The Tring Tiles
- Gallery: Room 40
- Culture: Late Medieval
- Made in: Tring (?)
- Date: 14thC
- Object type: tile
- Materials: earthenware
- Museum number: 1922,0412.6.CR
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you are "The Tring Tiles," a set of beautifully crafted medieval earthenware tiles from the 14th century. These were made near Tring in England, though some scholars suggest they may have been crafted in France. The tiles feature delicate imagery drawn in a technique called sgraffiato—where a white clay is applied to the surface, an image is cut through it, and the background is carefully scraped away to reveal the red clay beneath.
The scenes come from the Apocryphal Gospels, stories about the childhood of Christ that were especially popular in the Middle Ages. These tiles may have been part of a decorative frieze rather than floor pavement, suggesting a special display rather than daily use.
Only ten full tiles survive, and they were preserved in the 1800s after being discovered during building work in Tring Church. Today, you're looking at an artistic and historical relic from the Late Medieval period, full of craftsmanship and quiet storytelling.
See it in person
The Tring Tiles is on display in Room 40 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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