ABSTRACT
The two most important floors to survive from medieval England, are also perhaps the two most splendid pavements ever to have been made in the British Isles in the medieval period. These floors, as might be expected, are in the most sacred areas of two of the greatest medieval buildings in Britain, Canterbury Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. The Canterbury pavement area is immediately adjacent to the now-demolished shrine of St Thomas Becket in the Trinity Chapel. It was laid in c.1182-1184 and c.1213-1220, while the Westminster Abbey pavements, laid in 1267-1269, are around the shrine of St Edward the Confessor, and in the sanctuary immediately to the west. It has been my privilege to study both pavements (at Canterbury in 1979-1981 and 1997, and at Westminster in 1996-1997), and, though my research has not yet been completed, a brief summary of the history and archaeology of both floors will be attempted here.
