After nearly 60 years stashed in a toffee tin like some sort of medieval candy, three fragments of a 13th-century tiled floor have finally been returned to Wenlock Priory in Shropshire. The culprit: Simon White, who at age nine pocketed the tiles during a family outing in the late 1960s, egged on by his father - who apparently moonlighted as a getaway lookout.
White, now a 68-year-old retired chartered surveyor, rediscovered the fragments in a battered tin while moving house. Cue a wave of guilt and a call to English Heritage. “I can remember the day this all happened with my father standing guard,” White confessed. “Heaven knows what he would have said if we’d been caught.” One can only assume the family had a contingency plan involving a fast getaway and plausible deniability.
Using family diaries, White pinpointed Wenlock Priory as the scene of the crime. English Heritage’s assistant curator, Matty Cambridge, confirmed the tiles likely came from there, noting similar tiles only exist at three sites in Shropshire. The other two - Haughmond Abbey and Bridgnorth Friary - were ruled out due to lack of in situ tiles or excavation timing. So, case closed, medieval style.
One of the fragments features a dragon motif previously unknown at Wenlock - a discovery Cambridge called “quite exciting.” Another shows what might be a lion, or possibly a grimacing face. (Medieval artists: not great at facial expressions.)
White handed the tiles back in a pilgrimage-like ceremony at the priory. “There are no hard feelings,” Cambridge said. “He was only nine and was told: ‘Oh, this is pretty - take it home.’” English Heritage is now hoping White’s confession prompts other guilt-ridden souvenir hunters to come forward - presumably to return everything from ancient coins to that “borrowed” hotel ashtray.
The tiles won’t be reinstalled but will go to an English Heritage archaeology store for analysis. White, who now belongs to a local archaeology society, acknowledged they’d “take a dim view” of his childhood heist. But hey, better late than never - and at least he didn’t try to sell them on eBay.