by Ailsa Mainman and Ann Jenner
Two and a half thousand sherds of pottery were recovered from just over 400 contexts during excavation, providing a useful chronological framework for the site. The assemblage dates overwhelmingly to the 14th century, the hallmark being pottery known as Brandsby-type ware which dominates York's ceramic market from the late 13th century, peaking in the middle decades of the 14th century (Brooks 1987, Mainman 1993, Mainman and Jenner in prep). Other wares, including Red Sandy wares, Scarborough ware, York Glazed wares, Humber wares and other minor wares occur but to a far lesser extent.
The assemblages from the different tenements is summarised below.
Contexts from the earliest phases (Phase 1.2-1.7, 138 sherds in total) in this tenement produced exclusively 14th century pottery with only a little earlier residual material. Most contexts have only Brandsby-type wares, or Brandsby wares occasionally in association with Sandy Red wares, Scarborough ware and York Glazed wares, suggesting a date range within c.1250-1350. A few contexts also have Humber wares and may, therefore, be of early date. There is an emphasis on decorated jug forms although cooking vessels, and occasional lamps, also occur. The range of decoration includes seals, rouletting and various forms of incised decoration.
Phase 1.8 produced a remarkably consistent assemblage (143 sherds) comprised almost entirely of Brandsby-type wares. Jugs predominate and there is a wide range of decoration, including horizontal incised lines, line and pellet, applied strip decoration and seals. Decorative elements such as twisted handles, thumbing and the use of different coloured glazes add to the stylistic repertoire. A date in the middle decades of the 14th century is indicated.
Pottery from Phase 1.9 includes material with a date range of the 12th to the 17th century, suggesting some disturbance of deposits. The bulk of the contexts, however, had only pottery of the later 14th century. This included Brandsby-type wares and Humber wares, usually jugs but also occasional urinals, cooking pots and cisterns. A few sherds of late 14th century German stonewares represent the only imported wares.
The pottery which dates to the 15th-17th centuries included a range of late medieval wares - Cistercian wares, Purple Glazed wars, Hambleton-type wares and a few post-medieval forms One or two contexts (e.g. 4756) have clearly intrusive material of 19th century date.
Phases 1.10-1.12 produced few sherds (42 in total) which include redeposited Humber and Brandsby wares of 14th and 15th century date, together with small amounts of late 16th and early 17th century pottery. These comprised Cistercian wares, Black wares and imported German stonewares, including part of a bottle or costrel. Later contexts also include 19th and early 20th century types.
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Top row, l—r: Below:
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One hundred and twenty-five sherds were recovered from Phases 2.1–2.4. As in Tenement 1 the assemblages are dominated by Brandsby-type wares, occasional Humber wares and minor wares typical of the 14th century in York. York Glazed wares of the later 13th and early 14th century are present in a number of contexts, possibly redeposited from earlier levels. A striking example from Group 57 (context 4462) is part of a highly decorated seal jug whose round seal has the central feature of the top of a bird's head and wing with the legend "SIG..." This has a close parallel on a vessel from Wellington Row, York, where the complete seal is believed to be a copy of the seal of Thomas Fitz Walter. Other examples of this seal are known from elsewhere in the city.
A larger quantity of material (three hundred and nineteen sherds), was recovered from Phase 2.5. The bulk of the pottery is once again of 14th century date with some Humber or Hambleton-type wares extending the date range into the 15th century. Once again there is a small amount of residual material but little earlier than the 11th century. Brandsby- type ware jugs, Red Sandy ware jugs (including one complete form from context 4628) and cooking vessels dominate the assemblage. One context (4495 in Group 187) has Cistercian wares, German stonewares and Ryedale ware which are probably 17th century date and, therefore, intrusive.
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Bransby-type ware jug |
Red Sandy Ware jug |
Siegburg stoneware vessel
Only one hundred and forty sherds in total were recovered from Phases 3.1–3.9 which all relate to the buildings and features associated with the metal working activities on the site. Much of the area excavated was given over to metal-working activities so there was little space for the digging of rubbish pits. No large assemblages were recovered from the associated levels, and a degree of redeposition must have taken place as pits and post holes associated with the metal-working features and structures were dug into earlier levels. This has lead to a mixed assemblage including some earlier Norman pottery which has become incorporated with material associated with the 14th century activities. Even the lowest phase (Phase 3.1), however, contains Brandsby- type ware jugs of mid 14th century date.
Similarly little material was recovered from the layers associated with the casting pits (Phase 3.10) and some of it, including residual Norman period sherds, clearly pre-date their use. The rest of the material is broadly 14th century in date, but quantities are small.
By Phase 3.11 deposits were becoming mixed as medieval pottery and Norman period pottery (gritty and splashed wares) were recovered together with pottery of the 17th and 18th centuries. Context 4228 and 4229 in particular produced the odd sherd of tin-glazed earthenware and post-medieval earthenware which must be intrusive in these levelling deposits.
The pottery (93 sherds) from Phase 3.12 belongs to the second half of the 14th century, and comprises late Brandsby-type ware forms, Humber wares, early Hambleton wares and a small but consistent number of German stonewares. There are also several examples of a crude industrial form of pottery which require further investigation as they may relate to some of the industrial activities on the site.
Phases 3.13-3.15 produced one hundred and sixteen sherds which relate to modern and late Georgian episodes on the site and produced little useful pottery, some possibly related to industrial purposes. Small amounts of residual medieval pottery were recovered from some contexts.
Just over nine hundred sherds of pottery were recovered from Phases 4.3–4.15. These phases span the period c.1250–1400, the episode known in pottery terms as the 'highly decorated' period. Elaborate decorated jugs and plainer cooking pots and bowls dominate the assemblages. Early Humber wares, Brandsby wares, York Glazed wares and, to a lesser extent, Red Sandy wares and Scarborough wares, together with other minor types, produced a range of jug forms with different styles of decoration. Although there is some Norman gritty ware and splashed ware, this is almost certainly residual as even the lowest deposits (Phase 4.3 and 4.4) are dominated by late 13th/early 14th century Brandsby-type wares. Many of the vessels in these deposits are heavily sooted, both from cooking and from their deposition in close association with metal-working waste.
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 Handle with cross hatch decoration |
The pottery (68 sherds) from Phase 4.16, an episode of pit digging to the north of Building 3, is mostly of 14th and early 15th century date. Brandsby- type ware is once again the predominant type, together with occasional sherds of Humber ware and Hambleton wares of the early 15th century. Jugs and cooking vessels are the common forms together with one or two unusual forms such as an insect trap.
Phases 4.17-4.19 produced only 21 sherds which included residual medieval pottery together with late and post-medieval types such as Cistercian wares, post-medieval earthenwares and occasional tin-glazed earthenwares. By Phases 4.20 and 4.21, pottery from the 18th and 19th century buildings and yards had produced a range of residual medieval, post-medieval and modern pottery types.
There is strikingly little residual pottery from the Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Scandinavian or Norman periods in the assemblage. Inevitably on large urban sites where development and re-development has taken place over many centuries, material from earlier deposits is dug up by pit and foundation digging, and redeposited in deposits of later periods. This does not seem to have happened to any great extent on this site, in stark contrast to other urban excavations at, for example, 16-22 Coppergate or at the College of the Vicars Choral at the Bedern where 13th and 14th century layers had considerable quantities of re-deposited Roman and Norman period pottery (Mainman and Jenner in prep).
This absence of residual pottery is surprising given the central location of the site at the heart of the Roman legionary fortress and at the core of the Anglo-Scandinavian and Norman city. When Peter Wenham excavated part of what we are now calling Tenement 1, however, he recovered Roman pottery in some quantity (Hartley 1972, 106-108), and his post-Roman pottery sequence begins in the Anglo-Scandinavian period with late 9th century York wares, and goes through to the 15th century (Le Patourel 1972, 108-113). The Anglo-Scandinavian and earlier deposits were sealed under a five foot thick deposit (Layer 8) of 'black, evil-smelling soil with a large organic content' (Wenham 1972, 82) which contained pottery which Le Patourel dates to the 12th or early 13th century. These included Stamford wares, gritty wares and splashed wares, which were noticeably rare in the early levels of the recent excavations. It seems likely, therefore, that this thick organic layer effectively sealed the earlier levels of Norman, Anglo-Scandinavian and Roman date with the result that little Roman and Anglo-Scandinavian material intruded into the medieval layers.
Apart from occasional sherds from splashed ware pitchers and gritty ware cooking pots, the earliest wares represented in the recent excavations are York Glazed wares which, in the course of the later 12th and early 13th century, replaced splashed wares as the typical jug fabric. York Glazed wares are frequently found in association with the later Brandsby-type wares, suggesting that they too are mostly residual from earlier, unexcavated deposits; the same is true of the less frequent Scarborough wares and Beverley wares.
The predominance of Brandsby-type wares on this site indicates that the excavated sequence begins in the latter years of the 13th century, and that the buildings and associated activities fall mainly into the 14th century, continuing, perhaps into the early 15th century. The range of forms supports this interpretation as early decorated jugs with elaborate bridge spouts and applied or incised decoration are replaced by later plainer types, and the range extends to include urinals, cisterns, lobed bowls and other forms.
This same sequence of medieval pottery was noted by Le Patourel at Wenham's excavation. Le Patourel was cautious about interpreting her observations; 'It is difficult to assess the extent to which such changes reflect a genuine development in decorative fashion and how far they are due to the chances of survival' (Le Patourel 1972, 111). Fifty years of research since those pioneering days of medieval pottery study in York have confirmed that these changes are part of a genuine pattern, as the new material from Tenements 1-4 clearly demonstrates.
There are few imported vessels from Low Petergate, either from Wenham's
excavations or the recent work. French imports (which are more common
in the 13th century), are rare, although there are one or two examples
of red-painted pottery which might have a French origin. German and Low
Countries imports, typical of the 14th and 15th centuries, are never common
in York but are perhaps slightly better represented on this site than
on other sites of the period. This might be an indicator of wealth or
status for the occupants of these properties.
The finds report indicates that a range of industrial
processes, associated with metal-working, went on in the backyards of
these premises. This might account for the group of coarse open pottery
forms which have evidence of unusual sooting marks and internal residues.
Further work will be carried out on this material in conjunction with
the study of the metal-working processes.
The main value of this pottery assemblage is the tight time-frame represented by the material. It offers an opportunity to examine the developments in ceramics over a 100–150 year period, free of the confusion usually caused by residual earlier material. Changes in forms, styles of decoration and the association of one ceramic type with another provide a reliable, detailed framework for the 14th century.
This framework will be invaluable for interpreting other important medieval assemblages from the city - including key groups from the Vicars Choral in the Bedern and a well group sealed under the 14th century north aisles of York Minster. This new assemblage will be included in on-going research on medieval pottery which will be published as Medieval Pottery from York (Mainman and Jenner forthcoming).
Above all the pottery offers a snap-shot of the range of forms and types used in the medieval city centre by artisans associated with a range of domestic and industrial activities, and gives new insights into their status and wealth.