Another reason I wanted to visit the British Museum recently was to see a little known ancient mystery face to face. Tucked away in the British Museum are the curious Tring Tiles—a set of eight medieval ceramic tiles from a Hertfordshire church dating back to the late 13th century. What makes them extraordinary is their subject: scenes from the childhood of Jesus.
Made via the delicate sgraffito technique, with white slip scratched away to reveal red clay beneath, the tiles bear a comic-strip structure; each panel tells a short, dramatic scene, often in pairs.
But here’s the mystery: these tiles don’t depict the canonical Gospel stories we all know. In other words they are NOT in the Bible. Instead, they draw from the apocryphal infancy gospels—rare, often suppressed writings that were excluded from the Bible. In eight scenes, the young Jesus is shown performing miracles, some playful, others troubling: animating clay birds, striking down dead playmates, and then restoring them to life. These are a much different depiction of the young Jesus than we were taught in Bible school.
But were these tiles meant as devotional teaching tools, moral lessons, or simply decorative art? Or do they preserve a glimpse into alternative Christian traditions that once circulated more widely?
The Tring Tiles left me with more questions than answers, straddling the line between history, myth, and mystery. Like many artifacts in the British Museum, they remind us that faith, folklore, and art have always been intertwined—and that not every story fits neatly into the official record.
I found it interesting that the tiles are placed in an area of the museum such that you’d easly miss them if you didn’t know where to find them. Fyi you can find thrm in Room 40 (Medieval Europe) against a back wall. Although hundreds of year’s old they are in remarkably good condition.
Why It Matters to Mystery Lovers
Mysteries—like these tiles—are often found in the margins. The Tring Tiles beckon us to consider the unofficial stories, the hidden chapters, the playful whispers of history that speak in powerful ways. They remind us that the past is not only grand narratives, but also little vignettes full of humanity—and that mystery itself often hides in the everyday.
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