A Pottery Kiln Site at Tyler Hill, Near Canterbury
In the early hours of June 1st, 1942, German aircraft dropped five bombs in the woodlands around Tyler Hill. One of these fell near the junction of the old highway and the present modern road at the far end of the village, where the old woodland gives place to more open country. At this spot, shown oh Andrew’s, Duty’s and Herbert’s Map of Kent of 1769 as Jerusalem, although no record of any hill-top maze is forthcoming, and on other early maps as Cheesecourt Gate, a woodland track running from Blean to Broad Oak crosses the road junction.
The bomb made a large crater some 30 ft. in diameter, and revealed the presence there of masses of pottery sherds in the highly disturbed soil lying above the London Clay of the district. High level flint drift covers the clay which has proved suitable for the manufacture of pottery from early times. It would appear that the bomb opened up the site of a kiln which made household wares, but the actual kiln hag not yet been found.
The masses of sherds, some only partly baked, packed one on another, are doubtless remains of wasters thrown out by the old potters. No over-fired pots have yet been found. The type is characteristic of much that has been excavated at Stonar, and can be provisionally dated as of the late thirteenth century.
From the sherds it would seem that the kiln principally turned out sagging base vessels with flat rims, basins, and tall-necked jugs with fingered bases and wide handles. The jugs were usually partly covered -with a greenish glaze. Ornamentation on these consists of bands of incised lines on shoulders and bodies with saw-tooth or wavy scoring between. A finger-made scale pattern is another decorative motive. One example of a very rough bridge spout has been noted. Some of the decorative features on the cooking vessels—fingered rims and raised finger-impressed bands—recall Early Iron Age types.
No grotesque figures have yet been found but in this connection it may be mentioned that there is in the Beaney Museum at Canterbury a grotesque pottery fragment which was found at Tyler Hill.
It is to be hoped that further excavation on this site may be carried out as much work still remains to be done on the study of medieval pottery. What has been done already is mainly due to the exertions of Mrs. Gardiner, J.P., and members of the Canterbury Archaeological Society.
[pg58]Reference to wares of this period may be made to a paper by Mr. Sheppard Frere, “A Medieval Pottery at Ashstead,” in Surrey Arch. Collections, XLVII (1941), 58-68.
The pottery from the Tyler Hill kiln-site is a welcome addition to the somewhat scanty material of this period from Kent. The kiln produced the usual range of types, consisting of jugs of at least two main shapes, one tall and slender and the other more squat and ovoid, also cooking-pots, bowls or dishes and pipkins, etc. (Figs. 1-2). The material is fragmentary, but the types may be reconstructed by comparison with pottery from local sites in the Maidstone Museum, drawings of which are included in this report (Fig. 3).
The Tyler Hill pottery belongs to one period and that apparently was a short one, to judge by the selection sent to me for examination. In character it agrees with material from many sites dated late thirteenth century. In particular the parallels quoted from Bungay Castle, dated 1294, and from the kilns at Rye, which are of this period, provide satisfactory evidence. On the whole a date towards the end of the thirteenth century (c. 1275-1300) is indicated for the products of the Tyler Hill kiln.
Jugs
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[fg]jpg|Fig. 1. MEDIEVAL POTTERY FROM TYLER HILL NEAR CANTERBURY. (J.)|Image[/fg]
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Cooking-Pots
[fn]1|Proc. Suffolk Inst, of Arch., XXII, 336.[/fn]
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[fg]jpg|Fig. 2. MEDIEVAL POTTERY FROM TYLER HILL, NEAR CANTERBURY. (J.)|Image[/fg]
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Bowls
Two pieces of sagging base from different pots almost certainly belong to bowls. Both have a row of deep finger-tip marks along the base angle. One fragment has dark green glaze on the inside as on No. 19.
Butter-Pot (?)
Pipkin
Pipkins are represented by fragments which include a handle of grey ware with light red surface ; it is grooved down the front and the end is folded back as usual on this type. A complete example, provided with three tall legs, was found at Rye,[fn6] and the general development of the type is sketched in Archaeologia, LXXXVIII, 221.
* Proc. Suffolk Inet. of Arch., XXII, 336, fig. 10.
* Ibid., LXXVII, 117, fig. 3, 5.
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Comparative Pottery
In order to show the complete shapes of the main types made at the Tyler Hill kiln, some pots in the Maidstone Museum are here illustrated (Fig. 3). No. 1, found at Upchurch, is a good example of the tall slender jug, typical of the thirteenth century and well represented, for instance, in London.[fn1] Nos. 2-5 illustrate the more squat type of jug also common in the thirteenth century, and the cooking-pots and bowls in domestic use. These were found in laying the foundations of the Bently Wing of Maidstone Museum in 1889. The conditions of finding the pottery are not known, but all the pots are of about the same date and most likely they formed a group in a pit. The Bently Wing pottery was probably made locally, as a very considerable amount of medieval pottery was found in 1921 in circumstances suggesting a kiln-site in Week Street, Maidstone, only 150 yards distant from the earlier find.
[fn]1|London. Museum Medieval Catalogue, p. 212.[/fn]