Monument record MLI52469 - Pottery Farm, Brampton

Summary

Farmstead and early 19th century porcelain factory, at Pottery Farm, Brampton.

Type and Period (3)

  • (Post Medieval - 1803 AD to 1808 AD)
  • (Post Medieval - 1803 AD to 1808 AD)
  • (Post Medieval to Mid 20th Century - 1800 AD to 1950 AD?)

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

Full Description

Site of Pottery Farm, Brampton. Demolished 19th century farmstead. Regular courtyard of F plan. The farmhouse is attached to a range of working buildings. Isolated location. {1} A short-lived porcelain factory was established at Pottery Farm in the early 19th century. The factory is believed to have been opened in about 1803, when William Billingsley obtained the lease for Pottery Farm and moved his existing pottery works from Mansfield to this site north of Torksey. Pottery Farm stood on a low hill, close to the River Trent. Clay for the pottery is believed to have been extracted from pits dug near to the site, or was brought in by the adjacent river. A short length of canal gave access from the Trent to near the farm site, and afforded excellent transport links along the Trent Valley for the finished products. Operations at the factory are believed to have ceased in 1808, when William Billingsley moved to Worcester, to work for the Flight and Barr company. The site seems to have been converted to agricultural use quite soon after the factory closed, with the former workshops being converted to farm offices. O'Neill noted low mounds in the grass field to the west of the farmstead during his visit to the site in 1895, which he believed to be the remains of the former factory kilns. {2}{3}{4}{5} A series of archaeological investigations were conducted at Pottery Farm in the late 1960s and early 1970s, immediately prior to the demolition of the remaining buildings on the site. The investigations comprised a photographic survey of the surviving buildings at that time, a limited programme of archaeological field walking in the area around the farm, and a small number of excavations within the former factory site. The field walking identified the presence of a light scatter of biscuit porcelain and earthenware pottery sherds in the area around the former factory site. The main excavation area revealed the foundation cut for the former pottery kiln, located within the former central kiln yard, to the immediate south of the main, central workshop room. Although the vast majority of the kiln structure had been removed after the closure of the factory, a few hand-made bricks survived in situ, showing clear signs of exposure to great heat. The whole kiln site was covered in a dense concentration of pottery wasters, most likely deposited to level the former kiln site during its conversion to agricultural use. These wasters comprised fragments from a very wide variety of tea service vessel forms, and included a large number of pieces incised with potter's marks. The assemblage also included a large quantity of former kiln furniture pieces, used to support the vessels in the kiln as they fired. It was thought that the mounds that O'Neill had noted in the field to the west of the farmstead represented further dumps of waster material, rather than other kiln sites. The volume of waster material identified therefore suggested that the kiln had seen considerable use during its period of operation, with perhaps as many as 50 to 60 firings being estimated, and highlighting the difficulties encountered in producing porcelain at this time. A second area of excavation was targetted to investigate whether an east wing to the factory had existed. Despite being depicted on several contemporary illustrations, no evidence for a former east wing was revealed during the excavation. It was thought more likely that the illustrators had used artistic licence in their drawings of the factory, to create a more pleasing, symetrical arrangement that had not in fact existed at the site. {6}{7}{8}

Sources/Archives (8)

  •  Digital Archive: English Heritage. 2015. English Heritage Farmsteads Project. 3781.
  •  Bibliographic Reference: P.L. Everson, C.C. Taylor and C.J. Dunn. 1991. Change and Continuity: Rural Settlement in North-West Lincolnshire. Archive notes.
  •  Bibliographic Reference: C.L. Exley. 1970. A History of the Torksey and Mansfield China Factories. -.
  •  Article in Serial: William O'Neill. 1895. 'Torksey Old Pottery and Porcelain Manufactory' in Associated Architectural and Archaeological Societies Reports and Papers. vol.23, part.1, pp.152-6.
  •  Article in Serial: William O'Neill. 1895. 'Torksey Old Pottery and Porcelain Manufactory' in Associated Architectural and Archaeological Societies Reports and Papers. vol.23, part.2, pp.246-8.
  •  Index: Lincolnshire County Council. Sites and Monuments Record Card Index. SK 87 NW: O.
  •  Unpublished Document: Roy E. Chapman. 1980. Porcelain Manufactory - Brampton in Torksey: An Examination of the Site and its Products, 1968-1971. -.
  •  Article in Serial: Roy E. Chapman. 1995. 'Excavation of the Torksey Porcelain Manufactory' in Transactions of the English Ceramic Circle. vol.15, part.3, pp.349-56.

Map

Location

Grid reference SK 8351 7986 (point) Estimated from sources
Civil Parish BRAMPTON, WEST LINDSEY, LINCOLNSHIRE

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

Related Events/Activities (3)

External Links (0)

Record last edited

Mar 21 2021 8:35PM

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