My North Devon Pottery collection grows a bit, in bits!

My collection of North Devon pottery was added to in January. I already have some complete plainware jugs with slip around the rim, probably 19th century, although this has not been verified.

I now have found some sherds on the coast, a mixture of glazed plainware (different colours but mainly olive green glaze) and a couple of pieces of sgrafitto. Very exciting, and some of it looks like the photos of the finds I was shown in America! It felt really great to be back on home territory and find equally old pieces on the beaches here.

I went to visit Doug Fitch in his studio near Crediton to show him my collection and to talk about my trip to Virginia and North Carolina. Doug was very intrigued by it all and enthusiastically showed me some of his collection – he has quite a collection of North Devon Pottery and is a huge fan and advocate of it. His own work is highly influenced, producing beautiful pots featuring slipware and sgrafitto.

One sherd, a chunky and heavy piece of plainware with a handle was Doug’s favourite and he couldn’t put it down. I was even treated to a demonstration on his wheel of making a pot with a pulled over handle over the rim, to explain how the rim of the pot represented by the sherd was formed. He also said you can tell the maker of a pot by the handle – the size of it is unique and depends on the maker’s hand size.

As always a fascinating visit and a treat. Thank you Doug for being so generous with both information and enthusiasm.

2011 so far...

I have been working on various things so far this year, writing my report for the Winston Churchill Trust, visiting the Museum of North Devon and Barnstaple to talk to curator Ruth Spires about their collection and adding to my own collection.

I spoke to Ruth before Christmas about my fellowship trip and what I discovered in Virginia and North Carolina. Ruth told me that someone studying for a Phd (Alice Forward of Cardiff University) was visiting from Wales in January so I arranged to come back again at the same time so we could exchange information, finds and notes. I actually visited the Museum on February 3rd – when I arrived Alice was in the covered yard at the Museum with David Dawson, who has 40 years experience of identifying pottery. They both had their heads buried in boxes of sherds and it was quite a sight as there are rows and rows of boxes and boxes of finds. Ruth told me that a lot are from an archaeological dig in the 80’s when the new library site in Barnstaple was being developed.

We all went into the main Museum and compared sherds – I shared some recent finds from the North Devon Coast and Alice had some wonderful pieces of sgrafitto ware from the Valley between Swansea and Cardiff. David identified a couple of my sgraffito pieces as being 17th Century.

It was fascinating talking to him as he can identify a pot’s form and size from a relatively small piece.

I will return to the Museum some time soon and take a look at their collection. I will need a few hours to spare as it is so large but it is quite a significant collection of pottery from Barnstaple and Bideford and area.

Flowerdew Collection

Driving to see this collection near Charlottesville, VA, was an amazing experience - I had an address and a google map but it was unexpectedly a lovely place to visit, with a gated entrance and a man in charge of visitors who welcomed me and gave me permission to proceed up the private driveway. What a start!

A fascinating trip to view some of this collection, held by University of Virginia, solidifies exactly the direct link between the tobacco and pottery trade between Bideford and the Eastern Seaboard of America.

Flowerdew Hundred dates back to c1620, is on the James River and was in essence a tobacco plantation and factory and saw the “transformation of English Settlers into Americans” (from Commerce and Conflict: The English in Virginia, Flowerdew Hundred Foundation). During a time of peace with the local tribes, there was an opportunity for the English to expand their settlements and for colonists to take over the Indian’s abandoned villages. Flowerdew Hundred was established in this way and was “one of the earliest and most important of the large, privately owned plantations established in Virginia during the tobacco boom years 1617-1625” (from Commerce and Conflict).

It also has some of the richest and best preserved English settlement sites in the US. There are many examples of pottery, mainly plainware in their collection. I visited Karen Shriver, curator of the collection near Charlottesville – Karen introduced me to the collection and then pulled a few pieces for me to see and photograph. These vessels included a lovely ballister pot, c1624-28, most likely used to transport butter; a milk pan base with a green glaze and several smaller gravel tempered sherds, some with a lead glaze c1650 -1775. All these pieces have been identified as originating from North Devon.

Photographs taken by Dave Green, with permission given to use them courtesy of The Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

During the last week of the Fellowship I had an appointment to visit Kelly Ladd, curator at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s archaeological collections. This was exciting because I had already been to Williamsburg during the first week of my trip and I was so pleased that Eric Klingelhofer suggested that I return to the town and see another collection.

To quote the Foundation’s website “(the Foundation)….conducts original research on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century colonial archaeology and material culture,…..The Department also oversees the largest colonial-period archaeological collection in the United States, consisting of several million objects and fragments recovered during more than 60 years of excavation; extensive comparative historic-period faunal and archaeobotanical collections; and the Martin’s Hundred collection of early seventeenth-century material culture” It is the last sentence about Martin’s Hundred collection that is particularly relevant to the North Devon pottery finds.

Martin’s Hundred was one of the earliest 17^th century plantations, located along the James River and was settled in 1619 by the English. Richard Carter bought the land in the early 1700s and built on this earlier site.

Kelly had pulled a lot of finds for me when I arrived and they were split into 2 categories – 18^th century plainware and first quarter 17^th century sgrafitto ware. The former, pottery sherds were excavated in Williamsburg itself and the latter were found at Carter Grove, Martin’s Hundred. We talked a lot about the plainware sherds and the colouring of them – I pointed out that it seemed unusual for the North Devon plainware to have grey in it, Kelly said it was a result of the oxidation that occurs during firing (due to the position of the vessel in the kiln and the firing temperature), which gives the red clay a striking grey ‘core’ running through the middle like a liquorice allsort.

The 17^th century sgrafitto ware from Martin’s Hundred was beautiful and amazing to be able to hold something that old that came from North Devon – the finds were of the signature yellow colour glaze with both floral and wavy patterns. Interestingly Kelly also identified what the Foundation believes to be local copies of North Devon slipware in amongst the collection, some of which were more of an orange colour glaze.
Fascinating to think that in the 1600's, North Devon slipware was being copied and they liked the sgrafitto so much to create their own version.

Further reference can be made to the Martin’s Hundred site in a book of the same title written by eminent British archaeologist Ivor Noel Hume, which is a fascinating account of how he and his team excavated the site and their archaeological practices.

Photographs were taken by Dave Green and reproduced By permission of Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Archaeological Collections.

The last week of the Fellowship

I had followed up on some contacts I had been given by archaeologists Eric Deetz and Eric Klingelhofer whilst they were at Fort Raleigh National Park in Manteo, so the last week was planned to be spent back in Virginia on the pottery trail again.

I went back to Williamsburg on Tuesday afternoon, via Norfolk Airport to drop off our friend Sally who was visiting from Tucson. I had an appointment with Kelly Ladd, curator at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s archaeological collections.

During the week I also visited the DeWitt Wallace Museum of Fine Arts; Bly Straube (again) and Merry Outlaw at Preservation Virginia in Jamestown; Karen Shriver at the Flowerdew Hundred Collection, as part of the University of Virginia at their study centre near Charlottesville; Contemporary ceramicist Michelle Erickson’s pottery at Period Designs in Yorktown; and The Department of Historic Resources state archaeology collection of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in Richmond.

Each of these appointments and visits were fascinating and definitely put Bideford and North Devon’s slipware and earthenware well and truly on the pottery trail map. They all deserve an individual post accompanied by photos and will be written up shortly.

Leaving Manteo

The last couple of days in Manteo were very weird and strange as we were involved in a car crash on October 23^rd and so we had to miss our Bon Voyage Party and waste 2 days waiting for a replacement hire car as the last memory.

To coin a phrase we were ‘t-boned’ – I was driving and started to turn left at some traffic lights, turning on to a main road and as I pulled out someone ran straight into me driver’s side on as he had gone through a red light. Luckily myself, Dave (who was in the front passenger seat) and our friend Sally (visiting us from Tucson and was in the back) were all not too badly injured. Sally was actually hurt the most and had a ot of bruising and was hardly able to breathe immediately after the accident. Sally and I were whisked off very quickly to the hospital, in separate ambulances, for an MRI to check for any damage. I took a little longer to get out of the car as I had neck and head pain and so the paramedics didn’t want to take any chances and the damaged driver side doors were cut off by the ‘jaws of life’ courtesy of the fire department so I didn’t have to climb out over the passenger side!

All of this was expertly handled by the various departments – police, fire, hospital – the driver of the other vehicle was devastated and hung around until we were all on our way to the hospital. His insurance company will handle and pay for all the costs for the car and medical treatment.

The worst thing was that we missed our Bon Voyage party that had been organised for us by our friend from The Elizabethan Gardens, Carl Curnutte. We did put in a brief appearance on our way home and there were a few people still there, but it was very sad not to have everyone gathered to say goodbye to, eat and drink with, deliver a leaving speech and take final photos of the many great contacts and new friends made. There was a lot of food and rink left over and we were given some 'to go' boxes filled with goodies to eat when we got home. We finally made it home to recover and get over the shock of it all about 3 hours after the accident. Carl Curnutte was amazing - he came to the scene immediately and stayed with us at the hospital, driving us all home. Thank you Carl!

The Sunday and Monday were the last 2 days in Manteo and very frustrating as the rental car company had to be dealt with, we had to wait until 4pm on Monday for another vehicle and were going backwards and forwards to the rendezvous point only to have another delay (tho I did borrow a friend’s car on Monday) and also had to fit in packing and tidying and cleaning the house.

So an unusual and unplanned end to the Manteo side of the fellowship.

I left feeling that an awful lot had been put into place as very much a starting point for future projects, collaborations, journeys and relationships. A lot has been learnt about how a small town has worked together to plan and develop it, particularly with a view to creating an attractive place for both residents and visitors and to capitalise on the history there. I have drafted a 3-year plan for an Arts Exchange Programme, between Bideford Bay Creatives and Dare County Arts Council initially, with scope for other partners to become involved, including Bideford 500, Burton Art Gallery and Museum in Bideford and The Elizabethan Gardens, The Lost Colony and the Aquarium in Manteo. As the start of the 3-year plan, there is a confirmed 'postcard project' that will happen at the end of May / beginning of June 2011 with an exchange of artist made postcards in Bideford and Manteo and a simultaneous exhibition of them in both towns.

Also the town of Manteo is very excited about and keen to jointly celebrate Bideford's Heritage Day on July 2nd, being organised by Bideford 500's Committee and by me as their Project Development Worker. There will be a live web link up and celebration on the day so that both communities can see and hear each other.

The Pottery trail unfurls again

Mike Z (Zee) and Doug Stover, National Parks Service staff at Fort Raleigh National Park told me that some archaeologists were coming to the Park to do a dig and that I should meet them and contact archaeologist Nick Lucketti, from the First Colony Foundation, to make arrangements to do so. I called Nick and though he isn't coming personally he told me that I need to make contact with them when they arrive. They were coming with students from Mercer University to do a dig near the Earthen Fort.

He also told me to look out for a book written by Ivor Noel Hulme about artefacts found at the 'Martin's Hundred' site near Williamsburg VA. Its in 2 volumes and volume 2 lists all the finds. I have since borrowed a paperback version about the site from a friend, Brian, and its proving to be a fascinating read so far, with North Devon pottery sherds being identified at the site – more on this later!

The 2 Erics – Klingelhofer and Deetz, eminent archaeologists, turned out to be a mine of information and proved to have some great contacts and were extremely generous with passing on names of people / organisations I should make contact with and places I should visit in the future to follow the North Devon Pottery trail. Alas some of these I won't get to visit on this trip as they include St Mary's in Maryland, Newfoundland, Maine, Ireland and Barbados.

Shame I can only do one Winston Churchill Fellowship in my lifetime!

Contacts they did give me that I can do on this trip are The De Witt Wallace Museum in Williamsburg, the Flowerdew Hundred Foundation at UVA in Charlottesville and the Department of Historic Resources in Richmond.

Nothing of any significance was found on the dig, apart from 2 postholes. I have finalised appointments to visit all these places and people this week, when I leave Manteo (the 26^th) and head back up into Virginia. So a bit of an itinerary change, but an opportunity not to be missed.