Potted History Public Events 2012

It's been a hectic summer and I've been all over the country demonstrating ancient pottery techniques, here are some of the main events I attended.

I had a great weekend at  the Bedford, River Festival on 21^st and 22nd July making replicas of ancient Greek Rhytons, Amphorae and Epinetrons. On Friday 3^rd August  I was on the Solway, at Senhouse Roman Fort, Maryport, Cumbria.  Demonstrating Roman pottery making with both the Potter’s Wheel and moulds, including the Senhouse Samian bowl. quite a few children had a go at making their own Samian Ware bowl.

On a very rainy Sunday 5^th August I was at Paxton House, celebrating Paxton "Before the House" with some Prehistoric, Neolithic and Bronze-Age pottery demonstrations.  I showed how the beakers discovered last year at Fishwick had been created, from the making of stone, bone and antler tools through processing the clay to decorating pots. I was joined by Kristian Pedersen the archaeologist leading the excavation, who demonstrated the ancient craft of flintknapping.

From Saturday 11^th to  Monday 19^th August, I worked my way along the middle section of Hadrian's Wall in the guise of Bellicus the itinerant Roman Potter demonstrating how the Romans made many different types of pottery and answering questions on how they used these pots.

Saturday 25^th to Monday 27^th August I was atop the dizzy heights of Dover Castle demonstrating Roman pottery making and giving children the chance to make a Roman Gladiator votive plaque.

Kirknewton Festival, in Northumberland on Saturday 1^st and Sunday 2^nd of September was an absolute joy and here you'd have found me  making and firing Prehistoric Bronze-Age pottery, While Paula Constantine demonstrated ancient spinning, dying and weaving.

On the 22nd & 23rd September I had my first opportunity to work at Beamish Open Air Museum.  In the wonderful surroundings of the Home Farm I made country slipware jugs, bowls and platters in the style of !8th and 19th Century potters.

And continuing the theme of Victorian Pottery on Sunday 30^th of September I’ll be at Preston Hall for their Parkmade Event, where I’ll be demonstrating the skills of a Victorian country slipware potter and even offering you the opportunity to have a go and possibly purchase some of my wares.

Visit my website at www.pottedhistory.co.uk

Making Medieval

I'll be at Rievaulx Abbey Saturday and Sunday 10th and 11th July demonstrating Mediaeval potting methods so I'm making some additions to my handling collection in the form of a replica Aquamanille and a couple of Scarborough Ware Knight Jugs.  Great fun!

Visit my website at www.pottedhistory.co.uk

Six Wheels on my Workshop.....so far

And I'm aiming for ten. Today I built two stick wheels, one floor mounted and one a seated wheel, and cast the flywheels for two momentum kick wheels. I'm trying to cover a wide variety of wheel types and from the Stibbington, wheel alone it's obvious that the Romans used both stick and kick. I want participants in my workshops to have the opportunity of experiencing both types. As you will see from the photographs, today I've made wheels which utilise old cart wheels as the flywheel. This type of wheel was certainly used during the mediaeval period as shown in various mauscripts, it's still used in India and I can't believe that Roman potters would have missed the opportunity to utilise an old cart wheel.

Visit my website at www.pottedhistory.co.uk

Mediaeval Pottery Kiln at Shotton

A few days ago I was invited to visit the archaeological excavation of a pottery production site at Shotton, to the north of Newcastle upon Tyne. This site is sceduled for surface coal extraction by Banks Development and has been excaveted in advance of this by Tyne and Wear Museums. What they have found is a small medieval settlement with evidence of pottery production including a kiln and clay extraction pits. The whole site is on solid clay a fact that has made the conditions in the trenches less than pleasant. As you can see in this photograph of the kiln mud and ice were the order of the day but they were kind enough to remove the ice and pump out the water so that I could inspect it. These conditions suggest that some of the post holes around the kiln must surely have been supports for a roof, otherwise the kiln would have been inoperable during most of the year.

I have taken clay samples from the site with the intention of firing them under an assortment of different firing conditions so that they can be compared with the potsherds from the excavation.