CHAPTER II. 



THE ROMANO -BRITISH PERIOD. VARIETIES OF VESSELS. 



ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD. CINERARY URNS. DOMESTIC 

 VESSELS. NORMAN PERIOD. PITCHERS AND OTHER 

 VESSELS DISCOVERED IN DERBYSHIRE. PAVEMENT TILES. 

 MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 



THE second great division into which the subject of the history 

 of the early fictile productions of the pottery district is to 

 be divided, is that of the ROMANO-BRITISH period a period 

 in which, although most of the finer vessels used in England 

 were imported by that conquering people, a large variety 

 of wares were made of native clays in different districts 

 which they inhabited. In this period, although it is tole- 

 rably certain that wares of some kind or other were made 

 in Staffordshire, there is no positive evidence of such being 

 the case. I am not aware of any authenticated Roman kilns * 

 having been discovered, though it is generally believed that 

 some of the interesting remains exhumed many years ago at 

 Fenton and other localities are to be ascribed to this period. 

 Certain it is that kilns bearing the characteristics of Roman 

 use are recorded as having been exhumed ; and equally cer- 

 tain is it that vessels, and fragments of vessels, of undoubted 

 Roman workmanship, have frequently been dug up in the 

 neighbourhood. It must also be borne in mind that in the 



* It is stated that a Roman kiln was found many years ago at Burslem, 

 in which were remains of pottery, but as no authentic record of the 

 discovery has, unfortunately, been preserved, too much reliance must 

 not, perhaps, be placed upon the circumstance. 



