Ancient Tile Kilns at Bray's Lane

1908: "An Interesting Discovery at Stoke"

Initial work began at the northern end, near to Walsgrave Road, on the west side of Bray's Lane. While the cutting of a new street - to become St. Osburg's Road - was in progress, on Tuesday 21st January 1908 the excavations revealed a number of carved stones, running in two parallel east-west lines. As reported in the Kenilworth Advertiser four days later, Alderman Andrews believed that the find was ecclesiastical in nature, with two halves of capital being of Norman origin.

On the right is an abridged article carried by the Kenilworth Advertiser on the 24th June 1911, written by a local historian and regular columnist known to all as "Spectator".

On Thursday, two days after the initial find, further remains were unearthed, mostly 13th century in style, "including carved capitals, corner stones, mouldings, etc.". The discovery created a fair amount of excitement among local historians, and various theories were put forward. Some conjectured that a second Stoke church had been revealed, while others thought it might be a remnant of the long lost hamlet of Bisseleie (sometimes spelt Bisserley), although this had been thought to be to the north-east of Stoke. Even back in 1656 when Sir William Dugdale published his Antiquities of Warwickshire, it was described as "anciently de-populated". One person even wondered if it might be the original site of Biggin Hall. We now know the true location of that hall - across Biggin Hall Crescent near to its junction with Lindley Road - and that the other theories were incorrect, too, but at the time these were the thoughts of the local historians and enthusiasts.

1911: "A Remarkable Discovery"

From the initial discovery of what was thought to be ecclesiastical remains, over three years elapsed before the archaeologists unearthed what turned out to be medieval tile kilns. Not only was the find completely unexpected, but deemed to be of national importance. The 1911 photo below gives us an idea of how far below ground level they dug, and the map further down this page gives the location and the approximate direction that the cameraman was facing.

We are fortunate that, on the 26th January 1917, Coventry's first newspaper to use real photographs, the Coventry Graphic (right), was among those reporting the second exciting find.

Local reporters soon began to wonder if there was a link between the two kiln sites, found six years apart - perhaps the field in which they lay originally being one continuous working area. In support of this idea, Helen from the Historic Coventry Forum agrees, and suggests that "if this area produced tiles for the entirety of Coventry you can imagine that they went through a lot of kilns and just moved a bit when they were too encrusted to carry on with the same one. There were obviously a lot of duds, hence the layers of tiles over the whole area."

Local historians at the time felt that the first kiln discovered in 1911 was, judging by its construction, "the most ancient of the two", and that "The first kiln contained evidence of the growth of the business carried on by the proprietor."

Although nobody can be certain when these tile kilns first came into use, historians did make this conjecture using the evidence presented by the huge numbers of tiles found, which were "of the usual type of inlaid mediaeval ecclesiastical work. Many showed traces of the green glaze which was in common use on domestic pottery as early as the 12th century, and from then to the 16th century. Moreover, the firing of the kiln was with wood, for strata of wood ashes were observable in various directions. Thus it was made clear by its own evidence that the tilery was in operation from 1100 and something to 1500 and something."

Interestingly but sadly, the story of a tragedy that occurred in 1516 (eighth year of the reign of King Henry VIII) tells us that kilns were still in operation at that date. Labourer William Bosworth, making tiles at a "tyle-house" owned by William Ruyley, took a piece of clay from which he had just made a tile, and threw it, intending to hit a servant named Alice. He missed Alice, but the tile struck John Ruyley on his left side, and he died from his injury two days later.

Tiles produced at Stoke were extensively used in ecclesiastical buildings, including St. Mary's Priory in Coventry. Iain Soden, in his 2005 book Coventry: The Hidden History suggests that around 99% of the tiles found in excavations around Coventry were manufactured at Stoke, and examples have even been found as far afield as Dudley, Oxfordshire and Wales.

Two decades later, on the 18th February 1937, Philip B. Chatwin delivered a lecture to the Coventry Archaeological Research Society on "Mediaeval Floor Tiles made in Coventry and elsewhere". He told his audience that "Coventry was the centre of tile-making in the Middle Ages", and that "documentary evidence showed that these tiles were made at Stoke".

As well as tiles, the area was also home to several clay pipe manufacturers, and indeed the northern end of Bray's Lane near to Walsgrave Road was for some time known as Pipe Lane.