During a watching brief on excavations undertaken for the construction of a road linking Boffalora with Malpensa, in the section that passes Vanzaghello, a production site was uncovered. This was characterized by the remains of six tile kilns of varying types and dimensions. The furnaces of all the kilns were filled with rubble and sandy-silt dumps containing numerous fragments of tile, unbaked and baked clay which had probably accumulated following the demolition of the upper part of the kilns. This involved the removal of the firing chamber and the structures supporting its perforated floor.
Unfortunately, no useful dating material was recovered. Therefore, purely on the basis of the construction typology and the nature and structure of the materials used, it has been suggested that this area was active during the modern period, probably between the 15th and 18th centuries. The validity of this hypothesis is supported by archival research from which it results that at Busto Arsizio (VA) both the church of San Giovanni Battista (begun in 1609) and the church of the Beata Vergine delle Grazie (built in the years 1710-15) were constructed using bricks bought from “fornasari� at Vanzaghello whose names were Boldrini, Giudici, Miarini, Milani, Rivolta, Spagnoli and Varini. Comparison with similar kilns found at Guardamiglio and Tavazzano (LO) confirm the proposed dating. (Laura Simone Zopfi)