Pottery from the Sharnbrook Test-pits (Site SHA/11)
LIA: ‘Belgic’. So-called because it was originally thought to have been made by members of an Iron Age people called the Belgae who were thought to have fled from France to Britain when the Romans invaded. It is the first prehistoric pottery to have been thrown on a proper potters wheel and fired in a kiln rather than a bonfire. It was used between about 50BC and AD50.
RB: Roman Greyware. This was one of the most common types of Roman pottery, and was made in many different places in Britain. Lots of different types of vessels were made, especially cooking pots. It was most common in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, but in some places, continued in use until the 4th century.
SN: St Neots Ware. Made at a number of as-yet unknown places in southern England between AD900-1200. The early pots are usually a purplish-black, black or grey colour, the later ones brown or reddish. All the sherds from this site date to AD1000 or later. The clay from which they were made contains finely crushed fossil shell, giving them a white speckled appearance. Most pots were small jars or bowls.
SHC: Early Medieval Shelly Ware: AD1100-1400. Hard fabric with plentiful fossil shell mixed in with the clay. Manufactured at many sites in western Bedfordshire. Mostly cooking pots, but bowls and occasionally jugs also known.
EMW: Early Medieval Sandy Ware: AD1100-1400. Hard fabric with plentiful quartz temper. Manufactured at a wide range of generally unknown sites all over eastern England. Mostly cooking pots, but bowls and occasionally jugs also known.
HG: Hertfordshire Greyware, Late 12th – 14th century. Hard, grey sandy pottery found at sites all over Hertfordshire. Made at a number of different places, with the most recent and best-preserved evidence being from Hitchin. Range of simple jars, bowls and jugs.
LB: Lyveden ‘B’ Ware. Made at Lyveden and Stanion in Northamptonshire between AD1225 and 1400. The clay used for this pottery is very easy to recognise has it contains small, egg-shaped fossils known as Ooliths. The earlier pots are quite crude, as the potters did not thrown them on a wheel, but built them by coiling. The clay fabric is usually grey with buff or orange surfaces. The main types of pot are jugs with a poor-quality green glaze, and vertical stripes and dots painted with white clay. Around AD1300, the potters changed to wheel-throwing their pots, resulting in better-quality vessels, but stopped decorating them with slip designs.
BB: Brill/Boarstall Ware. 13th – 16th century. Made at several centres on the Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire border. Buff to orange slightly sandy fabric, usually with a bright orange or green glaze. Usually glazed jugs.
CW: Cistercian Ware: Made between AD1475 and 1700. So-called because it was first found during the excavation of Cistercian monasteries, but not made by monks. A number of different places are known to have been making this pottery, particularly in the north of England and the midlands. The pots are very thin and hard, as they were made in the first coal-fired pottery kilns, which reached much higher temperatures than the wood-fired types of the medieval period. The clay fabric is usually brick red or purple, and the pots covered with a dark brown- or purplish-black glaze on both surfaces. The main type of pot was small drinking cups with up to six handles, known as ‘tygs’. They were sometimes decorated with painted dots and other designs in yellow clay. Cistercian ware was very popular, and is found all over England.
LMOx: Late Medieval Oxidized Ware: Hard, red pottery with lots of sand mixed in with the clay. Made from about 1450 – 1500 in lots of different sites in the south-east midlands and western East Anglia. Used for everyday pottery such as jugs and large bowls, and also large pots (‘cisterns’) for brewing beer.
GRE: Glazed Red Earthenwares: Just about everywhere in Britain began to make and use this type of pottery from about AD1550 onwards, and it was still being made in the 19th century. The clay fabric is usually very smooth, and a brick red colour. Lots of different types of pots were made, particularly very large bowls, cooking pots and cauldrons. Almost all of them have shiny, good-quality orange or green glaze on the inner surface, and sometimes on the outside as well. From about AD1680, black glaze was also used.
TGW: Delft ware. The first white-glazed pottery to be made in Britain. Called Delft ware because of the fame of the potteries at Delft in Holland, which were amongst the first to make this type of pottery in Europe. Soft, cream coloured fabric with a thick white glaze, often with painted designs in blue, purple and yellow. First made in Britain in Norwich around AD1600, and soon after in London. Continued in use until the 19th century. The 17th century pots were expensive table wares such as dishes or bowls, but by the 19th century, better types of pottery was being made, and it was considered very cheap and the main types of pot were plain white, and humble vessels such as chamber pots and ointment jars.
SMW: Staffordshire Manganese Ware, late 17th – 18th century. Made from a fine, buff-coloured clay, with the pots usually covered with a mottled purple and brown glaze, which was coloured by the addition of powdered manganese. A wide range of different types of pots were made, but mugs and chamber pots are particularly common.
EST: English Stoneware: Very hard, grey fabric with white and/or brown surfaces. First made in Britain at the end of the 17th century, became very common in the 18th and 19th century, particularly for mineral water or ink bottles and beer jars.
SWSG: Staffordshire White Salt-Glazed Stoneware. Hard, white pottery with a white glaze with a texture like orange peel. Made between 1720 and 1780, pots usually table wares such as tea bowls, tankards and plates.
CRM: Creamware. This was the first pottery to be made which resembles modern ‘china’. It was invented by Wedgewood, who made it famous by making dinner surfaces for some of the royal families of Europe. Made between 1740 and 1880, it was a pale cream-coloured ware with a clear glaze, and softer than bone china. There were lots of different types of pots which we would still recognise today: cups, saucers, plates, soup bowls etc. In the 19th century, it was considered to be poor quality as better types of pottery were being made, so it was often painted with multi-coloured designs to try and make it more popular.
VIC: ‘Victorian’. A wide range of different types of pottery, particularly the cups, plates and bowls with blue decoration which are still used today. First made around AD1800.
Results
Test Pit 1
SHC / EMW / HG / GRE / EST / VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / Date Range
1 / 2 / 12 / 43 / 1800-1900
1 / 3 / 1 / 5 / 9 / 86 / 64 / 410 / 1100-1900
1 / 5 / 2 / 9 / 1 / 42 / 12 / 19 / 1100-1900
1 / 6 / 3 / 15 / 1 / 6 / 1 / 1 / 1100-1900
1 / 7 / 2 / 18 / 1 / 5 / 4 / 10 / 1100-1900
1 / 8 / 1 / 8 / 1 / 2 / 1100-1900
The range of pottery types from this site shows that there were people living here in the early medieval period, from the 12th – 14th centuries. The site was then more or less abandoned until Victorian times.
Test Pit 2
RB / SHC / GRETP / Cntxt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / Date Range
2 / 3 / 1 / 3 / 1100-1350
2 / 4 / 1 / 10 / 1550-1600
2 / 5 / 1 / 3 / 1 / 4 / 300-1200
This test-pit did not produce much pottery, which suggests that people lived did not live at the site, but probably used it as fields or the like, in the Roman, early medieval and early post-medieval periods.
Test Pit 3
LIA / RB / SN / EMW / HG / BB / SMW / VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / Date Range
3 / 1 / 1 / 4 / 1 / 3 / 1150-1750
3 / 2 / 1 / 4 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 2 / 1 / 1 / 100-1900
3 / 3 / 1 / 7 / 2 / 11 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 4 / 1 / 2 / 1 / 2 / 50BC-1750
3 / 4 / 2 / 6 / 100-400
The pottery from this test-pit shows that there were two distinct phases of activity at the site. The first appears to have lasted from the end of the Iron Age and into the Roman period (1st – 4th century AD), and then another starting around the time of the Norman Conquest and lasting until the 13th or 14th century. After that, it appears to have been largely abandoned until the 18th century.
Test Pit 4
LMOx / GRE / TGW / SMW / SWSG / CRM / EST / VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / Date Range
4 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 3 / 1700-1900
4 / 2 / 1 / 1 / 2 / 6 / 1450-1600
4 / 3 / 1 / 1 / 3 / 3 / 1450-1900
4 / 4 / 1 / 2 / 1 / 3 / 1 / 2 / 1 / 1 / 2 / 2 / 1600-1900
4 / 5 / 1 / 20 / 2 / 8 / 1 / 13 / 2 / 5 / 1 / 2 / 1450-1780
The earliest pottery from this test-pit dates to the mid-15th century, but the range of types present shows that the site has been continuously occupied since that time. Some of the pottery, such as TGW is of a quality not offered encountered at rural sites, so the inhabitants may have been more wealthy than the average inhabitant of the village.
Test Pit 5
HG / LMOx / VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / Date Range
5 / 2 / 1 / 6 / 1 / 2 / 5 / 19 / 1150-1900
This test-pit produced very little pottery, but that which was found shows that there was only activity at the site in the 12th and 15th centuries, with the area possibly used as fields.
Test Pit 6
CWTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / Date Range
6 / 2 / 1 / 2 / 1450-1550
There was only a single sherd of pottery form this test-pit, but it is of late medieval date, and suggests that the site was probably used as fields at that time.
Test Pit 7
SHC / EMW / VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / Date Range
7 / 1 / 2 / 2 / 1800-1900
7 / 3 / 1 / 1 / 1800-1900
7 / 5 / 1 / 2 / 1 / 2 / 1100-1200
This test-pit produced very little pottery, but that which was found shows that there was only activity at the site in the 12th century, with the area possibly used as fields.
Test Pit 8
VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / Date Range
8 / 1 / 2 / 2 / 1800-1900
8 / 2 / 1 / 3 / 1800-1900
The pottery from this test-pit indicates that the site was never used by people before Victorian times.
Test Pit 9
LMOx / VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / No / Wt / Date Range
9 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1800-1900
9 / 3 / 1 / 1 / 4 / 9 / 1450-1900
9 / 4 / 1 / 1 / 1800-1900
The pottery from this test-pit indicates that apart from possibly having been used as fields in the late medieval period, the site was never used by people before Victorian times.
Test Pit 10
SHC / LB / LMOx / SMW / EST / VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / Date Range
10 / 2 / 1 / 1 / 2 / 30 / 1 / 4 / 2 / 27 / 1100-1900
10 / 3 / 1 / 14 / 1 / 12 / 1 / 2 / 1 / 5 / 1450-1900
10 / 4 / 1 / 2 / 1450-1550
The pottery from here shows that this site was used throughout the medieval period, from the 12th – 16th centuries. It then appears to have been abandoned until the 18th century, and has been in use ever since then.
Test Pit 12
VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / Date Range
12 / 1 / 1 / 8 / 1800-1900
12 / 2 / 1 / 1 / 1800-1900
The pottery from this test-pit indicates that the site was never used by people before Victorian times.