HARGM 10330, NEW SCHOOL, PRIEST LANE, RIPON

Ceramic Building Materials

by S Garside-Neville

Introduction

Two boxes of cbm were submitted for examination. The date of the material ranges from the Roman period to the 19th century or later.

Roman material

Forms present include miscellaneous brick fragments and flue tile. It is difficult to identify Roman material due to the fragmentary nature of the pieces. However, the fragments identified are likely to be Roman due to the fabric and manufacturing marks. One definite piece of Roman material is a fragment of flue tile from context 1036. Its method of keying for plaster or mortar is combing. Combing is a feature associated with the 2nd century or later.

Medieval Material

The sample is fragmentary, but it is possible to identify plain roof tile, peg tile and brick. Some of the plain roof tile might be later than the medieval period.

The plain roofing tile might be either peg tile or nib tile, or possibly a combination of both. Only peg tile is present in the sample. The peg tile fragment has a square peghole which was probably placed centrally at one end.

Brick is found elsewhere in the region from the 14th century onward. However, there is no definite medieval brick in this sample. There might be fragments, but these cannot be identified with any certainty until larger example of medieval brick are found for comparison.

Post medieval material

Post medieval forms comprise brick, plain roofing and pan tile.

The brick is dated to the post medieval period due to measurements, manufacturing features, and fabric quality. A typical manufacturing feature is slop moulding (where the mould is only wetted and not sanded). One of the bricks has indented borders (context 2014) which elsewhere in Yorkshire is a medieval feature. The measurements for the bricks from contexts 2014 and 2022 also fall within the common medieval range. However, the bricks are slop moulded. Perhaps these bricks are immediately post medieval in date.

Pan tile is present, and came into use in England during the 17th century. There is a glazed brick from context 1000 which might be part of a brick associated with services.

Other material

Daub is present in context 3129. It has wattle rod impressions. It was found in association with Roman brick so may be of that date.

Context 3103 has a piece of burnt sandstone with tooling marks on a smoothed surface.

Several fragments of sandstone were examined. These had flat surfaces and may be Elland flag. They might be part of stone roof tiles. One fragment (context 1000) has a nail hole so was definitely a roof tile.

Context 3000 has a shaped piece of limestone. It looks as though it might be some sort of bowl or basin.

Conclusion

The Roman brick and tile hints at Roman building in the area. However, the pieces are quite fragmentary, so the building is probably not close by. The flue tile would have been part of a hypocaust so the building was substantial. The daub comes from a less substantial building, or perhaps an oven.

The medieval material consists of roofing tile. This would doubtless have been associated with a timber framed building of some king. The bricks point to brick building in the post medieval period.

The sample should be retained for further study. At that point, the material should be fully recorded by a recognised ceramic building materials specialist. The information gathered will then be able to contribute to the study of building works in Ripon, and also to ceramic building materials in a wider context, such as regionally or nationally.
Context Listing

Cxt	Form	Len	Bre	Thi	Comments	Date range	Spot date
1000	Brick				x 2 frags, Post medieval	16th+	L19th+
	Brick				Hard fabric, Glazed, Services brick	L19th+
	Brick			52	Slop moulded	16-18th
	Pan				x 4 frags	17th+
	Plain					13-16th
	Plain					19th+
	Plain				x 5 small frags	13-16th
	Stone				?Sandstone, Roof tile, nailhole 8mm across	?
1007	Brick				x 6 frags , Post medieval	16th+	16-18th
	Brick			47		Med?
	Brick			51	Slop moulded	16-18th
	Brick			55	Slop moulded	16-18th
1011	Plain					13-16th	13-16th
1020	Plain					13-16th	13-16th
	Rbrick					1-4th
	Stone				Limestone	?
1022	Plain					13-16th	13-16th
1028	Plain?				Modern	19th+	19th+
1036	Flue			22	Combed	2-4th	2-4th
2000	Peg				Square peghole, 11mm across reused	13-16th	13-16th
2010	Brick				Reused	Med+	Med+
2014	Brick		122	48	47/8, 17/8, Slop moulded, sanded base	16-18th?	16-18th?
	Brick		118	49	45/8, 17/8 Indented border, slop moulded	16-18th?
	Brick		124	54	47/8, 21/4, Slop moulded, sanded base	16-18th?
2022	Brick		116	47	45/8 17/8	16-18th?	17th+
	Brick			51	2	16-18th
	Pan				x 4 frags	17th+
2027	Brick	247	119	54	Boot print (female?), fine sanded base, herring bone kiss marks?	16-18th	16-18th
	Brick	242	115	61	Slop moulded, overfired, straw marks on sanded base	16-18th
2037	Brick				Slop moulded	16-18th	16-18th
	Brick			50	Slop moulded	16-18th
	Brick			50*		16-18th
2039	Brick				Slop moulded	16-18th?	16-18th?
2044	Brick					Med+	Med+
	Rbrick				Hard fired, Sanded sides, Scrapped base	1-4th
	Rbrick?					1-4th
2046	Brick					Med+	Med+
	Stone			16	Fine grained sandstone. ?Elland Flag	?
2100	Brick					Med+
3000	Brick		117	50	Slop moulded	16-18th	17-18th?
	Brick