Discoveries, Our Blog
#ThrowbackThursday Mile End Kiln
As it was mentioned earlier in the week, we thought this #ThrowbackThursday we should shine a light on the tile kiln found in Mile End
In 1973, there was an excavation on the line of the A134 in the parish of Mile End (now bypassed) which identified many pits full of broken medieval pottery! In particular, the presence of ‘wasters’ (misshapen and misfired pots) suggested there may be a medieval kiln nearby
Fast forward to much more recently. In 2011 and 2014 we took part in a very extensive evaluation of the area where which identified a huge amount of medieval pottery (CAT Reports 627, 786) and led to an excavation in 2017
The main finds of the 2017 excavation included over 530 kg (!) of medieval pottery, and a tile-built rectangular kiln. The kiln is most likely to be late 15th or early 16th-century and tiny (measuring 2m x 3.5m) compared to other rectangular kilns.
The site can give us a glimpse into medieval pottery production in Mile End, and you can read more about it in CAT Report 1140 at cat.essex.ac.uk 
