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Summary

A watching brief recovered large unweathered sherds of pottery with a probably date of circa 1710 to 1730.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CULVERT (XVIII to XIX - 1701 AD (Between) to 1900 AD (Between))

Full description

Cramp, C., 2015, North Devon Relief-Decorated Ceramics in the Household, 209 (Article in Monograph). SDV365391.

A large fragment of relief tile of design N10 was found at the rear of 129 Boutport Street in 2004.

Allan, J. + Griffiths, N. + Mills, A., 2020, Some Recent Finds of North Devon Pottery, 232-36. Appendix 4; Fig 17 (Article in Serial). SDV364780.

A watching brief undertaken by Bill Horner in 2004, to the rear of 129 Boutport Street, recorded three deposits which yielded large unweathered sherds of pottery: the fill of a truncated stone-lined culvert, a deposit flanking it and an overlying layer. The overall character of the material from the three contexts is very similar.
The finds include sherds of a Staffordshire press-moulded dish and a Donyatt 18th-century chamber pot, both indicating a date after circa 1700/20, whilst the elaborate sgaffito and trailed slipwares belong to types which went out of circulation circa 1700. The low proportion of Bristol-Staffordshire pottery also favours a date before the flood of these wares onto the Devon market in the 1730s and 1740s. A date circa 1710-30 seems likely for all three groups.
The collection also contained a Montelupo maiolica dish and an unstratified relief-decorated North Devon tile.
The high proportion of decorated tableware is notable (35% of sherds, 43% of minimum number of vessels). The bulk of this is plain slipware, probably reflecting the decline in popularity of sgraffito after 1700. The relatively high percentage of tablewares in this assemblage in contrast to those at Hennard Jefford and the Great Torrington kiln site probably reflects a fundamental difference in the usage of North Devon pottery in the urban and rural context.
Although local pottery makes up 95% of the assemblage and Bristol/Staffordshire wares are represented by two of the three other items, the presence of one vessel made at Donyatt in south Somerset is surprising, especially since this entailed carriage of almost 100km to a site where equivalent pottery was made only a few hundred metres away.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds

• FDV7767 - SHERD (XVIII - 1710 AD? to 1730 AD?)

Associated Events: none recorded

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