Monument record MDO1234 - Medieval pottery kiln, Hartley Manor Farm, Hermitage

A medieval pottery kiln first recorded when ploughing in 1957 and 1958 exposed a scatter of pottery, tile and black soil. Excavations in 1959 identified either a Musty type 2 or type 1 kiln. The pottery was in a quartz-tempered firing fabric, forms include cooking pots, bowls, jugs, pans and ridge tiles. Production took place during the 13th-15th century.

In 1957 and 1958 Mr H Chapple of Hartley Manor Farm exposed pottery, tile-fragments and black soil while ploughing the nine-acre field centred at ST 64520652. The material was identified as debris from a Medieval kiln. In August 1959 a short excavation of the site was undertaken. The site of the kiln was discovered to be fairly near to the surface suggesting that much of the superstructure was above ground level and now totally destroyed. The kiln appears to have had two phases. It started as a 2-stoke-pit with two flues and was later converted to a single stoke-pit with one flue. A large number of fire-bars were found. The pottery fragments suggest a date between 1250 and 1300 or possibly earlier. <1> <2> <3>

Mr H Chapple left the district some 15 years ago. The farm is at present empty awaiting new owners. The field in question, upon a north-facing slope, is under a crop of rich pasture and nothing of archaeological interest was noted, save for a couple of sherds of medieval pottery at the gate to the field on the east side. <4>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1960, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1959, 103 (Serial). SDO59.

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1967, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1966, 161-175 (Serial). SDO66.

<3> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1989, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1988, 29-35 (Serial). SDO88.

<4> Phillips, A S, Various, Field Investigators Comments ASP, F1 ASP 27-OCT-77 (Unpublished document). SWX3817.

<5> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/088 RCHME Inventory: Dorset I (West) and Revision (Unpublished document). SDO17367.

<6> McCarthy, M R, and Brooks, C M, 1988, Medieval pottery in Britain AD 900-1600, 340-341 (Monograph). SDO17397.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 198849 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 23 2021 10:15AM