Figure 9. — Gravel-tempered oven made at Crocker 

 pottery, Bideford, in the 19th century. Borough 

 of Bideford PubHc Library and Museum. {Photo 

 by A. C. Littlejohns.) 



Figure id. — Restored gravel-tempered oven from 

 Jamestown. Colonial National Historical Park. 

 {National Park Service photo.) 



kins, etc.," in order "to harden the ware," according 

 to Charbonnier, who also observed that "The ware 

 generally was very badly fired. . . . From the frag- 

 ments it can be seen that the firing was most unequal, 

 parts of the body being grey in colour instead of a rich 

 red, as the well-fired portions are." He noted that the 

 potters applied "the galena native sulphide of lead for 

 the glaze, no doubt originally dusted on to the ware, 

 as with the older potters elsewhere." ^^ A sherd of 

 gravel-tempered ware is displayed in the window of 

 Brannam's Barnstaple pottery, while a small pan 

 from Bideford, probably of 19th-century origin, is in 

 the Smithsonian collections (USNM 394440). 



The most remarkable form utilizing gravel-tempered 

 clay is found in the baking ovens which remained a 

 North Devon specialty for over two centuries. These 

 ovens vary somewhat in shape, and were made in 

 graduated sizes. Most commonly they are rectangu- 

 lar with domed superstructures, having been molded 

 or "draped" in sections, with their parts joined to- 

 gether, leaving seams with either tooled or thumb- 

 impressed reenforcements. An oven obtained in 

 Bideford has a flat top, without visible seams (USNM 

 394505; fig. 6). 



An early example occurs in Barnstaple, where, in 

 a recently restored inn, an oven was found installed 

 at the side of a fireplace which is "late sixteenth cen- 

 tury in character." Pipes and a pair of woman's 

 shoes, all dating from the first half of the 18th century, 

 were found in the fireplace after it had been exposed, 

 thus indicating the period of its most recent use.^" An 

 oven discovered intact behind a wall during alteration 

 of a Bideford house is believed to date from between 

 1650 and 1675.^' That oven (figs. 7, 8) is now ex- 

 hibited in the Bideford Museum. 



At the other extreme, C. H. Brannam of Barn- 

 staple in 1890 was still making ovens in the ancient 

 North Walk pottery.*- The following year H. VV. 

 Strong wrote of Fishley's Fremington pottery that 

 "shiploads of the big clay ovens in which the Cornish- 

 man bakes his bread . . . meet with a readv sale in 



3' Charbonnier, op. cit. (footnote 31), p. 258. 

 PAPER 13: NORTH DEVON POTTERY IN 



" B. W. Oliver, "The Three Tuns, Barnstaple," Report and 

 Transactions 0/ the Devonshire Association for the Advancement 0/ 

 Science, Literature, and Art, Torquay, Devon, 1948, vol. 80, 

 pp. 151-152. 



<■ Mildred E. Jenkinson in personal correspondence from 

 Bideford, April 20, 1955. 



« Hall, op. cit. (footnote 30), p. 319. 



17th-century AMERICA 



31 



