List of English medieval pottery


English medieval pottery was produced in Britain from the sixth to the late fifteenth centuries AD.
During the sixth to the eighth centuries, pottery was handmade locally and fired in a bonfire. Common pottery fabrics consisted of clay tempered with sand or shell, or a mix of sand and shell. Pottery forms were common items used for cooking and storage, and were undecorated or decorated simply with incised lines. By the eighth century, the slow wheel was being used by local craftsmen to finish pots. By the late ninth century, potters in urban areas started to mass-produce their products. A larger variety of forms were being made and decorated in new ways. During the tenth century, potters began transitioning to a fast wheel and firing pots in kilns. Grooved lines, thumbed-applied strips, stamping and rouletting were commonly used decorations. From the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, glazed and slip pottery appeared more frequently in the marketplace, along with new fabric colours and decorations, and a large number of new forms.

List of English medieval pottery

This is a partial list of English medieval pottery.
Pottery NameTime periodCharacteristicsOriginImage
Brandsby-type ware13th to 14th centuries ADFiner and sandier, more hard-fired than the earlier York Glazed WareBrandsby, North Yorkshire
Coarse border wareLate 13th to mid 14th centuries ADLater class of Surrey whitewareSurrey-Hampshire border area
Deritend ware12th to 13th centuries ADThree types: Glazed, Reduced and Deritend cooking pot wareBirmingham
Ham Green PotteryEarly 12th to mid 13th centuries ADTwo types of decorated jugs: earlier yellow-splashed plain glaze and a later more green glazeSomerset
Humber wareLate 13th to early 16th centuries ADHard-fired, iron-rich usually red-bodied waresNorth Yorkshire
Ipswich wareEarly 8th to 9th centuries ADHard, sandy grey ware made in both a smooth and gritty fabricIpswich, Suffolk
Sandy ware8th to 16th centuries ADIncludes a variety of sandy waresSouth East England, East Midlands
Shelly ware7th to 12th centuries ADThe fabric is tempered with shell powder or reduced shell, typically handmade until the 10th century.Thames Valley, East Midlands, South East England
Shelly-sandy ware12th to 13th centuries ADThe fabric is a blend of both sand and shell, most commonly quartz sand and ground-up shellGreater London
Stamford ware9th to 13th centuries ADOne of the earliest forms of glazed English ceramicsStamford, Lincolnshire
Surrey whiteware13th to 16th centuries ADincludes Kingston-type ware, Coarse Border ware, Cheam wareSurrey-Hampshire border area
Thetford wareLate 9th to mid-12th centuries ADHard sandy fabric, typically grey in colourNorfolk and Suffolk
York Glazed Ware12th to 13th centuries ADThe fabric has an open texture and can be light grey, light brown or pinkHambleton Hills, Yorkshire