Roman kiln remains uncovered near Manningtree

The Trust is currently working on a site near Manningtree in Essex. We have been conducting an evaluation on the site since the beginning of January, and investigating features, including linear features (field ditches). On Thursday (22nd January), we were excited when our excavators uncovered the remains of a small Roman pottery kiln. The superstructure of the kiln had been destroyed in the past by ploughing, so we are excavating the surviving remains of the substructure, below ground. The substructure was the lower chamber of the kiln, where fuel was burned to produce the heat which fired the pottery vessels in the upper chamber. This kiln was quite basic, and the remains consist of a keyhole-shaped feature: the narrrow part of the feature represents the flue of the wider part of the feature, which represents the lower chamber. We have found kilns of various types and dates over the years but this is only the fifth Roman pottery kiln which we have excavated, and the others were at Colchester, including one at Middleborough and three at Oaks Drive in Lexden, all in the 1970s.

However, nearly 40 Roman pottery kilns have been recorded at Colchester altogether, since 1819. The kilns have been recorded at sites off Lexden Road, off Butt Road, at Mile End and at Sheepen, with evidence of a number of other kilns or possible kilns, including two at Fitzwalter Road. Sheepen produced a group of kilns with a kiln enclosure, which were excavated in the 1930s by the Colchester Excavation Committee (the precursor of the Trust). This group of kilns represented the industrial production of Roman pottery. Colchester was a large pottery-production centre in Roman Britain and the potters and workshops here supplied the town and also exported pottery to other places in Britain. (The remains of two Roman pottery shops have been observed on sites in Colchester High Street.) Pottery was manufactured in the kilns around Roman Colchester for centuries, and it ranged from the most cheap and basic to very high-quality pottery, and in a wide range of forms. We even know the names of some of the workshops or potters who worked in Colchester, from the name stamps which they used on their pottery and which we have found, including Acceptus, Cunopectus, Gabrus, T. Littera, Litugenus, and Senilis. Pottery was also imported into Colchester, from other production centres in Britain and on the Continent.

Roman life included the manufacture, trading, using and re-using of a lot of pottery, and so we excavate large amounts of Roman pottery fragments in Colchester. In Roman Britain, pottery was used for the storage and transportation of food and drink, food-processing, cooking, serving and eating; other domestic items such as lamps and candlesticks; cremation burial urns. Pots were wheel-thrown from clay and then fired in batches in specially-constructed kilns. There were different kinds of Roman pottery kilns, but here they were all built outside the Roman walled town.

Smaller Roman settlements, or perhaps even large farmsteads, also included pottery kilns, and examples have been recorded in the area around Colchester, eg at Ardleigh and Witham, and now we have uncovered the kiln near Manningtree. The kiln is very interesting in itself and it also provides further evidence of Roman activity and settlement near Manningtree.

The site is being supervised by Trust archaeologist Nigel Rayner.

The images show part of the site with excavated features and parts of features, and the remains of the Roman pottery kiln under excavation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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