 1966. Just north of the main crossroad, in Northgate Street is the Imperial Inn, with an attractive (though small) tile and faience facade dating from 1904 when the pub was owned by the brewers Mitchells & Butlers, who were attempting to expand their tied estate beyond Birmingham; the architects were the Cheltenham practice Knight & Chatters. A rather more spectacular pub facade of about the same date is that of the Vauxhall Inn in Barton Street, the continuation of Eastgate Street; it displays many similar elements to the Imperial, although on a larger scale suitable for its corner site with good lettering and emphatic doorcases. In Southgate Street is the Church of St Mary de Crypt, restored in 1844-5 (not normally open); the complex Chamberlain encaustic pavement in the sanctuary includes a trade tile at the corner of the altar dais. Turn left into Greyfriars to find a tree-shaped ceramic mural above the entrance to Eastgate Market Hall (1968), through which one can return to Eastgate Street and Lloyds Bank (1898, now Lloyds TSB) with buff terracotta dressings including lion finials.

Kingsholm

St Mark’s Church, Worcester Street was built in 1845-7 and designed by the local architect Francis Niblett, whose Fretherne Church was being put up almost simultaneously. Unlike Fretherne, which was fully funded by its incumbent, construction of St Marks, which stood in a poor area of town, was funded by the Diocesan Church Building Association and various grants and voluntary contributions. It was therefore impossible for Niblett to produce as lavish an interior as at Fretherne, and indeed St Mark’s was enlarged in 1888-90, the alterations to the chancel being carried out by Richard William Drew, once a pupil of Henry Woodyer. The sanctuary encaustic pavement is by Godwin’s. In addition, St Mark’s has a First World War memorial, dedicated in 1920, in the form of an oblong, coloured tile plaque edged with mosaic; it was made by G. J. Hunt. 

Wotton

About half a mile north-east of Gloucester railway station on the London Road is St Catherine’s Church, the third St Catherine’s to be built in Wotton. The first was a medieval church, the second was put up in 1868, then both were demolished and the present church built on a new site in 1912-15 for the Gloucester Church Extension Society; it was designed by the Gloucester architect Walter B. Wood (1852-1926). The nave of the stone-built church is not divided from the chancel, but there is a small sanctuary and - most surprisingly - a decorative encaustic tile pavement running throughout the church. The tiles, which were manufactured by Godwin’s, must have been brought from the Victorian church along with the font. There is also a carved and painted reredos (1937) and a wooden screen (1948); the mixture of Victorian and twentieth century furnishings is intriguing.

Just south of St Catherine’s, the new Gloucestershire Royal Hospital opened in 2004 on a large triangular site bordered by the London Road and the Great Western Road, close to the railway station. Artist Marion Brandis was commissioned to produce a tile and mosaic Welcome Wall for the Children’s Centre, basing the images - which include a funky blue cat - on designs created by local children.

HAILES

Hailes Abbey, a Cistercian house, was founded in 1246 by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, younger brother of Henry III. In 1270 Richard’s son, Edmund of Cornwall, presented an important relic to the Abbey; it was kept in a shrine at the east end of the presbytery, which was rebuilt during 1271-7. This new section of the Abbey was paved with specially designed tiles which were probably made on site, although no kiln has yet been located. The tile designs were mainly heraldic, with oxidised and reduced tiles laid alternately to introduce colour variation. Shortly before its dissolution in 1539, the chapter house and other areas of the Abbey were repaved using tiles of heraldic design which were decorated with poured slip.[20] Part of this early sixteenth century pavement was relaid at Southam Delabere, six miles south-west of Hailes, following the dissolution. This house was once the home of Sir John Huddleston, whose arms featured on one of the bosses in the thirteenth century chapter house. The pavement was eventually returned to Hailes and may now be seen in the Abbey Museum, along with sundry thirteenth century floor tiles. In Hailes Church, which predates the foundation of the Abbey, is a substantial collection of mostly late thirteenth century tiles, probably brought from the Abbey.

HIGHNAM

Holy Innocents Church is a monument to the taste of Thomas Gambier Parry of Highnam Court, to his wife Isabella, who died three years before its consecration, and to the ideals of the High Church revival. Gambier Parry, who was educated at Eton and Cambridge, joined the Camden Society in 1840 and began to plan a new church for Highnam in 1848, the year of his wife’s death at the age of thirty-two. His chosen architect was Henry Woodyer, a school friend from Eton who shared Gambier Parry’s High Church views, and the foundation stone was laid in 1849. Construction and the provision of ornate fittings (including the Minton pavement) took just twenty-one months, and the church was consecrated on the 29th April 1851.[21] The elaborate Minton tiling - including unusual multicoloured encaustics with a roughly circular brass inlay - becomes increasingly rich towards the east end, where red glass roundels are set into the pattern; tiling in the side chapel was removed in 1968. The tiles are only one element in the overall decorative scheme, which was finished around 1880 when Gambier Parry completed his remarkable series of ‘spirit fresco’ wall paintings, whose colour and vitality make the church so memorable.

KEMPSFORD

The architect G. E. Street worked at St Mary’s Church in 1856-8, restoring the chancel and adding a chapel. The Godwin sanctuary pavement dates from this period but the glass tile and mosaic installation on the east wall is later; it was ordered from Powell’s of Whitefriars in 1891. The design includes tiles bearing heraldic symbols and the sacred monogram, as well as a foliate motif identical to those of the glass tiles at St Mary, Frampton-on-Severn.[22]

LITTLETON-UPON-SEVERN

Around the font of the Church of St Mary of Malmesbury are some early sixteenth century heraldic tiles showing the arms of the Duke of Buckingham and probably made in Bristol. They were brought from Thornbury Castle, a few miles to the east, which was begun by Edward Stafford, third Duke of Buckingham, around 1511; he was executed in 1521, before the building was complete. The castle was restored in 1854 and a few of the original tiles remain on the ground floor.

MINCHINHAMPTON

The alterations made to the chancel of Holy Trinity Church by William Burges in 1869-71 included the installation of a Godwin encaustic tile pavement and the unusual ‘double plane tracery’ of the east window.[23] This double set of tracery caused the light to fall in a grid pattern on the shining tiles, an effect Burges also used at the memorial church of Christ the Consoler, Skelton, North Yorkshire, begun in 1871.

OWLPEN

The interior of the Church of the Holy Cross is one of the richest in the Cotswolds. Its encaustic pavement (by Godwin) probably dates from the alterations carried out in 1874-5, but it is the work of Powell’s of Whitefriars which really catches the eye, in the chancel and most impressively the baptistery. The decoration of the east end (1887), in mosaic and opus sectile, includes lettering and figures of the Virgin Mary, the four Evangelists and St Helena, all designed by Charles Hardgrave. The church tower was rebuilt in 1911-12, then in 1913 its interior (which serves as the baptistery) was treated with a superb opus sectile scheme of angels which cost £400.[24]

OXENTON

St John the Baptist is a thirteenth century church with a puzzle - optical, ceramic and chronological - on its chancel floor. The chancel paving comprises plain red, yellow and black diamond-shaped tiles, with sides 115mm in length; their arrangement produces a three-dimensional effect akin to that achieved in some medieval pavements.[25] The Oxenton tiles are identical to tiles found a few miles south-west at Tredington Court, and just over the border at Bredon Church in Worcestershire. Analysis suggests that the Tredington tiles (which are in a part of the house added in the seventeenth century) probably date from the mid seventeenth to early eighteenth centuries and originate in the Midlands, although similar clays were also in use in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Thus a probable date of the seventeenth century also seems appropriate for the Oxenton tiles.

REDMARLEY D’ABITOT

Apart from its tower (rebuilt 1738), St Bartholomew’s Church was rebuilt by the Gloucestershire architect Francis Niblett in 1855-6. The vivid geometric tile pavements in the chancel and especially the sanctuary doubtless date from this period, as does the similarly colourful (but overpainted) sanctuary wall tiling. The manufacturer may have been Maw & Co.

TETBURY

St Mary’s Church, Church Street was designed by the architect Francis Hiorne of Warwick and built in 1776-81 to replace the ruined medieval church. Hiorne often worked in the decorative Gothic style, and here he specified Coade rather than Tetbury stone as a “proper and suitable stone” for the delicate cream tracery of the soaring windows.[26] In New Church Street is St Saviour’s Church (redundant since 1976), built in 1846-8 in thoroughgoing Ecclesiological style by the Gloucester architect Samuel Whitfield Daukes, a member of the Camden Society from 1844. The array of fine furnishings provided by Hardman & Co of Birmingham includes an unusually good encaustic tile pavement by Chamberlain & Co, one of the last such pavements to be produced at their Worcester works.

TEWKESBURY

Tewkesbury Abbey was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott and his sons during 1875-9. The work included the excavation of most of the Abbey’s medieval tiles, and the laying of a pavement in the choir made up of careful copies of the designs of those found in the eastern part of the Abbey. The new encaustic pavement, which steps up to the sanctuary, was manufactured by Godwin’s in 1879 and includes many images typical of the medieval Malvern tilers. There are groups of four, twelve and sixteen tiles divided by black bands, and the designs, in buff and brown, suggest that most of the original pavements were laid in the first half of the fifteenth century, although some were earlier. This exemplary (and extraordinarily highly polished) Victorian pavement may be compared with the remaining medieval tiles in the Abbey which are scattered around various sites, some having been relaid; the best are in the north chantry chapel, the Beauchamp Chapel, which was erected around 1430.[27] Tewkesbury Abbey’s over-restoration, as William Morris saw it, was one of the crucial events leading to the formation of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877. Lastly, in the town itself, at the main Post Office, High Street, is a large 1970s tube-lined pictorial tile panel.

TWYNING

The Cheltenham architect John Middleton rebuilt the Church of St Mary Magdalene in 1867-70, although the Godwin encaustic tile pavement in the chancel dates from 1885-6, as do most of the other chancel furnishings. Outside in the churchyard are two unusual memorials dating from 1916: a pair of pale buff glazed ceramic hearts, for the wife and daughter of Owen Thomas of Rose Villa, Twyning. The heart-shaped plaques are mounted on rustic vernacular stems of rough brown ceramic, resembling trees, with the top branch holding the heart and the two side branches hollowed out to hold flowers. These ingenious memorials have recently been described as being ‘of unbelievable hideousness and unsuitability’; in addition ‘they have failed to weather or attract lichens and can only be left as an example of inappropriate materials’.[28] Large ceramic memorials are rarely found in churchyards, partly because they may have been thought to be vulnerable to the effects of the weather; the Hulm memorial (Doulton) in Burslem Cemetery, Stoke-on-Trent dates from the same period as the Twyning hearts and has suffered considerable damage. It seems that despite their weather-beating qualities, the design of the ceramic hearts did not generally appeal to those searching for suitable memorials; perhaps they would have fared better in the Potteries.

UPPER SLAUGHTER

The mortuary chapel on the north side of the chancel of St Peter’s Church was designed by Francis Niblett, built in 1854 and paid for by public subscription; it houses the tomb of Francis Edward Witts (1783-1854), rector and lord of the manor, who was best known for publishing The diaries of a Cotswold parson. The elaborate decoration of the chapel includes encaustic floor tiling, a painted frieze and modern abstract stained glass; the chancel pavement is by Godwin. Near the church is the Lords of the Manor Hotel, the home of the Witts family from 1855; its tile pavement probably dates from enlargements made in that year.

WOODCHESTER

Deep in a secluded valley south of Stroud is the astonishing and incomplete house originally known as Woodchester Park; it now goes by the name of Woodchester Mansion, to avoid confusion with the surrounding landscape park which is now in the care of the National Trust. In 1845 the Woodchester Park estate was bought by the Staffordshire landowner and recent Catholic convert William Leigh, who commissioned A. W. N. Pugin to draw up plans for a new house. Pugin withdrew in 1846 because of pressure of work, and Leigh then concentrated on the construction work required to house a new Passionist religious community on a site at the east end of his estate. Work on Leigh’s mansion did not begin until 1854, but much of its unique Gothic stone-built structure was complete by 1862; work continued through the 1860s but the mansion was abandoned around 1870 and Leigh died in 1873. The mansion, now conserved but never to be complete, is now in the care of the Woodchester Mansion Trust.

Leigh also asked Pugin to provide plans for the Passionist community buildings, but the architect gave up the commission after Leigh asked for the size of the church to be reduced, and C. F. Hansom took it on. His Church of Our Lady of the Annunciation, St Mary’s Hill was built in 1846-9 and taken over by the Dominicans in 1850; Hansom’s priory, to the north of the church, was built in 1850-3 but demolished in 1971. The church, which stands high above the Bath Road, now serves as a Roman Catholic parish church. The richly patterned encaustic chancel pavement, which includes distinctive six-inch tiles in a mixture of brown, red, blue and cream, is only a small part of the superlative original interior decorative scheme, most of which has been lost. The tiles, some of which were designed by Hansom, were manufactured by Minton’s.

Woodchester’s parish church, St Mary’s Church, is in the settlement of North Woodchester, well to the north of the mansion; it was built in 1862-4 (architect S. S. Teulon). The original tile pavement is now hidden following alterations to the floor levels, but there is a tiled reredos of the Last Supper designed by Frederick Preedy (1820-98), the stained glass artist and architect, who also designed three windows at St Mary’s. The reredos, which was reset in the thirties, was probably part of the first decorative scheme. The remains of the Old Church of St Mary, abandoned in 1863, stand less than half a mile to the north. Beneath the churchyard is a Roman palace excavated in 1793-6; in one of its rooms (still buried) is the Orpheus mosaic pavement, the largest north of the Alps.

WYCK RISSINGTON

The architect J. E. K. Cutts restored the Church of St Laurence in 1879, contributing one of his typically well designed (mainly geometric) tile pavements, which often featured eight triangular tiles of alternating colours set within a square. The tiles were made by Godwin’s. Beneath a monument to Canon Harry Cheales (d1984) is a 3’ by 2’ wall mosaic representing the design of the hedge maze he created in the rectory garden. In 1947 Cheales had a vision instructing him to create the Maze of the Mysteries of the Gospels, which was complete by 1950 (but has been lost). The mosaic version, by Adrian Fisher Maze Design, dates from 1988.

Gloucestershire Roundup

Terracotta by Gibbs & Canning was used in the works carried out at Holy Trinity Church (1855-6), Apperley in 1896-7 by its original architect, Francis Cranmer Penrose. Forty-eight tube-lined tiles designed by Kit Williams and made at Jackfield decorate the central pavilion of the Dragonfly Maze, Rissington Road, Bourton-on-the-Water; the maze was begun in 1995. There is an attractive Godwin tile pavement in the chancel and sanctuary of St Michael’s Church, Brimpsfield, dating from its restoration in 1883-4. There is an unusual encaustic pavement (possibly Godwin, 1892) in the sanctuary of St Swithin’s Church, Brookthorpe. Relaid in the south aisle of St Michael’s Church, Buckland is a group of fifteenth century tiles, while the Godwin encaustic pavement in nave, chancel and sanctuary dates from the 1885 restoration and includes copies of medieval tile designs particular to this church. The tile and mosaic reredos (1876) at St Matthew’s Church, Coates is by James Powell & Sons. On the west wall of St John the Baptist, Coln St Aldwyns, is a highly glazed panel of plain and encaustic tiles, perhaps dating from the late 1890s. The Butterfield-influenced 1863 restoration of St Mary’s Church, Driffield, included a sanctuary pavement and colourful dado tiling, possibly using tiles from several manufacturers. There are medieval tiles in St Peter’s Church, Dyrham (at the east end of the south aisle) and the walls of the dairy at Dyrham Park are faced with seventeenth century Delft tiles. St Mary’s Church, Flaxley was rebuilt in 1856 by George Gilbert Scott; the rich decoration includes a fine Godwin encaustic tile pavement. St John the Baptist (1856-7), France Lynch was only the second complete church to be built by G. F. Bodley; its polychromatic interior includes a superb encaustic tile pavement, probably attributable to Minton’s. Christ Church (1867-8) Gretton has some unusual Godwin designs in its chancel encaustic pavement and an embossed majolica tile memorial (dated 1865) on a transept wall. The Godwin chancel encaustic pavement at St Michael’s Church, Guiting Power dates from the 1902-3 restoration and includes symbols of the evangelists. St George’s Church, Hampnett was restored by G. E. Street in 1868; the Godwin pavement includes some uncommon tile designs. The Godwin pavement at St John the Baptist, Harescombe dates from the restoration of the church by Francis Niblett in 1870-1. William Butterfield’s 1863-7 restoration of St Mary Magdalene, Hewelsfield included the addition of plain Minton tiling (nave) and a Godwin encaustic pavement (sanctuary). The interior of a garden building at Hidcote Manor, Hidcote Bartrim is faced with Dutch tiles, mostly dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and largely of Friesian manufacture. St John the Baptist, Huntley was built (apart from its earlier tower) in 1862-3 by the architect S. S. Teulon; the very rich interior has a Minton Hollins pavement throughout. The brightly coloured Godwin encaustic pavement running throughout St Mary’s Church, Icomb dates from its 1870-1 restoration. All Saints Church, Kemble has a tiled reredos by Maw & Co and a Godwin pavement, both dating from the late 1870s. St Mary’s Church, Painswick has an unspectacular Godwin pavement and an opus sectile reredos (1893-4) by Powell’s in the north chapel. William Butterfield’s uncommonly colourless interior at St Michael’s Church (1873-4), Poulton includes an encaustic pavement by Maw & Co. The chancel of St Lawrence Church, Sandhurst (rebuilt 1857-8) has an excellent Godwin encaustic pavement including eight-inch tiles of the evangelists. There is an elaborate encaustic tile pavement (probably Minton) in the chancel of St Andrew’s Church, Sevenhampton, dating from the 1892-3 restoration. William Butterfield’s restoration of little All Saints Church, Shorncote (now redundant) in 1882-3 included the installation of chancel floor tiling. The elaborate encaustic chancel pavement at St Peter’s Church, Siddington formed part of Henry Woodyer’s 1864-5 restoration, as did the blue glazed tiled dado, which has been overpainted. The mostly plain Godwin tile pavement (1872) at St Mary’s Church, Upper Swell includes four six-inch memorial tiles on the altar step. Henry Woodyer’s 1849 restoration of St Leonard’s Church, Upton St Leonards included the installation of a sanctuary tile pavement and a gold mosaic reredos, both from Minton’s.[29] The unusual sanctuary pavement by Maw & Co at St Lawrence, Weston Sub Edge dates from around 1853. The colourful Minton pavement (in mostly buff, brown, blue and white) at St Peter’s Church, Willersey dates from its 1866-72 restoration. The extensions and alterations (1873-5) to St Peter’s Church, Windrush carried out by Henry Woodyer included the installation of a geometric nave pavement (Minton Hollins) and an encaustic pavement in the chancel.

Apart from those mentioned above, the following churches have Godwin tile pavements: St Bartholomew, Aldsworth; St Margaret, Alstone; Holy Rood, Ampney Crucis; St Peter, Ampney St Peter; St Margaret, Bagendon; St Mary Magdalene, Baunton; All Saints, Bisley; St Michael, Blaisdon; Holy Trinity, Brimscombe; St Michael, Bulley; St Andrew, Churcham; St Bartholomew, Churchdown; St Bartholomew, Coaley; St Andrew, Cold Aston; St Mary, Down Hatherley; St Peter, Framilode; St Edward, Hawling; St Andrew, Hazleton[30]; St Swithun, Hempsted; St Martin, Horsley; St Lawrence, Lechlade (also Minton wall plaque); St Mary, Lower Slaughter; St Stephen, Moreton Valence; St Andrew, Naunton; St Mary, Norton; St Bartholomew, Notgrove; All Saints, Somerford Keynes; Holy Trinity, Stroud; St Laurence, Stroud; St Thomas À Becket, Todenham; St Luke, Tutshill; St Margaret, Whaddon; St Peter, Winchcombe; St Bartholomew, Winstone.

There are tile pavements by other manufacturers at St Mary, Barnsley; St Martin, Charlton Abbots (Minton); St Edward, Evenlode (Maw); St Peter, Frampton Cotterell (Minton); St Peter, Hasfield (Minton); St Nicholas, Hatherop; St Mary the Virgin, Lower Swell (part Wedgwood); St Mary, Meysey Hampton (Maw); Holy Ascension, Oddington (Minton); St John the Baptist, Old Sodbury (Maw); St Cyr, Stinchcombe (Minton); St John the Baptist, Shipton Moyne (supplied by Simpson’s, so probably by Maw’s); St Edward, Stow-on-the-Wold; St Matthew, Twigworth (Minton).

References

1.^         David Gaimster and Beverley Nenk, English Households in Transition c1450-1550: the ceramic evidence, in The Age of Transition: the archaeology of English culture 1400-1600, David Gaimster and Paul Stamper, Editors, (Oxbow Books, Oxford, 1997), pp171-195.
2.^         Hans van Lemmen, Delftware Tiles (Laurence King, London, 1997), pp123-5.
3.^         David Verey and Alan Brooks, Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds 3rd ed. Buildings of England (Penguin, London, 1999), p100.
4.^         Paul Atterbury and Louise Irvine, The Doulton Story (Royal Doulton Tableware, Stoke on Trent, 1979).
5.^         Andrew Foyle, Bristol Pevsner Architectural Guides (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2004), p171.
6.^         J. Barnard, 'A monument to the printers' craft', Country Life, 149 (1971), pp412-3.
7.^         H. Ricardo, 'The architect's use of enamelled tiles', British Clayworker, 10 (1902) March, pp431-7.
8.^         Pilkington's Tile & Pottery Co. Ltd., Clifton Junction in British Library, Trade Literature, OM06y. This brochure, comprising twelve photographs of interiors with Pilkington's faience and tilework, was probably produced shortly after the opening in 1903 of two buildings featured: Corporation Baths, Lister Drive, Liverpool and the Stock Exchange, Bristol. It includes two photographs of Lister Drive Baths, one showing the entrance hall and staircase which is captioned 'Faience Balustrade & Wall Tiling'; the other shows the main baths. Seven out of the twelve photograph captions mention faience, suggesting that Pilkington's was a major producer of coloured slab faience during the early 1900s.
9.^         Douglas Merritt, Sculpture in Bristol (Redcliffe Press, Bristol, 2002).
10.^       Carol E. Brown and Jeremy Hutchings, The Conservation of the Spanish Tile Floor in the Lord Mayor's Chapel, Bristol, in Architectural Ceramics: their history, manufacture and conservation, Jeanne Marie Teutonico, ed, (James & James (Science Publishers) Ltd, London, 1996), pp113-118.
11.^       Chris Blanchett, 'The floor tiles at The Vyne, Hampshire, England', Glazed Expressions, (2000) 41, pp2-31.
12.^       David Wickers, Millennium Miles: The Story of the National Cycle Network (Good Books (GB Publications Lmited), Whitley, 2000), p93.
13.^       Tony Herbert, 'Early Encaustics in Bristol', Glazed Expressions, (1985) 10, pp5.
14.^       Martin Laker, 'A new look at St Paul's mosaics', St Paul's Church, Clifton, Parish Magazine, (2003).
15.^       Canon Rowland E. Hill, Cirencester Parish Church: An account of its History and Architecture 4th ed (The Friends of Cirencester Parish Church, Cirencester, 2000).
16.^       Dennis W. Hadley, James Powell & Sons: A listing of opus sectile, 1847-1973, (2001).
17.^       Alison Kelly, Mrs Coade's Stone (Self Publishing Association, Upton-upon-Severn, 1990), p349.
18.^       David Welander, The History, Art and Architecture of Gloucester Cathedral (Alan Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 1991).
19.^       David Verey and Alan Brooks, Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and the Forest of Dean 3rd ed. Buildings of England (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2002), p428.
20.^       Elizabeth Eames, English Tilers (British Museum Press, London, 1992).
21.^       Tom Fenton, To raise a perfect monument to taste (Smith & Associates, Much Wenlock, 2001).
22.^       Philip and Dorothy Brown, 'Glass tiles', Glazed Expressions, (1994) 28, pp2-3.
23.^       J. Mordaunt Crook, William Burges and the High Victorian Dream (John Murray, London, 1981), p232.
24.^       Hadley, James Powell & Sons (2001).
25.^       Betty Greene, 'Some unusual tiles at Bredon, Oxenton and Tredington', Glazed Expressions, (1992) 24, p8.
26.^       Kelly, Mrs Coade's Stone (1990), pp115, 350.
27.^       Jane A. Wight, Mediaeval Floor Tiles (John Baker, London, 1975).
28.^       Hilary Lees, Exploring English Churchyard Memorials (Tempus Publishing, Stroud, 2000).
29.^       John Elliott and John Pritchard, eds, Henry Woodyer: Gentleman Architect  (Department of Continuing Education, University of Reading, Reading, 2002).
30.^       The Builder, vol 25, 2nd February 1867.