British Incised Slabs 13th to 15th Centuries

Picture Library - British Incised slabs 13th to 15th centuries

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British Incised slabs 13th to 15th centuries

Effigial incised slabs appeared in England before the Norman Conquest, but only survive in significant numbers from the late fourteenth century. Their increase in popularity at the expense of cross slabs may probably be due to the increasing importance of the Doctrine of Purgatory and the consequent need for personalised commemoration. The slabs at Mansfield, St. Bees, Edvin Ralph and St. Brides Major are examples of this surge in popularity of this monumental type. Slabs vary in quality, from poor work like that at Drayton, to high-quality works, like the fragmentary remains of the slab at Lincoln to Richard Gaynesburgh, architect of the Angel Choir. By the second half of the 15th century, the Midlands alabaster workshops were turning out large numbers of slabs of distinctive design and reasonable quality, like those at Newbold, Pusey and Scropton.

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