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Roman Pottery
Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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Sherds of Roman period pottery are not uncommon in the Bradford Hundred area, increasing in number around the site of a habitation. Broken pots would have been thrown on the rubbish heap and scattered about in the process of using the heap as a source of manure to enrich the soil. Sherds that have been scattered like this are likely to be worn by ploughing, whereas those near to, or on the site of a building may have fresh-looking breaks.
Recognition of the pottery of the various production areas gives a glimpse of trade and, especially with imported fine wares, of the prestige of a settlement site.
Pieces of pottery flue pipe, used to take warmth from a furnace up through walls, are an indication of a high-prestige building that was equipped with underfloor heating. The rectangular-section pipes have a distinctive pattern scratched into them to act as a key for wall plaster and mortar.
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Part of a shallow bowl with a flanged rim made of black burnished ware that was probably produced in the Wareham area of east Dorset. It is a very dark clay with much quartz sand, coated with a black layer and burnished -rubbed when it was leather-dry before firing to give shiny and fairly non-porous finish.
Sherds of hard red-coated Samian ware imported from Gaul, so likely to have been expensive at the time. The lower piece bears a stamp with the maker’s name.
A group of sherds of Alice Holt ware pottery that was made around Farnham on the Hampshire/Surrey border, found in field walking. Presumably it was traded along the Silchester to Bath road that passed just a few kilometres to the north of Bradford.