These jugs are part of a
group of waste pots found buried in a pit to the rear of a
house at The Street in Weybread. They are typical examples of
the products of an industry which was located in the Waveney
Valley and around Wattisfield in the 15th-16th centuries.
The pottery found at Weybread was the rubbish which the potters
could not sell. Most of it was overfired and the glaze had burnt.
The clay itself had almost vitrified in some cases. Many of the
pots had exploded during firing with the result that dribbles of
glaze covered the broken edges. Pottery ‘shrapnel’ was embedded in
the glaze of some of the pots.
The industry marks a transitional stage between the medieval
highly decorated phase of pottery production, which involved
intensive and time-consuming work on individual pots, to the
mass-production of the post-medieval period.
The pottery is called ‘Late Medieval and Transitional’ (LMT)
because it forms a link between the pottery of the high medieval
period (12th-14th centuries) and that of the post-medieval period
(1500 onwards). Medieval pottery consisted largely of coarse
cooking pots and bowls made with very sandy or gritty clay. Towards
the end of the period a need was felt for more varied vessel shapes
to use in different methods of cooking and food preparation, and by
the post-medieval period there was a huge variety of pottery
vessels, most of which would be recognisable and useable today.
These pots represent a step towards
faster manufacturing
techniques. They were made to a consistent design and were
very simply decorated. Glaze was applied carelessly and often
only covered a small part of the vessel.
The LMT range was limited, consisting of large jars with
decorated lugs and short handles, plain long-necked jugs, frying
pans and skillets, and wide bowls and dishes for use in the dairy
industry. Glazing and decoration had more in common with earlier
pottery than later. Patchy green glaze was commonly used, whereas
later people seem to have preferred thick brown and red glazes
which completely covered the vessel.
Pottery from the Waveney Valley has been found on excavations in
Norwich. Presumably it also supplied the market in Ipswich,
although very little LMT material has been identified in the town
so far.
This assemblage of pottery is important as part of a wider
industry which to a large extent represents the changes which were
taking place in the transition between the medieval period and the
modern world.
Acknowledgements
The Archaeological Service is grateful to Mr and Mrs Johan van
den Berg-Hider, who notified us of the find and gave permission for
the pottery to be displayed in an exhibition at the new County
Council HQ, Endeavour House.
Contact details:
Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service
Shire Hall
Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk
IP33 2AR
Telephone: 01284 352446
Email:
fieldprojects@et.suffolkcc.gov.uk