Medieval Pottery from Excavations at Castle Garth, Newcastle, 1976-1992

English Heritage summaries. 2003/2004

EH Project Number:	3672MAIN
Funded Unit:	Newcastle City Council

The pottery which is the subject of this report is broadly that which was used and discarded in the Castle Garth, in the area between the Keep and the Black Gate, from about 1080 to 1450. The assemblage consists of over 38,000 sherds weighing approximately 418kg. 

The first stratified medieval pottery assemblage to be published from Tyneside was that from the South Curtain Wall of the Castle (hereinafter SCW, Edwards in Harbottle 1966). Dating was not precisely established but this included a relatively large group of pottery which appeared to be contemporary with the construction of the Curtain Wall – assumed to be in the latter part of the 12th century. This group included the distinctive jars with ‘frilly’ rims now called SCW type. In the 40 years since then large quantities of pottery have been recovered and published from sites on Tyneside. The discovery of the scientifically dated 12th century Dog Bank pottery kiln (O’Brien et al 1988) was a major development, but as none of the area’s consumer sites produced well stratified 12th century/early 13th century sequences or significant quantities of Dog Bank wares (none was present at SCW) the early part of the pottery sequence remained unclear.  The recently completed work on the assemblage from Jarrow (Jenner et al forthcoming), where both Dog Bank ware and SCW type ware were present, established no clear chronological relationship between them.

The current analysis of the Castle assemblage has established that Dog Bank type wares were in use before the building of the curtain wall, and the SCW  type after. There appears to be in effect no overlap of the two types – which would explain the absence of Dog Bank ware from the SCW assemblage. There are indications that other coarse gritted wares might have been in use somewhat earlier than Dog Bank ware itself, although the industry could well have produced a wider range of products than those known to us from the excavation of a single kiln. Much finer fabrics used for both jars and jugs have also been shown to be clearly contemporary with the coarse gritted ‘Saxo-Norman’ wares  Analysis of the assemblage also suggests that SCW ware had a relatively limited life span and had disappeared before the middle of the 13th century. This is in contrast to some other types, including early green glazed wares, which seem to last from the 12th through to the middle of the 13th century, and possibly later.

Fifteen years after the publication of the SCW report the foundation of our understanding of the 13th to 14th century (and later) pottery sequence in Newcastle was established in the Castle Ditch report (Harbottle and Ellison 1981). Analysis of this assemblage showed that in the early part of the 13th century early gritty/sandy green glazed wares and oxidised gritty wares were dominant. Light firing types (buff white ware) increased as the century progressed and in the early 14th century they made up over 75% of the assemblage. By the late 14th/15th century reduced greenwares (at about 80%) had replaced buff white wares as the dominant type and continued to be such, though in diminishing proportions, into the16th  century.

The earliest excavated phases in the Castle Ditch produced comparatively little pottery, the bulk of the assemblage dating from the later 14th to late 16th century, but subsequently the dating and trends set out in that report were confirmed in several other pottery studies. In particular Margaret Ellison’s work on the Swirle (a site on the riverside east of the Castle, see Ellison 1993 p. 179) showed not only that the change from buff white ware to reduced greenware was quite abrupt, but that where there is no significant element of residuality the two types do not overlap. However, it is, generally speaking, rare to find archaeological deposits which do not contain a certain amount of residual material. The Castle was no exception, and, although the analysis seems to confirm this relatively abrupt change, a proportion of buff white ware is present in the late medieval phase.  A large quantity of later reduced greenware was present in this phase but quantities of the other types (imported redwares, stonewares and Cistercian ware) which characterised the 15th and 16th century phases of the Castle Ditch fill were minimal, and probably the result of the disturbance of the uppermost layers. The main sequence thus appears to end in the early 15th century.

In addition to a major contribution to the understanding of the Tyneside pottery sequence this assemblage also contained an unusually large number of complete, or near complete vessel profiles. This has provided a much fuller picture of the range and sizes of vessels in use than is usually the case and will be a valuable reference tool for future work.

The report was written by Jenny Vaughan and Andy Sage and will form part of the account of excavations at the castle to be published in Archaeologia Aeliana in 2008 or 2009.

Edwards, B.J.N.  in Harbottle, B. (1966) Excavations at the South Curtain Wall of the Castle, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1960 - 61 Archaeologia Aeliana Series 4, vol. 44.
Ellison, M. (1993) 'The Pottery' in Ellison et al. ‘Excavations at Newcastle Quayside: Waterfront Development at the Swirle’ Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th series, Vol. 21
Harbottle B. and Ellison, M. (1981) ‘An Excavation in the Castle Ditch, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1974-76’ Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th series, vol. 9
Jenner, A. Mills, S. and Burke, B. (forthcoming) ‘The Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Pottery’ in Cramp, R. Wearmouth and Jarrow Monastic Sites Vol 2
O'Brien, C, Bown, L, Dixon, S and Nicholson, R, (1988) The Origins of Newcastle Quayside, Excavations at Queen Street and Dog Bank. (The Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne Monograph Series 3)

This page was published on 25/09/2006