Simon White comes clean after finding clay pieces in toffee tin, saying he took them as souvenir from Wenlock Priory
Fragments of a priory’s medieval tiled floor that spent almost 60 years stashed in a toffee tin after being pocketed by a nine-year-old boy during a family outing have finally been handed back.
The three pieces of decorative clay tiles, dating from the late 13th to early 14th century, were taken as a souvenir by Simon White during a family visit to Wenlock Priory in Shropshire in the late 1960s.
White, now a 68-year-old retired chartered surveyor, found the fragments in an old toffee tin during a house move and owned up to English Heritage. He told officials he recalled his father encouraging him to take the pieces but had always felt a little uneasy and was delighted when he rediscovered them.
“I can remember the day this all happened with my father standing guard,” he said. “Heaven knows what he would have said if we’d been caught. What happened to the tiles afterwards I’m not really sure, but they survived numerous house moves and assorted family upheavals only to turn up in my loft earlier this year in a battered tin.”
