Category: Regional Group
Temple Cloud
6 September 2025
English Heritage is one of the key partner institutions supporting the Devon & Cornwall type series project, kindly providing curatorial support to access and study their collections of ceramic material from Cornwall. Hosted by Matty Cambridge and Ian Leins, this meeting offered the South West and South Central group the chance to spend the day at the EH archaeological store. Papers from members focussed on ceramic groups from sites in the south west:
Duncan Brown, The pottery assemblage from Launceston Castle
Elle Norrish, The medieval pottery of Totnes
Kate Berlewen, Project update: The fabric type series for medieval and post-medieval pottery from Devon and Cornwall
John Allan & Kate Berlewen, An assemblage of pottery from Hayle Viaduct, Cornwall
Matty Cambridge and Jane Mann, Project Update: Viewing and discussion of the Cleeve Abbey Ridge Tiles
In the afternoon the group were given a behind the scenes tour of the stores by Curator of Collections Ian Leins, followed by an opportunity to see and handle the Cleeve Abbey ridge tiles with Assistant Curator Matty Cambridge. The material from Launceston Castle, a key data set for the Cornwall stage of the Devon & Cornwall project, was also available for handling following a morning paper from Duncan Brown who published the ceramic assemblage in the 2006 Excavations at Launceston Castle, Cornwall monograph.
Wiltshire Museum, Devizes
23 November 2024
The newly-joined South West and South Central group were hosted for an autumn meeting by the Wiltshire Museum, Devizes. The group had the opportunity to handle a wide selection of kiln material from Langley Burrell and Minety, and assemblages from Ludgershall Castle and Devizes which provided essential comparative material for type series projects and pottery specialists in the region who encounter these kiln products from consumer sites.
Short talks from members and non-members:
Lorraine Mepham and Alejandra Gutiérrez, The Wiltshire type series project
Kate Berlewen, The fabric type series for medieval and post-medieval pottery from Devon and Cornwall
Matty Cambridge, A group of ridge tiles from the English Heritage collections Devon
Manchester Cathedral
8 June 2024
A recent review of archaeological assemblages curated by Manchester Cathedral provided an opportunity to get the group together again at the Manchester Cathedral Visitor Centre. In 1997 excavations at the Hanging Ditch in Manchester produced one of the city’s few medieval finds assemblages including a relatively large assemblage of pottery. An assessment report written at the time highlighted the lack of comparative assemblages and it was not possible at the time to identify production sources for much of the pottery. An aim of the meeting was to re-examine the assemblage and see if work over the last 27 years could revise the conclusions of the assessment. After much enjoyable and informative discussion, it was decided that the assessment report still stood. It is hoped to follow up this meeting with an examination of pottery from medieval kiln sites in Cheshire.
Wells and Mendip Museum
6 April 2024
Shared meeting of the South West and South Central groups, hosted by the China comes to Wells project at the Wells and Mendip Museum in association with the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society. The groups started with an introductory lecture to exhibition of pottery discovered during excavations of the cellar at the museum itself from Vicky Dawson, followed by handling sessions and lectures:
David Dawson& Oliver Kent, The challenges and opportunities of interpreting a pottery assemblage in situ
Naomi Payne & Amal Khreisheh, The Somerset Pottery Fabric Type Series – an update
Marcie Weeks, Sarah-Jayne Sargeant, and Ella Trego (Oakford Archaeology), A collection of material from recent excavations in Dorset, Poole
Donna Chuter and Katherine Riddle (South West Archaeology), Some recent finds of pottery in North Devon
Mary Rose, Portsmouth
7 October 2023
On Saturday 7th October, members of the South West Regional Group met for an Autumn meeting at Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth. The meeting was hosted in the Mary Rose Museum Learning Centre, and the group were welcomed by Dr Alex Hildred, Head of Research and Curator of Ordnance and Human Remains at the Mary Rose Trust, and Alastair Miles, Head of Collections.
In the morning, the group heard papers around the theme of maritime ceramics, with talks from Alex Hildred on the deposition environment and excavation challenges of the Mary Rose assemblage, Duncan Brown on the pottery associated with the Mary Rose, John Allan on the pottery of the South West ports 1500-1700, and from Alejandra Gutierrez on the pottery of the Studland Bay wreck. There was also an update from Kate Berlewen on the recently successful grant application to Historic England to begin the fabric type series for medieval and post-medieval pottery in Devon and Cornwall.
Maritime ceramics are of course of particular interest to the South West group due to the significant position of the South West peninsula within international trade networks in the medieval and post-medieval periods, and in the afternoon the meeting provided an opportunity to view the Mary Rose assemblage as well as associated later finds. During this afternoon handling session, members were also able to assist in identifying potential fabrics of some of the less studied pottery in the assemblage.
Finally, the group also enjoyed the privilege of a behind the scenes tour from Alastair Miles, getting to view the wreck of the Mary Rose up close, as well as viewing artefacts not currently on display, including ‘brand new’ Tudor arrows and bows that likely never had a chance to be fired, pulleys so well preserved that their mobile components still function, and a wooden parrel ball, part of a system used to move yard arms up and down masts, which was sent into space in 2011!
For those interested in learning more about the Mary Rose, the recently published ‘Mary Rose Book “Her Story, Their Story, Our Story”’ by Dr Hildred celebrates a major anniversary of the raising of the Mary Rose in 2022, and covers the extraordinary archaeological study that has taken place in the 40 years since.
