by John Jenkinson

One of the ancient industries of Silverdale was the making of pottery.

As far as is known there is no documentary evidence of this industry. It is thought to go back to medieval times, and to have come to an end sometime at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Warton Burial records go back as far as 1568, but do not list anyone as a potter; in any event, in the early days occupations were rarely shown in the register. Seventeenth century inventories of property, drawn up for probate, sometimes have an entry “earthen pots”, but with no indication of where they came from.

The evidence that the potteries existed is established by the amount of broken earthenware found and the sites of some kilns found and recorded in 18651. In some cases it is apparent, from the amount found in any one place, that a particular site was the dump for pieces that had broken during the firing.

An area of Silverdale North of Cove Road and Cleveland Avenue, and South of “Woodlands” is shown on the “Neighbourhood Map” of Silverdale (O.S.) as “Potter Hill”2. From the various places where accumulations of broken pottery have been found it would appear that the making of pottery was not confined only to this area, but probably spread as far as Walling’s Lane if not further.

Why were the potteries in this area, which is composed of a shallow soil overlaying the limestone with no deposit of clay in the immediate vicinity? It is suggested that they were located here because of the availability of wood for the firing of kilns or the making of charcoal for the firings.

The most likely source of the clay was from Haweswater which is some 12 miles away. On the northern edge of Haweswater are some areas of land marked on the enclosure map of 1817 as “Clay Hole Moss Dales”.3

Was the clay clean enough to be used without it having to have small stones and other debris removed? If not it would have needed processing possibly by steeping it in water until it was of the required consistency, slicing the clay thinly, and then removing any undesired matter by hand. Another method was to place the clay in a pit and mix it with water so that all the heavy matter fell to the bottom. The liquid would then be run off through a sieve into another shallow pit where it would be left for the excess water to evaporate.

From the ridge marks on the shards of pottery found in this area it is apparent that the pots were turned on a wheel before glazing. Prior to being thrown on the potter’s wheel the clay had to be brought to maximum plasticity either by trampling it, or by the use of a mill. The glaze used was galena which was mainly lead sulphide which, being highly toxic, is no longer used. The galena produced a variegated greenish brown glaze.

The next stage in the process was to fire the turned pots in a kiln which would, most likely, have been charcoal fired, although one shard found had a rough dark surface caused by wood ash getting on the pot during firing and being incorporated into the glaze. The internal colour of the shards found is usually grey, indicating that the pots have been subject to a reduction process during the firing. This was done by reducing the amount of oxygen in the kiln which caused the oxygen in the fabric to be drawn out leaving the material a grey colour.

The pots made at Silverdale were universally coarse and heavy and would have been intended for kitchen or dairy use. Some had a spigot hole at the base to allow a tap to be fitted when the pottery was used to hold liquid.

The Journal of the British Archaeological Association of 1865 contains a report of the findings at Silverdale. “James Murton of Silverdale exhibited samples of pottery spigot pots, with a greenish brown leaden glaze, which Mr. H. Syer Cuming unhesitatingly assigned to the early part of the seventeenth century“. At a later meeting, also in 1865, “Dr Walling of Preston suggested that clay was obtained at “Clay Holes Moss”, about a mile and a quarter distant, which was being dug at the beginning of the present [nineteenth] century. The pits numbered about thirty or forty, although many have been filled in”.

From the reports in 1865 it is apparent that evidence of the kilns were still to be found then, with traces of the charcoal used for the firing, and of broken and discarded shards at that time.

There was another pottery at Arnside and also at Burton in Lonsdale. The latter is the subject of a booklet written by Dr Andrew White and published by Lancaster City Museums. Excavations in 1923-24 at Cockersands Abbey produced shards with the characteristics of Silverdale fabric and glaze, and in December 1979 another shard of Silverdale type pottery was found at Eskdale during tree planting4.

Dr White has a collection of Silverdale pottery and also of that found at Arnside. He would like to be told of any significant finds in the area. There are some examples of the pottery in the Maritime Museum, Lancaster.

Notes

  1. Journal of the British Archaeological Association, XXI, p.83, 1865 ↩︎
  2. Confusingly in the OS Pathfinder Map 636 Potter Hill is wrongly marked as lying in the angle between Bottoms Lane and Park Road. ↩︎
  3. ibid p.353. ↩︎
  4. A.White, Contrebis, 1976 & 1984. ↩︎

Published in Mourholme Magazine Issue 27 1996