HER 4367 - Medieval (probably 13th century) pottery kiln, Ridlands Farm

Fieldwalking by the Holmesdale Archaeological Group, recorded an area of pottery sherds in a newly ploughed field at Ridlands Farm, close to a boundary bank. The site was subsequently investigated by the Bourne Society Archaeological Group. A kiln with a central oven and stokeholes at either end was revealed. The whole measured 5.5m in length. The oven was lined and floored with stone, the flues connecting the oven and stokeholes were built of stone and clay and the stokeholes were lined with small pieces of stone. The oven was filled with broken pottery, charcoal and ash. The majority of the pottery was from cooking pots and dishes, with comparatively few jug handles. The handles recovered mostly had slashed decoration, unlike the handles from the nearby Loampit Field kiln (HER 1362), where most handles had stabbed decoration. The kiln was sampled by A J Clark and an archaeomagnetic date of AD 1280-1345 at the 95% confidence level was obtained for the last firing (AD 1300-1330 at the 68% confidence level). Examination of the nearby boundary bank revealed it to be partly formed from the waster heap from the kiln but it was not archaeologically tested.

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