Pottery from the Hillington Test-Pits (HIL/15)
BA: Late Bronze Age. 1200-800BC. Simple, hand-made ‘bucket-shaped’ pots with lots of flint, shell and/or grog (ground-up pieces of old pottery) mixed in with the clay. Mainly used for cooking or as cremation urns..
RB: Roman. All. 1st - 4th century.
IPS: Ipswich Ware. The first industrially produced pottery to be made after the end of the Roman period. Made in Ipswich, and fired in kilns, some of which have been excavated. Most pots were jars, but bowls also known, as are jugs. It is usually grey and quite smooth, although some pots have varying amounts of large sand grains in the clay. Very thick and heavy when compared to later Saxon pottery, probably because it was made by hand rather than thrown on a wheel. Dated AD720 – 850.
THET: Thetford ware. So-called because archaeologists first found it in Thetford, but the first place to make it was Ipswich, around AD850. Potters first began to make it in Thetford sometime around AD925, and carried on until around AD1100. Many kilns are known from the town. It was made in Norwich from about AD1000, and soon after at many of the main towns in England at that time. The pots are usually grey, and the clay has lots of tiny grains of sand in it, making the surface feel a little like fine sandpaper. Most pots were simple jars, but very large storage pots over 1m high were also made, along with jugs, bowls and lamps. It is found all over East Anglia and eastern England as far north as Lincoln and as far south as London.
EMW: Early Medieval Sandy Ware: AD1100-1400. Hard grey or brown pottery 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.
GRIM: Grimston Ware. Made at Grimston, near King’s Lynn. It was made from a sandy clay similar with a slight ‘sandpaper’ texture. The clay is usually a dark bluish-grey colour, sometimes with a light-coloured buff or orange inner surface. It was made between about AD1080 and 1400. All sorts of different pots were made, but the most common finds are jugs, which usually have a slightly dull green glaze on the outer surface. Between AD1300 and 1400, the potters made very ornate jugs, with painted designs in a reddish brown clay, and sometimes attached models of knights in armour or grotesque faces to the outside of the pots. It is found all over East Anglia and eastern England.
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 AD1580, black glaze was also used.
TGE: 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 it. 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 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 such as chamber pots and ointment jars.
EST: English Stoneware: Very hard, grey fabric with white and/or brown surfaces. First made in Britain at the end of the 17th century, usually for inn tankards, then became very common in the 18th and 19th century, particularly for mineral water or ink bottles and beer jars.
SMW: Staffordshire Manganese Ware, late 17th – 18th century. Made from a fine, buff- or red-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.
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
BA / THET / EMW / GRIM / VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / DateRange
1 / 2 / 1 / 4 / 1800-1900
1 / 4 / 1 / 2 / 1800-1900
1 / 6 / 1 / 4 / 2 / 4 / 1 / 3 / 1100-1400
1 / 7 / 1 / 1 / 3 / 17 / 1200BC-850
The pottery from this test pit shows that there was low level activity during the Bronze Age, and again in the medieval period. The site then seems to have been abandoned from the 15th – 18th centuries.
Test Pit 2
THET / EMW / GRE / EST / VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / DateRange
2 / 2 / 1 / 29 / 850-1100
2 / 4 / 1 / 1 / 7 / 65 / 1 / 2 / 850-1900
2 / 5 / 1 / 20 / 1 / 9 / 1550-1800
2 / 6 / 2 / 7 / 1100-1400
2 / 7 / 2 / 3 / 1100-1400
The test pit shows that there was low level activity at the site during the late Saxon, early medieval, early post-medieval and Victorian eras.
Test Pit 3
IPS / THET / EMW / GRIM / GRE / TGE / VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / DateRange
3 / 2 / 1 / 2 / 4 / 7 / 1100-1900
3 / 3 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 5 / 850-1400
3 / 4 / 1 / 4 / 1 / 4 / 1 / 6 / 1 / 1 / 850-1700
3 / 5 / 1 / 6 / 2 / 6 / 850-1600
surface / 2 / 54 / 720-850
The test pit shows that there was low level activity at the site during the middle and late Saxon, early medieval, early post-medieval and Victorian eras.
Test Pit 4
BA / THET / EMW / GRIM / VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / DateRange
4 / 2 / 1 / 3 / 3 / 10 / 6 / 26 / 1200BC-1900
4 / 3 / 1 / 1 / 3 / 8 / 850-1400
4 / 4 / 1 / 8 / 1 / 7 / 1200-1900
4 / 6 / 1 / 5 / 850-1100
The test pit shows that there was low level activity at the site during the prehistoric, early medieval and Victorian eras.
Test Pit 5
GRE / SMW / VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / DateRange
5 / 1 / 1 / 3 / 2 / 14 / 1550-1900
5 / 2 / 20 / 45 / 1800-1900
5 / 3 / 8 / 15 / 1800-1900
5 / 4 / 1 / 2 / 7 / 22 / 1680-1900
5 / 5 / 3 / 20 / 1680-1900
Most of the pottery form this test-pit is Victorian, which suggests that there was very little human activity at the site before that time.
Test Pit 6
VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / DateRange
6 / 1 / 6 / 12 / 1800-1900
6 / 2 / 19 / 23 / 1800-1900
6 / 3 / 30 / 49 / 1800-1900
6 / 4 / 25 / 44 / 1800-1900
6 / 5 / 6 / 29 / 1800-1900
6 / 6 / 1 / 1 / 1800-1900
All the pottery form this test-pit is Victorian, which suggests that there was very little human activity at the site before that time.
Test Pit 7
THET / EMW / GRIM / GRE / VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / DateRange
7 / 3 / 1 / 10 / 850-1100
7 / 4 / 1 / 1 / 1800-1900
7 / 5 / 1 / 4 / 2 / 19 / 2 / 2 / 1100-1900
7 / 6 / 1 / 4 / 1 / 4 / 850-1900
7 / 7 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 5 / 1 / 1 / 1100-1900
The test pit shows that there was low level activity at the site during the late Saxon, early medieval, early post-medieval and Victorian eras.
Test Pit 8
BA / VICTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / No / Wt / DateRange
8 / 1 / 2 / 4 / 1800-1900
8 / 2 / 5 / 8 / 1800-1900
8 / 3 / 1 / 13 / 3 / 6 / 1200BC-1900
8 / 4 / 1 / 20 / 1200-800BC
All the pottery from this test-pit was Victorian, other than two large and well-preserved sherds of Bronze Age material, indicating that people were using the site at that time. It then appears to have lain unused until the 19th century
Test Pit 9
RB / THET / EMW / GRIMTP / Cntxt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / No / Wt / DateRange
9 / 1 / 1 / 5 / 1 / 15 / 850-1400
9 / 3 / 1 / 8 / 100-400
9 / 6 / 1 / 3 / 850-1100
land around TP9 / 16 / 172 / 10 / 255 / 1100-1400
All the pottery from this test-pit is medieval, other than a single sherd of Roman material. It suggests that people were using the site from during the 11th – 14th centuries, but it was thereafter abandoned.