Medieval Pottery Industry, Chilvers Coton

1 The area of Chilvers Coton, Nuneaton was the centre for a medieval pottery industry. The earliest kilns had two flues followed by kilns with three, four and five flues. The pottery range begins with fine white wares in the 13th century and develops through red, sandy wares to the later Midland Purple and Cistercian wares and finally to slip wares in the 17th century.
2 This is the area identified as the possible extent of the pottery industry, as oppposed to the kilns that have been excavated to date (see WA 1792).
3 Deposits of medieval pottery, the majority of which were wasters. No actual structural evidence relating to the medieval kilns was found.
4 Local clay had been exploited for pottery manufacture since the time of the Templars and later for brickworks
5 Observation in advance of development at 8 Hare and Hounds Lane uncovered an archaeological layer containing large quantities of pottery. No cut features were observed. Two fragments of kiln superstructure were found. It was noted that none of the pottery showed signs of sooting, so this material probably represents a dump of waste material from the surrounding kiln complexes.
6 Only a signle sherd of 13-14th century pottery, possibly from the Chilvers Coton kilns, was recorded during evaluation at Mary Ann Evans Hospice, Nuneaton. It probably comes from a manuring deposit.