I have just had the most fantastic and exhausting day at SWARCH. I worked with the pottery expert all day, it was suggested that I should sort the finds alongside Graham Langman , I was told to put them into four piles: roof tile, floor tile, pottery and slate kiln shelf, I added a bone pile and a don’t know pile! It was a bit of a test to see if I knew anything and thankfully I picked it up really quickly.

A lot of the pottery we were sorting through comes under the category of Coarse Ware. It is often the fabric of the clay which determines the date, the more black and rough it looks the more likely it is to be old. Another term used was gravel tempered: using mica, quartz or calcareous material (crushed shell) to strengthen the ware. There was also gravel free ware which was finer more refined and more likely to be later.

During the day we found a great deal of evidence to suggest that there had been a pottery on this site. Apart from what the team had found during the dig which was a pit full of pottery that was at one end of a clay seam (already strong evidence of pottery production). The strongest piece of evidence was finding parts of a saggar, these would have been used to protect more delicate items such as cups. There were also pieces which looking like kiln fabric, kiln wasters including warped pieces which had been very overfired and the slate which was covered in glaze indicating that it had been used as a kiln shelf.

These are just a few images of the numerous boxes that we sorted. Image 1 is a general view, 2 shows a part from a cider jar, an overfired piece of clay and a cup handle, 3 shows the bottom of a floor tile the 4/5 scoops indicate that it could be medieval, 4 is of roof tiles (some jug handles also have these marks which look decorative but are actually to reduce thermal shock, 5 more cider jars and glaze colours, 6 handle styles, 7 interesting pattern possibly 15th century also the glaze is more dry and I was told that this was due to flour being added to the glaze however this happened around 1510, 8 more applied decoration and handles, 9 and 10 show a late 13th early 14th century inlayed floor tile, a very beautiful and exciting find, 11 pieces of saggar, 12 various handles applied and stamped patterns, 13 there was some discussion as to the origin of this mark, I later found an image of it in a book on Tudor pottery which I found at Corsham.

I also discovered that the fireman was paid the most because if he got the firing wrong no-one would be paid!

This was my first day cleaning pottery sherds. It makes such a difference actually working with the pottery even if it is only cleaning it! I have learnt so many interesting things already.
The pieces have been dug up in the car park of the Exeter Inn in Barnstaple. I spent far too much time in this pub as a teenager so it was a little odd to be cleaning bits of pot that were found there.
The guys at SWARCH have been very generous with their time and information. They were specifically looking to see if there was evidence that pottery was being made on this site prior to the Brannams pottery. If evidence of this was found it would fill in a missing 100 years of Barnstaple pottery history from around 1550-1650.
Typically I forgot to take my decent camera so I only have a few images from this day.
One piece was a typical red clay, white slip, honey glaze but it had an impression of a wheat sheaf which was rather lovely. Apparently decoration would only be there for a reason and this would indicate that the piece would probably have been a harvest jug. One of the main things that the team were looking for were kiln wasters as this would be a very good indication that there had been a pottery there. I found a few pieces that I believed to be kiln wasters as they either had air pockets or the glaze was covering one of the broken edges.
I am very much a beginner when it comes to Archaeology so it was great to feel I could contribute something from my experience as a ceramicist.

They have an expert in identifying ceramics coming Friday so I am hoping I will be able to spend the day observing.