05-02-99 - Bishop Wilton, East Yorkshire

Ceramic Building Materials

by S Garside-Neville

Introduction

One medium sized bag of ceramic building materials were submitted for examination. The form and contexts present are listed in the table below.

Medieval material

Plain tile was the main method of roofing used during the medieval period. There is one piece of peg tile from this site, indicating that the plain tile took that format. It is probable that plain tile was used into the post medieval period. A few small fragments of brick were present, but it is difficult to tell what date these are. Brick came into use as a common building material during the 14th century. There is one fragment of what could be daub from context 1004.

Post medieval material

Some of the plain tile and small brick fragments could be post medieval in date.

Other material

Other material comprises pottery and stone. The pottery is a small fragment of Roman Samian pottery, dating from between the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. The stone is burnt.

Conclusion

This small sample ranges in date from the medieval to the post medieval. The presence of peg tile is interesting as it helps to map the usage of peg tile as opposed to nib tile within Yorkshire. The sample should be thoroughly recorded by a ceramic building materials specialist, including the fabric and weight, as well as other features. After that point, some of the sample could be discarded. The peg tile and fragments of plain tile should be retained for reference.

Context Listing

Cxt	Form	Thi	Comments	Date range	Spot date
1001	Brick			14th+	14th+
	Peg	16	Square peghole	13-16th
	Plain			13-16th
1003	Brick			pm?	Post med?
	Plain			13-16th
1004	Daub?		Could be badly fired brick	med?	Post med?
	Plain			pm?
	Plain			13-16th
	Pot		Samian	1-3rd
	Stone		Burnt	?
2001	Plain			13-16th	13-16th

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