There for the present the case must rest, but to the writer at least it appears that John Bromley’s tentative solution to the problem of the fleur-de-lys is on examination found to be ”beyond reasonable doubt” to have been correct. One postscript to the fleur-de-lys question is perhaps worth mentioning. There exists a book by an anonymous author published c.1825 entitled “The Coats of Arms of the Newcastle Trade Guilds”. Among the 60 odd Guilds whose Arms are illustrated is that of the Bricklayers and Plaisterers who have appropriated to themselves the Arms of corresponding Livery Companies , and so the two fleur-de-lys of the Plaisterers and the single fleur-de-lys of the Tylers and Bricklayers were presumably displayed together in Newcastle for centuries.

Finally the question must be asked, if the Tylers and Bricklayers did not themselves come into existence as an independent religious Fraternity with vows to the Virgin Mary, then with what similar Parish Fraternity would it have been associated. There were a dozen or so Parish Fraternities that were known to have existed in the city in the Middle Ages, but probably the one most likely to have been supported by the Company was that which was connected with the Church of All Hallowes London Wall and which is first mentioned in 1361. The Church was situated only about one hundred yards from the Tylers’ first Hall, and although it survived the Great Fire, it was rebuilt in the 1760s to the design of George Dance the Younger.

Finally, in 1570, the Company produced a new set of Ordinances under the new charter and on the 14th July of the following year 1571 these were approved in accordance with the Statute of 1504 by the Lord Chancellor and keeper of the Great Seal, Sir Nicholas Bacon (father of the better known Francis Bacon) – also Lord Chancellor) the Marquess of Winchester, the Lord High Treasurer and Sir Robert Catlyn the Chief Justice of the Queens Bench. These Ordinances deal with the conduct of members of the Company in relation to each other and with regard to the taking of apprentices , the maintenance of a Court of Assistants, the Election of Masters and Wardens, the appointment of a clerk and a beadle, and the periodical reading of the Ordinances to members in “their Common Hall”. With regard to the supervision of the Craft there is a list of responsibilities that are indeed daunting when it is considered that these had to be exercised throughout an area similar to that now contained with the M25 orbital route. These responsibilities included the following:

- The inspection of places where earth or clay was dug for brick of tile making, and where sand chalk “or other stone” was dug or broke for making lime for (making mortar) laying bricks or tile;

- Checking that bricks and tiles were of the standard sizes required by Statute or the Company’s Ordinances, and the “merchantability “ of paving tiles.

- Examination of carts carrying tiles, sand or lime for quality and quantity of the load;