Rights Holder: Birmingham Museums Trust
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Unique ID: HESH-4216CC
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
Eardisland History and Heritage Group
Eardisland Excavation 2000-2010
Site Summary: Finds were made during the excavation of a mound in the grounds adjacent to the dwelling: Burton Court Eardisland. The trench in which the majority of artefacts were found measured 5 metres by 3 metres. The stratified assemblage of pottery is of regional importance being especially well preserved and evidence for a domestic non-castle medieval site dating from the twelfth to early thirteenth centuries (1100-1250)
Site number: BC 03
Sector: M
Context number:107
One base sherd of Worcester Ware Fabric Type HER (Hereford) C1. Medieval cooking pot with silt-stone tempering.
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The sherd fragment measures: 56.7mm high, 46.5mm width, 8.3mm across the base, 5.6 mm across the wall; it weighs 42.6 grams. The diameter is 23cm and accounts for 6.5% of the base
Sherd specific details:
Fabric Type: Wheel thrown: Ware Fabric Type HER (Hereford) C1.
Fabric Condition: A hard fabric with inclusions.
Firing Condition:
Exterior: Dark grey to brown, Core: Grey, with occasional black, Interior: Mid-brown
Surface texture:
Exterior: smooth, no sooting; interior: smooth, no sooting or limescale
Condition of sherd:
Excellent
Inclusions: Sparse angular and rounded quartz grains (0.4mm) rounded grey (?) micaceous gravel (1-2mm with some up to 4.0mm) sparse angular grey to black coloured grit with infrequent red grit, Sparse soft white limestone.
Glaze: None
Class: Worcester Ware Fabric Type HER (Hereford) C1
Comments: Dr. Alan Vince - identified this as Worcester Ware fabric HER (Hereford) C1. and states that this was probably locally produced at Worcester in the 12th - 14th centuries. From the beginning of the 13th century the potters at this production site began to use the potters wheel and also began to use glaze, even on cooking pots. No wheel-thrown or glazed examples were discovered within the samples sent in two batches from the investigations at Burton Court (C1 fabric = 27 and 82 sherds). All of teh sherds submitted are likely to be of cooking pots and many have both sooting on the outside of the vessel and off-light limescale on the interior. indicating their use in boiling water. Fourteen of the sherds were rims, all of an everted form with an inturned lip and some of the rims had rounded profiles whilst others with flat top. There is no known chronological difference between the two types. Some of these vessels were quite small, in the order of 200mm diameter, whereas others are similar in size to the Malvern Chase fabric vessels. Some of these maybe of early - mid 12th century in date and all are likely to date to the 12th rather than the 13th century.
Vessels of this fabric include handmade / formed cooking pots with club rims and sagging bases. The everted rim cooking pots were hand formed vessels with roughly cylindrical bodies. The rims have flat tops or are thickened and the bases are also sagged. Most vessels seem to have been smoothed on a turn table but some may have been wheelthrown.
Documentary and archaeological evidence suggests that this ware was produced at Worcester from the early 12th to 13th centuries. In Hereford, it is much more common in the 12th rather than the 13th centuries.
Note: Vince notes that the most common inclusion within this fabric is white quartz mainly measuring between 0.1-0.4mm across but can occur up to 1.2mm.
Class: VESSEL
Sub class: Base
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
Period from: MEDIEVAL
Period to: MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1300
Date to: Circa AD 1550
Quantity: 1
Weight: 42.6 g
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4 Figure: SO4257
Four figure Latitude: 52.20815492
Four figure longitude: -2.85020209
1:25K map: SO4257
1:10K map: SO45NW
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
No references cited so far.