1 A gazetteer and summary of French Pottery in Scotland c 1150 - c 1650 George Haggarty Research Associate: National Museums of Scotland. I take great pleasure in dedicating this paper to Christopher John Tabraham, who, by allowing me to occupy myself with the remarkable twelfth century pottery group from Kelso Abbey, stimulated my enthusiasm for medieval and later ceramics. INTRODUCTION The proposal for a series of published inventories, by countries, of all the imported medieval and post medieval pottery recovered from excavations and field walking in Scotland, was advanced on the final day of the Medieval Pottery Research Group’s conference held in Edinburgh in May 2001. Taking on the roll of creating a gazetteer and catalogue of French pottery in Scotland, it was the authors aim to build on the pioneering work of John Hurst and other medieval ceramicists and in the process make a contribution to the ongoing research on identifiable medieval and post-medieval ceramics traded around the North and Irish Seas. Thanks to the far-sighted approach of a small group of ceramic researchers and medieval archaeologists in the Scottish branch of (M.P.R.G) the Medieval Pottery Research Group, it has been possible over the last few years to begin the first serious examination of Scotland’s indigenous, medieval and post medieval ceramic industries, along with selected groups of imported pottery. This research has in the main been made possible by generous funding from Historic Scotland, with additional help from both the Hunter and Russell Trusts and incorporates scientific expertise from the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh and Keyworth and the University of Glasgow. Wherever possible, it is our aim to integrate the results from our Inductively Coupled Plasma – Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) and mineralogical fingerprinting programmes with the existing Scottish thin section database, presently on loan from the National Museums of Scotland to the Archaeology Department of the University of Glasgow. To date we have had excellent results from a pilot project carried out on Scotland’s post-medieval redwares (Chenery Philips & Haggarty 2004, 45-53), and a programme of work on the source of imported medieval grey wares from Perth (Hall and Chenery 2005, 54-69). The results achieved in the redware pilot study led to a large three-year Historic Scotland funded research project on the more problematic Scottish 1 2 medieval white gritty ware industry (Jones et al 45-84) and an ongoing programme of work on Scottish pottery and tiles produced using iron rich clays. It is not my intention, in this paper, to describe in great detail the fabrics, forms, decorations, glazing, etc, of all the French medieval and later pottery types traded into Britain and Ireland, as much of this information is already in the public domain, (Hurst 1974, 221-255; Platt & Coleman Smith 1975, 123-152; Jennings 1981; Allan 1984, 39-103; Hurst et al 1986, 76-116; Thompson & Brown 1991, 63-80; Watkins 1987, 125-35: Gahan & McCutcheon 1997, 304-319; Brown 2002, 21-31 & 57-64). On the other hand as some types to date have not been recorded or published in Scotland, I have attempted to include sufficient detail to allow this paper not only to stand alone as a paper on French medieval and post medieval pottery in Scotland, but to be an entry into the wider subject. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to examine every shard of French pottery previously recorded from Scotland, and where I have been unable to find or study the material, I have commented to that effect. Where I disagree with published attributions, dating of the material or its impact on site chronology, I have added a note below the catalogue entry detailing my concerns. For ease of use the disk has been divided into ten self explanatory folders, containing forty four (Microsoft Word Files) and fourteen maps, (A to N). The first published map to show a distribution of French pottery in Scotland illustrated two find spots for early Saintonge polychrome, Kirkcudbright Castle and Abbey St Bathans (Dunning 1968, 45 fig 21). Fifteen years later, in what was the first attempt at cataloguing all the known medieval and post medieval imported pottery from Scottish sites, these were still the only two known Saintonge polychrome find spots (Thoms 1983, 254-5). This paper however went on to record a total of twenty nine different places where other French ceramics have been found, of which only six yielded pottery from two different areas in France. Two find spots were listed for North French green- glazed, one for Rouen-type, two for early Saintonge polychrome, ten for Saintonge green-glazed, six for Nantes ware (Loire-type narrow-necked jugs), and fourteen for Martincamp flasks [with no analysis of fabric type]. Two thirds of the sites were high status, such as castles and much of the pottery was unstratified, having been recovered during old Ministry of Works site clearances. Only five of the finds spots were due to urban excavations and a number of the shards had been retrieved during field walking around the littoral of the Tay Estuary by Daniel Henderson. After examining the pottery listed in 1983, I omitted three find spots from my catalogue. These are Garpit Farm NGR NO 4622 2738, Milton Farm NO 4660 2052 & Restenneth Priory NO 4822 5159. What is self evident when comparing Thoms’ list with this 2 3 inventory is the large number of sites, one hundred and fifty eight, which have now produced French ceramics. From one of these, Ronaldson Wharf in Leith, a range of fifteen types and forms have been recorded, making it clear that it is the increasing amount of archaeology, mostly but not exclusively urban in nature, which is instrumental in the increased amounts of French ceramics now available for study. Map A: France: This shows areas and towns from which different types of French pottery found in Scotland originated. Map B: Scotland: This shows all archaeological and field walking sites where French pottery dating between c 1150 - c 1650 has been found Acknowledgments This work could not have been undertaken without information and help from colleagues working on unpublished ceramic groups, and I would like to thank them all. I am also obliged to all the curators who granted me access to material held in their museums and to staff at AOC, CFA, SUAT, GUARD and Headland Archaeology who gave of their time. Colin Martin, Richard Emerson, John Allan, Richard Jones, Charles Murray, John Cotter, Heather James, John Lawson, Judith Stenhouse, Tom Addyman, Sarah Jennings, Clare McCutcheon, Julie Franklin, Val Dean, George Mudie, Andrew Sheriff, Jackie Moran, Bob Will, Ingrid Shearer, Chris Tabraham, Sheila Forbes, and the late Bob Thomson have all been incredibly supportive. Duncan Brown generously allowed me to read his paper on French imports into Southampton prior to its publication and along with Alan Vince spent time in Scotland examining shards. John Hurst and I were communicating on various aspects of this paper at the time of his death. John had kindly given me access to his card index of imported ceramic find spots in Scotland without which the gazetteer would have been fatally flawed, especially as many of these early finds can no longer be traced. He had also taken time to visit Scotland where he spent five days with me examining pottery assemblages in various museums. His untimely and tragic death came as a great shock to all his friends in the world of Scottish archaeology. The City of Edinburgh Council hosted and helped sponsor the 2001 medieval pottery conference, one of the consequences of which is this paper. Generous grants from the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and the Friends of the City 3 4 of Edinburgh Museums paid for the production of the distribution maps, while the Hunter Trust help defray some of my travel expenses and I am indebted to them all. My gratitude also goes to my wife Marjorie for her forbearance and to Exeter and Southampton Museums for permission to reproduce ceramic illustrations. Many people in Historic Scotland but especially Olwyn Owen and Patrick Ashmore deserve thanks for their long-term support of our research into Scotland’s medieval and later ceramic industries. Historic Scotland also paid for the time Derek Hall and I spent in their ceramic stores, gave a small travel grant to John Hurst and funded with the NMS the CDs publication costs. Without the support of David Caldwell and George Dalgleish I could not have produced this, the third, of what Patrick Ashmore christened, my Scottish ceramic resource disks. For a number of years the National Museums of Scotland has also made available workrooms and meeting facilities at Customs House Leith, both to facilitate my ceramic research and support Historic Scotland’s funded, Scottish ICP-MS redware project. Finally my sincere and heartfelt thanks go to Derek Hall, who from the project inception has been incredibly supportive and found time to visit a number of Scottish museums with me. It is my intention to try and keep this catalogue on French ceramics up to date and I would eventually like to put it and a number of others which I have planed on line. I would therefore be obliged if all new imported medieval and later ceramic finds in Scotland were brought to my attention. I can be contacted at the address given below or e-mailed at [email protected] National Museums of Scotland Old Customs House Commercial Street Leith EH6 6LH George Haggarty asserts and gives notice of his right under section 77 of the Copyright Designs and Patent Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this disk on French pottery in Scotland.