Blackfriars Barn Project

Volunteers from the Winchelsea Archaeological Society are currently engaged in classifying, recording and interpreting a huge quantity of broken pottery discovered in the cellar under the ruins of Blackfriars Barn in Winchelsea. The pottery dates mainly from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and appears to have been deposited in the cellar during the first half of the 19th century, when the cellar of Blackfriars Barn was used as an unofficial town dump. The aim of the project is to gain insights, from the different types of pottery that local households threw away, into the social and economic status of early 19th century Winchelsea. This pioneering archaeology has been made possible by the sheer size of the deposit, which will also provide a unique benchmark against which the pottery finds of other archaeological investigations can be compared.

The broken pottery, together with a smaller quantity of broken glass bottles, plus some clay pipe, bone and shell fragments, was poured into the cellar through the two windows which once allowed light into the front chamber, down shafts descending from street level. Over time, the pottery sherds and glass shards formed a massive scree slope that stretched across the chamber to the base of the opposite wall and flowed into the middle chamber of the cellar. The deposit was dug out by archaeologists in 1976/77 and boxed up. Most of the glass subsequently disappeared.

WAS has taken on the task of sorting the pottery on behalf of the National Trust, which owns Blackfriars Barn. WAS volunteers are being trained and supervised by Luke Barber of the Sussex Archaeological Society.

The project

There are four stages to the project.

Stage One involved clearing the cellar of loose stonework and rubbish, and re-boxing the pottery. Stage One was completed in August 2005 by a team of WAS volunteers and other residents. The result was 34 plastic wastebins and 8 crates containing an estimated 130,000 sherds.

Stage Two started in May 2008. The pottery sherds were moved out of the cellar to a nearby building, where a team of four regular and several occasional WAS volunteers sorted them into different wares. This stage took about 300 man-hours and was completed in March 2010.

The pottery was sorted into 100 plastic crates containing the following wares:

During Stage Two, WAS volunteers compiled a background guide to English pottery and a sorting guide based on the training received from Luke Barber and their own research. They also prepared sample boards, of which online versions are currently being produced.

Stage Three started in May 2010. It involves the detailed quantification and recording of the pottery assemblage, and the compilation of an archive of representative sherds. WAS volunteers are being trained in pottery quantification and recording techniques by Luke Barber and by a professional archaeological illustrator. They are sorting the collection of sherds of each ware into different types of vessel (eg plates, saucers, dishes, cups, bowls and jugs), and recording the number of sherds, their weight and the Estimated Vessel Equivalent or EVE) of each vessel type. An EVE is the percentage of an original vessel represented by a sherd. It is calculated using a set of circles of different diameter set out in a diameter grid (see below). The edge of a rim fragment is aligned with the edge of whichever circle has the closest curvature. As the circles are segmented, it is possible to estimate the percentage of the original vessel represented by the fragment. The sum of the percentages of the fragments of the same type of vessel gives an estimate of the number of whole vessels in the deposit.

Selected sherds will be photographed to show the range of patterns and maker’s marks. All local earthenwares are being sorted into vessel types and an example of each will be drawn. These examples will be retained for long-term curation. Additional sample collections will be assembled for museums and a handling collection of pottery sherds will be collected for local schools to use in the “Victorians” section of their curriculum. The remaining pottery will be discarded.

Stage Four will involve writing up and publishing the results of the project, as well as disseminating them through lectures. However, this stage is dependent on securing funding.