- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Stone tile of light brownish grey stone. [MJD (Verve) 22/06/2015]
- Long description
- Stone tile of light brownish grey stone. The stone is flat and roughly rectangular. The tile is narrower at the top and has one hole. One surface has scratched lines. the edges of the tile are bevelled. [MJD (Verve) 22/06/2015]
- Geographical reference
- England Oxfordshire Stonesfield
- Cultural groups
- English
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1954
- Date collected
- By 1954
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1954
- Materials and processes
- Material Stone, Process Split, Process Perforated
- Dimensions
- Length: max 403 mm, Width: max 155 mm, Thick: max 14 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1954.3.26
- Research and responses
http://www.communigate.co.uk/oxford/yarntonwithbegbrokehistorysociety/page4.phtml: Mr. Alan Cobb began his talk to the History Society about "Stonesfield Slates" by eschewing his own title. The "slates" to which the title refers should, in fact, more properly be "flat-stones" as Robert Plot called them, or tiles; the stones were part of a limestone belt which includes the Cotswolds and were laid down during the Jurassic period or thereabouts - that is, some 160 million years ago - and contained rich fossil deposits ( the sale of which provided supplementary income or at least beer money for those working the mines). The Stonesfield Slates were a close relation geologically to Cotswold tiles which are still in use in building projects today.
Tiles, as such, have been in use at least from Roman times up to the medieval period although those found, for example, in Oxford Colleges were not split by the artificial frosting process. The splitting of stones by subjecting them in the open to 3/4 frosts was probabably discovered by Robert Plot in 1676. There were several reasons for the success thereafter of Stonesfield Slates. There was a building boom in the 16th and 17th centuries and tiles were sometimes preferred to thatch because they were fire-proof. There was then - most conveniently - a mini-Ice Age providing the frosts without which the Slates could not be split.
The Stonesfield Slates could only be mined within an area of about 2 miles. They were used extensively in the construction of buildings in the Blenheim Estate and elsewhere in the Royal Manors in and around Woodstock. Stonesfield prospered and at its height there were 17-19 centres supplying tiles for Oxford Colleges and other places such as Shipton on Stour. The tiles did not have a market to the south-east of Oxford and to the west Stonesfield Slates merged with Cotswold tiles.
The period of prosperity did not last long. In 1831 Pitt removed the tax on Welsh slates which could, in any case, be moved cheaply by railway - William Morris spoke gloomily about grey slates marching across the country. Instead of the cheaper Stonesfield Slates being used for farm buildings, corrugated iron was often preferred; and Welsh slate was even cheaper, more regular in shape, required less strong roof structures and was more weatherproof. Disastrously too there was a succession of mild winters without frosts. The industry went into decline and by 1911 the last pit at Spratts Barn closed.
As with most rural industries, the Stonesfield Slates had a language of its own The tiles were known as "pendle"; and the horizontal tunnels were "adits". Each size of tile had a different name, including "wippet", "short bachelor, "muffity" and "short cock".
Even at its height, the techniques of mining were not mechanised although a horse-gin was occasionally used. There were some shafts although none exceeded 78 ft. in depth and these were lined with dry stones behind which were clay dams to keep out water. The winding arrangemnents were primitive involving buckets and hand windlasses. Waste material was used to fill the excavations, otherwise Stonesfield might have collapsed into limestone oblivion. The stone, once mined, was "banked up", then watered and covered by earth until the frosts came. Then, it is said, the villagers were "summoned by bells" to remove the earth and to lay out the stones to be frosted. Once the stones had split, they were prised apart (by a "zax"or "sect" - in their local language), trimmed with a slate hammer, the edges were bevilled and a hole (for a wooden peg) cut with a slate pick.
The History Society is most grateful to Mr. Cobb for his account of the rise and fall of a local industry. That industry may have gone but it appears that nature, most unusually, has relented and provided an alternative to Stonesfield Slate in the form of Cotswold Tiles. These split while in the ground and make the frosting process redundant. So those with sufficient capital, a house with the pitch of 45 degrees or thereabouts, a strong roof structure and no preference for thatch need not repine. [AP 26/09/2006]
According to a website dedicated to the Pratley surname the 'The very first Pratley was originally William Spratley, who came to Leafield, Oxfordshire from a town near Banbury in around 1620. ... And there are still Pratleys living in Leafield today.' Leafield is only 5 miles away from Stonesfield. There is a William Frank Pratley of W.F. Pratley and Sons Decorators at same address as this Pratley. William Frank Pratley was born in 1880, there is no record of his father only his mother Elizabeth Pratley, born 1862, his grandfather was Philip Pratley born 1834, died 1917, a farm labourer. William was less than two years younger than Philip's youngest child Sarah. http://www.pratley.info/person/detail.php?person=8492 [accessed 22/06/2015] [MJD (Verve) 22/06/2015]
Search terms: Dwelling, Building Part