Make a Medieval Floor Tile at Titchfield Abbey

Spend a day with Tom Chamberlain recreating a medieval floor tile from the collection at Titchfield Abbey. The day starts at the abbey, where Tom shows you the medieval pavements and explains how the tiles were made. You choose a couple of designs to make. Then you go to his pottery a couple of miles away, where you cut your chosen designs as lino stamps and mount them, ready for printing. After lunch you press your stamps into locally dug red clay, the same kind used at Titchfield Abbey and Winchester Cathedral, and fill the pattern with white clay. Tom then gives you some tiles that have already hardened, so you can scrape back the surplus clay and reveal the design. Your tiles are dried and fired at the pottery for you to collect later.