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Summary

A site used for the production of bronze cauldrons and other vessels and also possibly bells was revealed during excavations on land to the rear of 35 East Street. Evidence included quarry pits, a possible casting area, metal working debris and mould fragments.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• BRONZE FOUNDRY (XV to XVI - 1450 AD (Between) to 1550 AD (Between))

Full description

Blaylock, S. R., Bell and Cauldron Moulds from 35 East Street, Crediton, Devon (Report - Scientific). SDV357028.

Any finds of mould material are significant: this was one of the major industries of the later medieval and early modern period, closely allied to bell founding (indeed often, as demonstrably in Crediton, carried out by the same craftsmen), and often on the same sites as well.
No bronze founding activity had been associated with Crediton in the past, and the find waste moulds and quarry pits therefore came as a surprise. No documentary material relating to this site in the relevant period in the later 15th and 16th century has as yet come to light and thus the site remains without an identified occupant. (See report for the examination of of the moulds and the review of structures and features associated with the foundry).

Gent, T. H., 2007, Review of the Archaeological Evidence for the Location of the Saxon Minster at Crediton, 4-5; figure 3 (Report - Assessment). SDV339904.

Land to the rear of 35 East Street was used for the production of bronze cauldrons during the later 15th or early 16th century. During excavations in 2007, pits used to quarry clay and later infilled with fired production waste were exposed. A small feature, interpreted in advance of specialist analysis as a furnace base was also identified at approximately the same depth. Map object based on this source.

Allan, J. + Blackmore, S. + Passmore, A., 2010, Archaeological investigations around Crediton Parish Church, 1984-2007, 144-145, 149, 184-185 (Article in Serial). SDV363629.

Excavations undertaken to the rear of 35 East Street prior to redevelopment showed the site to be one of a series of medieval burgage plots that was divided into two by the early 19th century. Quarry pits, a possible casting area, metal-working debris and mould fragments indicate that the site was used by a bronze founder for casting cauldrons and other vessels and also possibly bells in the late 15th-early 16th century.
See article for full details.

Ordnance Survey, 2013, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV350786.

Map object based on this source.

Blaylock, S., 2015, The Archaeology of the West Country Bronze Foundries, 298; Fig 11.28 (Article in Monograph). SDV365397.

Excavations in 2005 and 2007 revealed a foundry side south-east of the church. About 155kg of mould was retrieved, mainly from a series of quarry pits, and there are faint traces of foundry structures and installations, represented by working floors and multiple post-holes. The dating evidence is far from precise, although it appears that the main phase of the foundry antedates the early 17th century; a broadly late 15th- and 16th-century date is therefore likely. Most of the mould material recovered represents casting of cauldrons, although there are two fragments indubitably of bell mould in the collection that demonstrate that the occupant of this site, like those in Exeter and Taunton, was certainly a bellfounder as well as a brazier or potfounder. No metallurgical analysis has yet been carried out, although there are a handful of potentially suitable samples from the site.
The most distinctive aspect of the cauldron mould material is that most of it represents cauldrons with convex-bottomed, straight-sided upper profile. Most vessels seem to have had two parallel moulding wires, and the lower part of the body invariably had one vertical and two diagonal ribs rising from the top of the legs to the moulding wires. Two leg types are represented. The predominant type is flat with a central rib, flanges to either side, and a splayed foot, but there is also a little mould evidence for a clustered “ribbed” leg, broadly triangular in section, similar to the classic Exeter and Somerset types. There is no positive evidence that skillets were made here. Overall, the similarities between the mould from this site and that from Taunton are very striking. The distinctive vessel profile and the paucity of this form in surviving collections suggests some sort of link with, or mutual influence between, the Taunton and Crediton foundries.
One possible candidate for the founder is the Crediton bellfounder William Preston (1551-98), simply because he is a known craftsman in this trade at approximately the right period, but no evidence has yet been forthcoming to link him (or any alternative occupant) with this site in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds

• FDV7364 - MOULD (XVI - 1501 AD to 1550 AD)

Associated Events

• EDV8265 - Excavation at 35 East Street, Crediton

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