Our photograph shows a selection of pottery discovered at Laverstock.

The result of this discovery uncovered a thriving medieval pottery industry which may have owed its origin to the needs of the Royal Palace at Clarendon.

Medieval pottery sherds from Laverstock were first reported by Frank Stevens in 1940, and in 1955 further finds were made during levelling of land formally used as allotments. They were taken to Salisbury Museum by a Laverstock resident.

The site was then examined revealing a 12th Century cesspit and two pits with pottery waste of the 13th Century. The first kiln was found on a new road line in 1958 and the Ministry of Public Building and Works gave a grant for further investigation.

During a six month period, trial trenches were opened over one and a half acres and about six kilns, two buildings and 18 pits – some of them 12th Century – were excavated. Another kiln was found in 1960 and two more in 1963 when a bank at the edge of Duck Lane was levelled, making nine kilns in all.

The kilns lay on a slope down to the River Bourne and the kiln area covered the eastern half of allotment gardens. The nearest deposits of potting clay seem to have been on Cocky Down and at Alderbury and possibly on the Clarendon Ridge to the east.

The full story of the discoveries, excavations and investigations of the nine kilns found on the site and other remains were told in detail with illustrations, photographic and line drawings, in a publication entitled “The Medieval Pottery Kilns at Laverstock,” written by John Musty, DJ Algar and PF Ewence.

A report was also printed by Vivian Ridler for the Society of Antiquaries, and is a fascinating story of vigilance, painstaking research over many years and careful sifting of archaeological evidence.

 

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