building materials

 

roof covering

Broken clay peg tiles were found in large numbers in the ground during Y.A.T.’s excavation of the site.

Measuring exactly ten by eight inches these tiles are larger than equivalent peg tiles from Kent or Essex and may have been the standard roof covering in York in the medieval period before the importation and subsequent local manufacture of Flemish pantiles from the 17th.c. onwards.

Certainly both medieval ranges in Coffee Yard seem to have had this peg-tiled roof covering from the start. The riven oak laths on which they had once hung were still nailed to primary rafters at the exact spacing suited to this large obsolete size of tile. However the Trust’s attempts to remake them for the project by constructing a replica medieval kiln in a field outside York ended in complete failure. It just would not reach firing temperature. In the end we had them made as a special order by Sandtoft Tiles Ltd.

 

chimney pot
The curious medieval chimney pot (louvre) restored to the Hall Range is an exact copy of the original found smashed in the ground and glued together by the Trust. The original is in its archive of finds. The corona is hollow and pierced like a Peruvian clay flute. It emits a melodious hum when the wind blows through it in the right direction –perhaps an accident or a signal to light a fire in the hearth below that would draw. We could not test this theory because York is now a smokeless zone.

The replica louvre was made by a local potter, John Hudson.