*>-■ 



#- 



\ 





« \ 



^ «...■.**: 



Figure 8. — Views of opening of oven in figure 7, photographed before its removal from 

 house. This illustrates how oven was built into corner of fireplace and concealed from 

 view. At right, the oven door is in place. {Photos by A. C. Littlejolms.) 



ning parallel with the River Taw in the parishes of 

 Tawstock and Fremington between Bldeford and 

 Barnstaple. A geologist in 1864 wrote that the clay 

 is "perfectly homogeneous . . . exceedingly tough, free 

 from slightest grit and soft as butter.'"^ When fired 

 at too high a temperature, he wrote, the clay would 

 become so vesicular that it would float on water. 

 The kilns were bottle-shaped and, according to 

 tradition, originally were open at the top, like lime 

 kilns; the contents were roofed over with old crocks.^'' 

 Apparently all the potteries made the same types of 

 wares, "coarse" or common earthenware having com- 

 prised the bulk of their product. The utilitarian red- 

 ware was indeed coarse, since it was liberally tem- 

 pered with Bideford gravel in order to insure hardness 

 and to offset the purity and softness of the Fremington 

 clay. An anonymous historian wrote in 1755: ^'' 



35 George Maw, *'On a Supposed Deposit of Boulder-Clay in 

 North Devon," Quarterly Journal oj the Geological Society oj London, 

 1864, vol. 20, pp. 445-451. 



38 Cliarbonnier, op. cit. (footnote 31), pp. 255, 259. 



3' "Supplement to the Account of Biddeford," The Gentlemen's 

 Magazine, 1755, vol. 25, p. 564. 



Just above the bridge [over the River Torridge] is a little 

 ridge of gravel of a peculiar quality, without which the 

 potters could not make their ware. There are many other 

 ridges of gravel within the bar, but this only is proper for 

 their use. 



John Watkins wrote that Bideford earthenware "is 

 generally supposed to be superiour to any other of the 

 kind, and this is accounted for, from the peculiar 

 excellence of the gravel which this river affords, in 

 binding the clay." His claim that "this is the true 

 reason, seems clear, from the fact that though the 

 potteries at Barnstaple make use of the same sort of 

 clay, yet their earthenware is not held in such esteem 

 at Bristol, &c. as that of Bideford" '* is scarcely sup- 

 portable, since the Barnstaple potters also used the 

 same Bideford gravel. The fire dogs found in Barn- 

 staple with the date 1655, referred to above, were 

 tempered with this gravel, as were "ovens, tiles, pip- 



38 Watkins, op. cit. (footnote 4), p. 74. However, the "bye- 

 laws" of Barnstaple for 1689 indicate that tempering materials 

 were also obtained locally: "Every one that fetcheth sand from 

 the sand ridge, shall pay for each horse yearly I'l, and for every 

 boat of Crock Sand I''., according to the antient custome." 

 (Joseph B. Gribble, Memorials of Barnstaple, Barnstaple, 1830, 

 p. 360.) 



30 



BULLETIN 225: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



