INTRODUCTION

In the 17th and early 18th centuries lead-glazed relief-decorated tiles were made in the north Devon potteries of Barnstaple, Bideford and Great Torrington. They are remarkable in a national context, since the production of decorative lead-glazed floor-tiles had ceased in most other parts of Britain at a much earlier date – in most areas by the mid-16th century. Prior to the recent past, such tiles were regarded principally as a form of church flooring, since the most numerous and best-known examples are those still to be seen in the churches of north Devon and the adjacent part of Cornwall. They were the subject of a classic paper by Laurence Keen in 1969, which established their date-range and production centres, documented their distribution in 34 churches and other sites, and illustrated 64 designs.

Alongside the production of relief-decorated tiles, the north Devon potters also made hearth furniture. This topic was also touched on by Keen, who recorded the sole example then known of a north Devon fireback and discussed three firedogs, but a much larger series of finds is now available for study. Three types of hearth furniture were decorated with the same stamps as the tiles: firedogs, spit supports and firebacks. These too are unusual in a national context: although individual examples of firebacks and spit supports have been reported elsewhere in Britain, all these classes of hearth furniture seem extremely rare outside north Devon.