Barton Hill Pottery and the post-medieval redware industry in Bristol

The site archive including the finds will be deposited at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery (accession no. BRSMG 2012/64).

Abstract

SUMMARY: Excavation in advance of a new housing development on the site of the Barton Hill Pottery, Bristol, uncovered the full footprint of a late 19th-century pottery, a large quantity of redware wasters, and a dump of whiteware wasters from another nearby factory, which include examples of Royal Navy mess ware.

RÉSUMÉ

Des fouilles archéologiques en préalable à un développement immobilier sur le site de Barton Hill Pottery, à Bristol, ont mis au jour une empreinte complète de céramique de la fin du XIXe siècle, une grande quantité de rebuts de céramiques communes à pâte rouge, et un dépôt de rebuts de faïence provenant d'une autre manufacture à proximité, parmi lesquels des spécimens de vaisselle du mess de la Royal Navy.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG

Ausgrabungen vor dem Bau einer neuen Wohnsiedlung auf dem Gelände der Barton Hill Töpferei, Bristol, legten den kompletten Grundriß einer Töpferei aus dem späten 19. Jahrhundert frei, mit einer großen Menge von roten Fehlbränden, und einer Ladung Schutt weißer Fehlbrände einer anderen, in der Nähe gelegenen Fabrik, die Beispiele von Exemplaren Königlicher Marine Messe Waren enthielt.

RIASSUNTO

Gli scavi preventivi per la costruzione di un nuovo nucleo abitativo sul sito della Barton Hill Pottery a Bristol hanno portato alla luce in maniera evidente le tracce di ceramica del tardo XIX secolo. Si tratta degli scarti di cottura di una grande quantità di ceramica a pasta rossa, e di uno scarico di scarti a pasta bianca provenienti da un’altra manifattura nelle vicinanze, che vede la presenza di stoviglie per la mensa della Royal Navy.

RESUMEN

La excavación realizada con motivo de la construcción de viviendas en la zona donde se ubicaban los talleres de producción de cerámica de Barton Hill, Bristol, descubrió los cimientos completos de los talleres de finales del siglo XIX junto con una gran cantidad de deshechos de pasta roja y un conjunto de deshechos de pasta blanca procedentes de otro taller cercano; entre estos figuran ejemplos de las lozas destinadas a los comedores de la Armada Real Británica.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the Guinness Trust for funding the archaeological work, Bob Jones for his advice and David Dawson and Oliver Kent for sharing their extensive knowledge of kilns and pottery production methods. Thanks are also due to Reg Jackson, whose extensive research into the local ceramic industry has provided much of the data on which the historical background to the site is based. Illustrations were prepared by Ann Linge. The project was managed by John Bryant and Ian Greig.

Notes

The site archive including the finds will be deposited at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery (accession no. BRSMG 2012/64).

1 Mason 2013a. The earliest reference to the ‘Barton Hill Pottery’ is the Gardeners’ Chronicle, 5 March 1842; it was previously known as ‘Mr Duffett’s Pottery’.

2 Mason 2013a; 2014.

3 In the early 19th century, Queen Ann Road was known as ‘Barton Hill Lane’ and ‘Barton Hill’. In the period c. 1850–96, the names ‘Queen Ann Street’ and ‘Barton Hill’ were used interchangeably.

4 Mason 2013b.

5 Barton Hill is depicted on the 1610 Map of Kingswood.

6 Large 1984, 7.

7 Graces Guide 2014; Torrens 1984.

8 King 2008, 4.

9 Jackson et al. 1982, 14.

10 Boore & Pearson 2010, 147; Good 1987; Coleman-Smith & Pearson 1988, 401. Late 16th-century Somerset redwares from Narrow Quay, Bristol, have been identified as the products of the Donyatt, Nether Stowey and Wanstrow potteries. Similar ceramics were produced in Wrangway, Somerset, but these are thought to date from the early 17th century.

11 Jackson 1999. The tin-glazed ware pottery in Brislington was established c. 1642–52 on a rural site 2.5km to the east of Bristol.

12 Jackson 2015. The earliest tin-glazed ware potteries in Bristol were located on Redcliffe Street, Temple Street and Water Lane; the earliest known stoneware pottery in Bristol was at Tower Harratz, Redcliffe, which is first recorded in 1695.

13 Pountney 1920; Ray 1968.

14 Jackson 2005, 129. Westbury-on-Trym is a suburb of Bristol, but in the 18th century it was a small village 4km to the north-west of the city.

15 Jackson 2015. The other two potteries were located in Wilder Street, St Paul’s, and Boot Lane, Bedminster.

16 Roque’s Map of 1742 shows large pits labelled ‘The Brick Fields’ in the area to the north and east of Avon Street. These brickworks were also mentioned by the Swedish industrial spy R.R. Angerstein, who described how the bricks and tiles were made from on-site deposits of clay (Berg & Berg 2001).

17 Jarrett 2013, 181–2.

18 Data drawn from Jackson 2015 and Henrywood 1992.

19 C 1801–91. The population in 1801 was 68,944; by 1891, it had grown to 297,525.

20 PB 1815–63.

21 PB 1839–40.

22 PB 1848.

23 Jackson 2015. The Avon Street pottery, which existed by 1749, was operated by Messrs Henderson, Rice and Keene prior to Duffett’s tenure.

24 Jackson 2015; ‘Estate of John Sartain James’, in Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal, September 1804.

25 Jackson 2015; Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal, 7 October 1809.

26 Jackson 2015; Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal, 7 October 1809; MD 1810–40.

27 GRO Q/SRh B/S plan of St Philip and Jacob: Highways & footpath diversions, surv. 1827.

28 Jackson 2015; BRO 37165 Sun Fire Office Policy Books.

29 Jackson 2015; MD 1828–35.

30 Jackson 2015; PB 1830–38.

31 BRO EP/A/22/StLBH/1a–b. James Duffett donated land for the construction of St Luke’s in 1841.

32 Jackson 2015; BRO 37165 Sun Fire Office Policy Books.

33 Jackson 2015.

34 Gardeners’ Chronicle, 5 March 1842.

35 London Gazette, 29 June 1849.

36 1851 census.

37 1861–81 censuses.

38 Jackson 2015.

39 1861 census.

40 Henrywood 1992, 3; MD 1856.

41 PB 1861–63.

42 Jackson 2015; MD 1856–63.

43 MD 1866–87.

44 BRO 04252 Survey of Old City and Borough, 1871.

45 Bristol Mercury, 17 November 1888.

46 K 1866–85; MD 1871–90.

47 1871 census.

48 Bristol Mercury, 24 September 1881 and 26 November 1892.

49 A plan (BRO Building plan/Volume 5/103A) of the house (later numbered 34 Queen Ann Road) was drawn up in 1860 for Thomas Church, who co-owned a nearby crucible factory with his father of the same name. The house is listed in the 1862 Survey of the Borough of Bristol (BRO 04251). Thomas Church’s partnership was dissolved in 1871 (London Gazette, 7 November 1871); subsequent censuses record him as a publican of the adjacent Rhubarb Tavern, and it is likely that he sold his house to Niblett soon after he left the partnership with his father. Ashmead’s plan of 1874 shows an extension to the Barton Hill Pottery on the Site (Fig. 6).

50 1881 1:500 OS plan.

51 Bristol Mercury, 17 November 1888.

52 Pottery Gazette, 1 July 1886, 38.

53 Bristol Mercury, 17 November 1888.

54 MD 1888–1921; K 1927–73; Goad’s Fire Insurance Plan 1887–1902.

55 BRO 35033/2 Goad’s Fire Insurance Plan, 1952 revision.

56 Dawson & Kent 2008, 201–26.

57 Tait & Cherry 1978, 12, fig. 7; Barker & Cole 1998, 8–9, fig. 1. The Longton Hall glost oven, which was used in the period 1751–60, measured 2.55m internally.

58 Cherry 1973, 111: the Toynton All Saints kiln measured 2.97m wide internally and c. 4m externally.

59 Green 1999, figs 33 and 35, depicts a reconstruction of a c. 1790 kiln with five fireboxes and a plan of a similar c. 1830 kiln. The earlier kiln measured >2.4m wide internally and c. 5.4m wide externally. The c. 1830 kiln was c. 3.5m wide internally and c. 5m externally.

60 Parry 2002, fig. 19. The Boot Lane kiln measured c. 4.5m externally.

61 BRO Building plan/Volume 13/61a. The Albert Pottery’s two kilns had an internal diameter of 3.7m.

62 BRO Building plan/Volume 13/61a.

63 Horne 1850, 379–83; Mayhew 1862, 1849–50; Greenwood 1874; Velis et al. 2009, 1282–90.

64 Sallery 2014.

65 Searle 1906, 49.

66 Searle 1906, 51.

67 Brears 1971, 92–3.

68 BRO Building plan/Volume 13/61a. Rollers were used to squeeze and mix clay prior to or instead of forcing it through a pug mill.

69 Celoria 1971, 102.

70 The covered way was 3.3m wide, but its functional width was reduced to 2.5m by the presence of a coal chute half-way along its length.

71 1901 and 1913 OS 1:2,500 plans.

72 Jackson 1994, fig. 12, pl. 15.

73 Boore & Pearson 2010, fig. 4, no. 2.

74 Similar jugs are illustrated in Coleman-Smith & Pearson 1988, fig. 70, nos 4/264 & 4/266.

75 Parry 2002, 73, fig. 23, no. 1.

76 Boore & Pearson 2010, fig. 12, no. 67.

77 Boore & Pearson 2010, fig. 13, nos 77–8.

78 Parry 2002, fig. 23, nos 3–6; Boore & Pearson 2010, 144.

79 Kent 2014a.

80 Coleman-Smith & Pearson 1988, fig. 109, no. 8/216.

81 Currie 1993, 239.

82 Currie 1993, 239.

83 For example, Draper & Copeland-Griffiths 2002, 150–1; Coleman-Smith & Pearson 1988, fig. 134, nos 15/2–5 & 15/8; Boore & Pearson, fig. 6.28–31.

84 Currie 1993, 237; Brears 1971.

85 Jarrett 2013, fig. 4.6.16.

86 Coleman-Smith & Pearson 1988, 242, fig. 125, no. 12/85.

87 Currie 1993, 234.

88 Kent 2014b.

89 Brooks 2005, 34.

90 Copeland 1980, 21–32; Coysh & Henrywood 1982, 8.

91 Price 2006, fig. 5.27, nos 234–7.

92 Mugs with similar designs are depicted in Carson 2008, 16, and Pountney & Co.’s 1896 ‘Export Special List’ (BRO 20165/14).

93 BRO 20165/14, 21.

94 Backhouse 2007.

95 Jarrett & Thompson 2012, 106–7.

96 Wells 1994.

97 Jarrett & Thompson 2012, 89–115.

98 Jarrett & Thompson 2012, fig. 4, 96.

99 Jarrett & Thompson 2012, 107; Coysh & Henrywood 1982, 246.

100 Price 2006, fig. 5.30, no. 270, fig. 5.32, nos 275 & 279–86.

101 Copeland 1980, 34–5.

102 Asiatic Pheasants 2015; Coysh & Henrywood 1982, 28–9; Hudson 2003.

103 Dransfield 2009, 17; Henrywood 2002, 91.

104 Jackson 1994; Ponsford 2001; Parry 2002; Coleman-Smith & Pearson 1988; Boore & Pearson 2010, 131–50.

105 See Coleman-Smith & Pearson 1988, fig. 70, nos 4/264 & 4/266.

106 Jackson 1994, 19. In the 1860s both potteries were owned by William Hutchings.

107 Brears 1971, 77–8.

108 Currie 1993, 230–1; Brears 1971, 220.

109 Henrywood 1992, 55.

110 Coysh & Henrywood 1982, 246.

111 Price 2006, 59.

112 Carson 2008, 10–11.

113 Carson 2008; Jackson 2015.

114 Boore & Pearson 2010, 147.

115 Currie 1993, 230–1; Brears 1971, 220.

116 Capie & Wood 1997, 148–9.

117 Schweickart 2014, 398; Agnew 1993, 19–39.

118 Brears 1971, 78.

119 Copeland 1980, 33; Fontaines 1975, 10. Josiah Bateman, chief traveller for Wedgwood, noted in 1817 that ‘all China is printed in blue with the same pattern’, and that this was much approved by the country people ‘for no other reason than everyone owns it’.

120 Jackson 2005, 129; Parry 2002, 21.

121 Coleman-Smith & Pearson 1988, 93.

122 Brears 1971, 79.

123 Jackson 1999.

124 Imported German drinking vessels are common finds in 16th- to 18th-century contexts in Bristol; locally produced stoneware dates from the late 17th century onwards.

125 Licence 2015, 105–6. The change in urban consumption habits is evidenced by the appearance, from the 1870s onwards, of urban refuse tips that contain large quantities of ostensibly usable objects, such as bottles and jars, used as packaging.

126 Brears 1971, 79.

127 Currie 1993, 239.

128 Barton Hill Pottery’s kilns probably had an internal floor space of c. 6.16m², whilst those at the Albert Pottery had c. 10.75m². Plans of the Albert Pottery (BRO Building plan/Volume 13/61a) show what appear to be two downdraft kilns.

129 Jackson 2015.

130 Price, Powell & Co. (stoneware) and Pountney & Co. Ltd (whiteware).

131 The two largest redware potteries in Bristol were the Albert Pottery, with two kilns, and the Barton Hill Pottery, which may have had up to three kilns in operation at any one time.

132 e.g. Algar et al. 1979; Boore & Pearson 2010; Coleman-Smith & Pearson 1988; Draper & Copeland-Grffiths 2002; Jackson 2005, 121–31.