| The tiles were found in thick underbrush under a
small grove of oak trees
at the back of two acres of property a friend of mine bought in June of
2001. He had originally planned to bulldoze the property, including
the oak trees at the back, to level the property. Fortunately he
investigated the underbrush surrounding the trees and discovered thousands
of pieces of tile with "Batchelder" stamped into the back.
After a search on the Internet, it became obvious that he had an almost
unbelievable find on his hands. |
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| The
tiles had originally been in large wooden barrels as evidenced by the
metal barrel hoops that were surrounding the stacks of tile that had sunk
three feet into the ground over many years. Although there were many
broken pieces, most of the tile had held up remarkably well. A
tribute to the quality workmanship of the Batchelder tile works. |
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| Next came the task of removing all of the pieces to a safe
location. Hundreds of metal milk crates were used to remove all of
the pieces after they were carefully dug out of the earth and then
transported to my friend's carport. |
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| It took almost a year to clean and sort all of the
pieces, but we now have a complete inventory of the assorted field tiles,
fireplace surrounds, paving stones and decorative tiles that you see on
this site. |
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