Tring Tiles come home

The tiles, believed once to have adorned the walls of Tring’s Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul, date from the 14th century. In cartoon style, they tell ‘apocryphal’ stories of the childhood of Jesus, stories which don’t appear in the recognised gospels. They include comical, violent and wildly improbable scenes, but are all depicted with great gusto, in the manner of Dennis the Menace, presumably intended for an audience that could not read or write.

All the tiles and fragments known to exist have some connection to Tring. The British Museum has eight, said to have been found in the 1860s in a ‘curiosity shop’, and Tring Local History Museum has been displaying modern replicas of those ever since it opened in 2010.

The V&A has two others, plus two fragments, found over the years by Tring people and given in the 1920s and 30s. These examples are the real thing, and will be on display here from late October for the next six months. “It’s a great honour for a small local museum like ours to secure a loan from a major national institution like the V&A”, said chairman Tim Amsden. “We’ll do our best to justify their confidence, and enable people to explore the history and meaning of these important examples of medieval ceramics.”

Talented artist and tile maker Sue Jones has gone one step further, by exploring the original sources and creating speculative designs for tiles that may once have existed. Using the same ‘sgraffito’ technique, she has made and fired some of these, which we will also be displaying. There are plans for her to offer tile-making workshops as well, and even take the results away to fire them.

Tring Local History Museum, the only one of its kind in the Dacorum area, is at the Market Place, Brook Street. It’s open on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 am to 3.30 pm. An Accredited Museum, run entirely by volunteers, it is free of charge to enter, but relies on visitors’ generosity.

www.tringlocalhistorymuseum.org.uk