E60

Excavations were carried out at the Seaton Pottery (NJ09NW0129) by ACC Archaeological Unit in August 2002 and August-September 2003. Small scale resistivity work had suggested that some of the buildings survived adjacent to the high rise buildings on the site. Geophysical survey was carried out by Geophysics Bradford in 2003 did not identify any structures thought to be associated with the pottery. Areas were targeted for excavation on the basis of map evidence, and seven trenches were dug on areas which had been occupied by pottery buildings. Three trenches uncovered clay pits which pre-dated the construction of the Pottery buildings. Incised lines in the base of one pit were probably marks left by small metal-wheeled carts used for transporting the clay. These pits are probably of mid-19th century date, a time when the Seaton Brick and Tile Works (NJ90NW0828) occupied the land to the west. A spread of clays containing brick and tile fragments within trench 1, one layer comprising broken pantiles, probably represent a dump from the Brick and Tile works. The site of the kilns of the Pottery (built in 1868) is now under Seaton Crescent. Trench 6, east of the road, recorded the wall of a building adjacent to a roadway which had an ashy path to either side. Plant pots incised with the mark of Clarke and Smith were recovered from an area beside the road, possibly dumped to make up the ground. Layers in trench 5 containing broken ceramics probably represent activity during the early years of the Mills period of the pottery, the pieces including cream slipware bowl sherds and fragments of kiln spacers and saggers. A brick wall foundation recorded in Trench 5 was the remains of the wall delineating the western extent of the pottery lands. In trench 7 a pottery wasters dump probably dates from the mid-20th century: material from the dump also included fragments of plaster moulds, waster sherds and clinker. The finds from the excavations comprised mainly pottery and kiln furniture discarded from the Pottery during the period 1868-1964. The pottery includes examples of well-known Seaton wares and examples of vessels which were not known prior to the excavation. No stamped pieces from the Gavin and Ritchie phase of the pottery are known.