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A book relating the exciting history of Lancaster’s large-scale 18th century delftware production industry was launched recently at the Maritime Museum.

On Wednesday October 5 the authors of the book, Dr. Matthew S. Hobson and Barbara Blenkinship, gave a presentation that was well attended by members of the public and by local interest groups.

Many readers will already be familiar with this attractive and collectable type of tin-glazed pottery.

The world-famous Royal Delft Museum in the Netherlands, for example, receives more than 100,000 international visitors each year.

The authors Dr Matthew Hobson (left) and Barbara Blenkinship (right) with the director of the excavations David Jackson (centre).

Few of those visitors, however, are likely to know that there was once a similar industry operating in Lancaster in the second half of the 18th century.

The redevelopment of St George’s Quay between 2007 and 2016 provided the rare and exciting opportunity for archaeologists from Wardell Armstrong’s Carlisle offices to shed light on this long-forgotten production site.

Excavations beside the river Lune uncovered the remains of a former pottery building, its rectangular kiln, and a huge dispersed mound of delftware wasters and kiln

furniture that was preserved on east and south sides of the former building.

A photograph of fragments of a Lancaster delftware plate with orientally inspired pattern found during the excavations.

Immigrant Dutch potters first began producing delftware in Britain at Norwich beside the river Wensum in the late 16th century, before moving to a set of locations beside the Thames in London, where the industry became well established in the 17th century.

With the increase in Atlantic trade, several delftware potteries were established along Britain’s west coast at Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow, all towns which at the same time became heavily involved in the slave trade between Africa and the New World.

Documentary evidence demonstrates that the work began on the construction of St George’s Quay in 1750, with the Lancaster pothouse being set up in 1754 by eight local partners as a direct result.

The decision to build a proper quayside in Lancaster was motivated by the desire to profit from the growing Atlantic trade of the mid-18th century.

A photograph of the excavations of the Lancaster delftware pottery taking place in 2007.

The pothouse operated for about 30 years, corresponding with the height of the town’s involvement with the slave trade.

A windmill, now the site of a fish and chip shop, was owned by the pottery and used to grind their pigments, as well as to grind calcined flint nodules that were used as

a temper during the production process.

The majority of the delftware produced in Lancaster was probably exported to the colonies and plantations of the Caribbean and Atlantic coast America.

Until now, it has been very difficult to distinguish the items produced in Britain’s various delftware production centres from one another.

Thanks to typological research and scientific fabric analysis resulting from the excavations in Lancaster, it is now possible to link archaeological discoveries made overseas back to their point of origin.

Doug Moir, from Lancashire Council’s Historic Environment Team, said he was “extremely happy with the way this internationally significant archaeological site had been investigated by archaeologists from Wardell Armstrong LLP and the Northern Ceramics Society.”

It is hoped that the publication of this book, now available to purchase in the Maritime Museum shop, will help to raise awareness of the importance of Lancaster in the history of British delftware production both locally and internationally.

New book tells exciting story of Lancaster's delftware potteries in the 1700s