A Stamford Ware Pottery Kiln in Pontefract. Excavations at Simpson's Malt, Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

A medieval pottery kiln discovered kiln in Pontefract is revealed to have produced Stamford ware vessels of a type previously only associated with Stamford in Lincolnshire. The pottery found can be equated typologically with forms and decorations that have been dated elsewhere to the Late 11th and 12th centuries. Both radiocarbon and archaeomagnetic dating methods, however, indicate a pre-Conquest date for the last firing of the kiln, in the early 11th century. The pottery fabric is visually indistinguishable for the Lincolnshire Stamford ware and petrographic and ICP analyses were undertaken to see if there are differences in the clays that were used in the respective industries. A geological review of the potential clay sources in the Pontefract area has revealed that there are sources which could have been exploited, although there is no evidence for this in the medieval period. Comparison of the pottery forms and decoration found at Pontefract reveal many similarities with those from the Stamford potteries, although unique to Pontefract was the liberal use of wheel stamp decoration. The results of the project clearly indicate that if potters with the Stamford ware repertoire relocated to Pontefract and manufactured pottery for a time. The apparent absence of the kiln's products in the wider archaeological record, especially the material with a wheel stamp decoration, is puzzling and could indicate a very short-term operation that never achieved a wide market. The scientific dating of this event is potentially contentious as it would appear to demand a reappraisal of the chronology of the Stamford ware industry.