Pottery from Bures, Suffolk. (Site BUR/12)
Paul Blinkhorn
The pottery assemblage comprised 1,280 sherds with a total weight of 20,682g. The
assemblage from each trench is reported individually (below), with the following
fabric types noted:
EMW: Sandy Coarsewares, late 11th – 14th century. A range of quartz-tempered
coarsewares that found throughout the east midlands and East Anglia.
EG: Essex Sandy Grey Ware, mid-12th – late 14th century (Cotter 2000). Medium-hard
grey fabric with visible sub-rounded quartz up to 1mm.
HED: Hedingham Ware: Late 12th – 14th century. Fine orange micaceous glazed ware
(McCarthy and Brooks 1988, 300-2).
LMT: Late medieval ware. 1400 – 1550. Very hard red pottery with lots of sand visible in
the clay body. Main type of pots were big glazed jugs, some with geometric designs painted
on them in white slip (Cotter 2000).
GRE: Glazed Red Earthenware, 16th – 19th century (Brears 1969). Fine sandy
earthenware, usually with a brown or green glaze, occurring in a range of utilitarian forms.
Such 'country pottery' was first made in the 16th century, and in some areas continued in use
until the 19th century.
BW: Border Ware, AD1550 - 1700. Wide range of utilitarian and tablewares in a fine,
white fabric with a bright green, yellow or brown glaze. Manufactured at a number of centres
on the Surrey/Hampshire border and the main coarseware pottery type in London in the postmedieval period (Pearce 1988).
TGE: Anglo-Dutch Tin-glazed Earthenware 17th – early 18th century (Orton 1988). Fine
white earthenware, occasionally pinkish or yellowish core. Thick white tin glaze, with painted
cobalt blue or polychrome decoration. Range of table and display wares such as mugs, plates,
dishes, bowls and vases.
HSW:
Metropolitan Slipware, 17th – 18th C. Similar fabric to Red Earthenware, with
geometric designs in white slip under the glaze. Produced at a number of centres, but
particularly Harlow in Essex (Davey and Walker 2009).
WCS: Cologne/Westerwald Stoneware. 17th century+ (Gaimster 1997).Hard, grey fabric
with clear salt glaze. Vessels include jugs with moulded decoration and chamber-pots, often
with blue and purple manganese and cobalt decoration.
SS: Staffordshire Slipware. AD1640-1750. Fine cream fabric with white slip and pale
yellow lead glaze, commonest decoration is feathered dark brown trailed slip. Chiefly pressmoulded flat wares, although small bowls and mugs etc are known.
EST: English Stoneware. 1680+. Hard, grey fabric, often with a brown, iron-rich exterior
wash. Range of utilitarian vessels, particularly mugs.
SWSG: Staffordshire White Salt-Glazed Stoneware, AD1720-1780 Hard, white fabric
with a distinctive white ‘orange peel’ textured glaze. Range of fine tablewares such as mugs,
tea bowls and plates.
19thC: Miscellaneous 19th and 20th century wares. Mass-produced white earthenwares,
stonewares etc.
All the wares are well-known in the region.
The Assemblages
Trench 1
The pottery assemblage comprised 577 sherds with a total weight of 10,727g. The
pottery occurrence by number and weight of sherds per context by fabric type is
shown in Table 2 (below). Each date should be regarded as a terminus post quem.
Table 1: Pottery occurrence by number and weight (in g) of sherds per context by
fabric type, Trench 1
Tr
1A
1A
1B
1A
1A
1A
1B
1A
1B
1B
1B
1B
1B
1B
Cntxt
U/S
20
20
22
23
24
24
25
27
33
34
35
36
39
Total
EMW
No Wt
1
4
LMT
No Wt
2
2
1
1
2
17
25
52
GRE
No
Wt
6
114
14
228
3
131
52 2222
3
473
3
59
8
195
2
74
3
61
15
701
TGE
No Wt
2
1
4
5
11
6
WCS
No Wt
1
1
13
SS
No Wt
2
13
2
39
EST
No Wt
1
3
3
35
1 155
3
33
1
22
13
SWSG
No Wt
1
8
3
5
2
5
1
8
7
26
1
5
2
53
7
147
2
111
12
4270
7
22
2
26
1
5
13
65
1
21
10
269
19thC
No
Wt
13
35
199 3372
4
598
46
474
1
37
1
438
76
26
2
485
257
4
22
426
233
5897
Most of the pottery was post-medieval, and mostly of 19th or 20th century date,
although the range of residual material indicates that there was activity on the site
from the 11th century onwards, although most of the medieval pottery dates to the 15th
or 16th centuries. A large proportion of the material from context 20 comprised a
broken but probably largely complete Victorian slipware pancheon or large bowl.
The earlier material comprised a typical range of utilitarian and table-wares, such as
brown-dipped white stoneware mugs, with some of the latter being of quite high
quality, such as tin-glazed earthenware with painted decoration and SWSG with
‘scratch blue’ decoration. In addition, a large fragment of a rare GRE ‘chafing dish’,
a vessel used for keeping food hot, was also present in context [23]. It is possible
Date
U/S
19thC
19thC
19thC
L17thC
19thC
19thC
17thC
19thC
19thC
19thC
L17thC
15thC
19thC
therefore that at least some of the pottery is from a late 17th century household of
greater than normal wealth, or possibly an inn.
Trench 2
The pottery assemblage comprised 448 sherds with a total weight of 5,215g. The
pottery occurrence by number and weight of sherds per context by fabric type is
shown in Table 2 (below). Each date should be regarded as a terminus post quem.
All the contexts are of 19th century date, and consist mainly of typical domestic wares
of the period. Small quantities of medieval and post-medieval pottery did occur in
residual contexts, suggesting that there has been activity at the site since the 12th
century, although the quantities present do not suggest occupation.
Trench 3
The pottery assemblage comprised 255 sherds with a total weight of 4,740g. The
pottery occurrence by number and weight of sherds per context by fabric type is
shown in Table 3. Each date should be regarded as a terminus post quem.
Table 3: Pottery occurrence by number and weight (in g) of sherds per context by
fabric type, Trench 3
Tr
3
3
3
3
3
3
Cntxt
Spoil
12
13
15
16
17
Total
EG
No Wt
1
LMT
No Wt
8 147
WCS
No Wt
1
57
SS
No Wt
EST
No Wt
1
38
19thC
No
Wt
170 2607
23
1
1
GRE
No Wt
24 901
23
9
2
149
1
1
11
37
12
28
422
1363
1
51
1
2
108
1
7
7
1
2
32
70
13
4
15
1
203
62
20
211
90
2990
Date
U/S
12thC
19thC
19thC
19thC
19thC
All the contexts apart from one are of 19th century date, and consist mainly of typical
domestic wares of the period. Small quantities of medieval and post-medieval pottery
did occur in residual contexts, suggesting that there has been activity at the site since
the 12th century, although the quantities present do not suggest occupation. The only
context which may be of medieval date, (12), produced a single sherd from the base
of an Essex Greyware jar. It was slightly abraded, and is likely to be the product of
secondary deposition, or could easily be entirely residual.
Bibliography
Brears, P C D, 1969, The English Country Pottery. Its History and Techniques
Cotter, J, 2000 Post-Roman pottery from excavations in Colchester, 1971-85 Colchester
Archaeological Report 7
Davey, W and Walker, H, 2009
Group Occasional Paper 3
Gaimster, D, 1997
The Harlow Pottery Industries
German Stoneware
Medieval Pottery Research
British Museum Publications
McCarthy, MR and Brooks, CM, 1988 Medieval Pottery in Britain AD900-1600 Leicester University
Press
Orton, C, 1988 Post-Roman Pottery in P Hinton (ed.) Excavations in Southwark 1973-76 and
Lambeth !973-79. MoLAS and DGLA Joint Publication 3, 295-364
Pearce, J, 1988
Border Wares HMSO
Table 2: Pottery occurrence by number and weight (in g) of sherds per context by fabric type, Trench 2
Tr
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
Cntxt
3; 30-50cm
3; 50-70cm
3; 70-90cm
3; 90-110cm
4; 30-50cm
4; 50-70cm
4; 70-90cm
4; 90-110cm
6
Total
EMW
No Wt
EG
No Wt
2
4
HED
No Wt
LMT
No Wt
1
2
1
1
6
1
6
5
9
12
3
28
23
39
1
3
1
8
1
3
5
45
GRE
No Wt
7
195
8
129
6
191
8
260
8
340
5
335
2
102
1
187
1
19
46 1758
BW
No Wt
TGE
No Wt
WCS
No Wt
1
1
1
1
HSW
No Wt
SS
No Wt
EST
No Wt
3
26
2
15
SWSG
No Wt
2
21
8
4
1
2
2
2
9
54
2
193
1
3
11
297
3
24
51
51
1
4
1
8
1
27
1
27
1
2
19thC
No
Wt
55
590
73
663
61
485
88
457
36
328
17
159
33
202
2
40
6
27
371 2951
Date
19thC
19thC
19thC
19thC
19thC
19thC
19thC
19thC
19thC