Monument record MWX3073 - The Old Pottery, Brownsea Island

Pottery Kilns on Brownsea Island. Both the 1770 map and the 1853 map show an area on the West side of the island called the "Old Pottery". (1)

<1> Papworth, M, 1992, Brownsea Island, Dorset. Wessex region, 112,089 (Unpublished document). SWX1390.

Both the 1770 map (DCRO photocopy 1/1) and the 1853 map (DCRO D263/T1) show an area on the west side of the Island called the “old pottery”. The 1770 map shows one larger rectangle which is probably a building and four very small marks which may also be remains of structures in this “old pottery” area. No buildings are shown in the area in 1853. Mr Bromby warden from 1963 – 1988 said that he had found sherds of pottery depicting hunting scenes in relief in a buff coloured ware and that these had been roughly dated to the 18th century (some sherds are thought to be at Poole Museum although Mr Jarvis has not located any). This earlier pottery site was built on in the 1850s and a new pottery called Little Pottery produced more specialised types of earthenware, such as chimney pots, lids and garden edgings. The Little Pottery consisted of a range of brick-built and slated buildings 55m long containing a “workshop or moulding room, and a pipe kiln for earthenware, a muffle kiln for terra cotta, store and drying room, and workshops over, another moulding and modelling room and a brick kiln for burning 18,000 bricks”. There was also a cottage and stable immediately to the south-east of the pottery. Further details of this site are found in the 1873 document (DCRO D263/T4). The Little Pottery was connected by a tramway (112553) to the other parts of the pottery and brick production complex. The buildings had been levelled by 1901 but traces of the foundations are visible also clay pits in the cliffs to the north and the circular brick head to a clay shaft. Visited 25/2/1992.

Record last edited

Oct 5 2021 10:32AM