When was this made?
In the late 13th century, the Chertsey tiles were commissioned and built onsite at the Chertsey Abbey. While the exact years of when it was created are unknown, the estimated date is between 1250 and 1290. It was assumed that the initial combat tiles were constructed around the 1250s, and the series of tiles relating to Tristan and Isolde to be created in the years following. With ties to a datable series in the Halesowen Abbey and the West Midlands, the squared tiles were with reason to have been completed by 1290.
The tiles in the Chertsey Abbey have close resemblance to the ones discovered in the chapter house of the Westminister Abbey. Those were confirmed to have been completed by 1258/9 when Henry III ordered the remaining surplus of tiles at the Abbey chapter house to be utilized in the paving of the St Dunstan’s chapel in Westminster Abbey. With similarities in design and technique, a scheme of having pictorial tiles laid horizontally with inscriptions, it is possible that those surplus tiles or materials in the Chertsey Abbey were ordered to be used in the chapter house within Westminster.
With depictions of circular tiles of 49 mm in diameter decorated with one of a bearded king and the other of a lady being published in the year of 1787, members of the population were captured by the fact that other preserved tiles might be found at Chertsey. Workmen found a prominent discovery of tiles in 1853. Shurlock, an antiquarian and resident of Chertsey, alerted by its discovery obtained permission from the owner of the ground to excavate what pieces he could find. By collecting these fragments and attempting to piece them together, Shurlock was able to assemble working designs of the Chertsey tiles.