Cylchgronau Cymru

Some Medieval Pottery from Cardiff By J. M. LEWIS In 1964 the Marquess of Bute presented to the National Museum of Wales a small collection of old finds purporting to come from Cardiff Castle and the religious houses of Blackfriars and Greyfriars. The material (Accession No. 64.51) consists mainly of pottery, ranging in date from Roman to post-Medieval. Opportunity is here taken to publish the more complete and interesting of the medieval vessels, together with some relevant comparative material from Cardiff already in the Museum collections. The provenance of most of the material is in doubt. The costrel (no. 1) bore a hand- written label 'Found in repairing the Keep of Cardiff Castle 1851'; one sherd (no. 8) bears a label 'Blackfriars Cardiff 1892'; there is no indication where the other pieces come from. Greyfriars was excavated in the 1890's and in 1925-8; pottery is not mentioned among the finds.1 Blackfriars was excavated in 1887, and the report mentions 'earthenware' as having been found, but describes it as 'all of modern date, the debris of modern buildings on the site'.2 It will, however, be argued below that the cross-marked jug (no. 5) probably came from Blackfriars. This is closely similar in ware to an old find from Blackfriars (no. 6; Acc. No. 91.5), which is published here as the only complete vessel known from the site, and also because it has certain features in common with no. 9, from the 1964 accession. The most distinctive feature of this incomplete jug are the deeply stabbed incisions in the sides of the handle at its junction with the body. A sherd of identical ware (no. 10) acquired by the Museum of Welsh Antiquities in 1904, among 'various potsherds from Cardiff excavations' bought from a labourer, also has this feature. This, together with close similarities of ware and surface condition, makes it highly likely that they belong to the same vessel, or to closely similar vessels made by the same potter. They have therefore been used together to reconstruct a probable profile. The pieces here published, which represent only a small proportion of the local material available, seem to illustrate the influence of fashions spreading into south Wales from London, and the trading into the area of vessels probably made in southern England; they also point to what may have been a local 14th-century style characterised by grooving and impressed decoration. 1. (Fig. 1) Costrel in light-grey ware, fired buff; good yellow-green glaze, speckled with darker green The vessel is barrel-shaped, with bands of incised lines in imitation of the withy binding round a barrel. One end is slightly hollow; the other has been restored to a slightly domed shape in accordance with the predominant shape of these vessels. On each side of the mouth are pierced lugs, which do not quite rise to the level of the rim. Probably 13th century. Cardiff Castle: found during repairs to the Keep in 1851. 2. (Fig. 1) Costrel sherd consisting of one lug with parts of adjoining wall and mouth, belonging to a similar, but larger vessel. Thick light-grey ware with off-white inner surface. Good bright green mottled glaze with patches of unglazed buff surface breaking through. 3. (Fig. 1) Sherd of a similar fabric and glaze to no. 1, but not from a costrel, inner side has a grey wash over buff surface. Interlinked curvilinear combing. Cardiff: site not known. 4. Four sherds of similar ware to no. 1, with straight comb-decoration. Cardiff: Lloyds Bank site (High Street), and other unknown sites.