ROMANO-BRITISH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



The potteries are far better known. They were examined by the 

 late Mr. E. T. Artis in the course of his excavations in 1821 and subse- 

 quent years, of which we have already had occasion to speak (p. 167), 

 and the results have been recorded, along with the other results of his 

 work, in a folio volume of illustrations without text, in two articles 

 communicated to the British Archaeological Association and in occasional 

 information given by him to Mr. C. Roach Smith. The record is 

 imperfect and in some respects unsatisfactory, but it enables us to sketch 

 the salient features of the industry.' 



The potteries are situated near Castor, Chesterton and Wansford on 

 both sides of the river Nene, and therefore both in Northamptonshire 

 and Huntingdonshire. Here, as we have seen above (p. 177), there were 

 two adjacent Romano-British towns at Castor and at 'the Castles' near 

 Chesterton, and numerous outlying 

 dwellings, which indicate a compara- 

 tively dense population. The pottery 

 works lay thick in the immediate 

 vicinity of the towns, notably in Nor- 

 mangate Field and between 'the Castles ' 

 and Water Newton : they also extended 

 westwards beyond Wansford and, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Artis, were scattered over 

 an area of twenty square miles. Mr. 

 Artis adds that, if all were in use at once, 

 they may have employed two thousand fig. 28. Kiln at Castor. 



hands ; but this is, at the best, a rash 

 estimate, and it is improbable that the kilns are all of the same age. 



The ordinary kilns in use at Castor are thus described by Mr. Artis 

 in the 'Journal of the British Archaological Association (fig. 28) — 



A circular hole was dug, from 3 to 4 feet deep and 4 feet in diameter, and 

 walled round to the height of 2 feet. A furnace, one third of the diameter of the 

 kiln in length, communicated with the side of the hole. In the centre of the circular 

 hole so formed was an oval pedestal, the height of the sides, with the end pointing to 

 the furnace mouth. Upon this pedestal and the side wall the floor of the kiln rests. 

 It is formed of perforated angular bricks meeting at one point in the centre. The fur- 

 nace is arched with bricks moulded for the purpose. The side of the kiln is constructed 

 with curved bricks set edgeways in a thick ' slip ' or liquid of the same material, to the 

 height of 2 feet. [The illustration shows the mouth of the furnace, the floor of the 

 kiln with its perforated bricks, and the lower part of the walls of the kiln.] 



The French scientific writer, M. Brongniart, a contemporary of Artis, 

 compared this type of kiln to one found at Heiligenberg near Strassburg 



' Artis, Durobrivae of Antoninus (London, 1828, folio: plates only) and Journal of the British 

 Jrchtrolopcal Association, \. 1—9, ii. 164-9 ; Thos. Wnght, Cf/t, Roman anJ Saxon (ed. I 885), pp. 263-9, 

 and Intelkctiutl Observer, vii. 456, mostly reprinting Artis ; C. Roach Smith, Collectanea Antiqtus, \. 169, iv. 

 81. S. Birch, Hist, of Ancient Pottery (ed. 2, 1873), pp. 572 foil., has some good remarks, but his account 

 is confused and some of his facts and references wrong. The best collections of Castor ware which I have 

 seen are (i.) that in Peterborough Museum, which includes some of the actual pieces found by Mr. Artis ; 

 and (ii.) the Knipe collection in the Cambridge Archseological Museum, which consists of pieces found 

 in or near Water Newton. Specimens from the former are figured on the plate numbered fig. 32. 



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