The Crews Hole Pottery 1812-19

Archeology has shown that there was a pottery at Crews Hole that made high quality yellow ware (cane-colored stoneware), which had a mocha decoration.

The Crews Hole pottery is not mentioned in any of the Bristol directories, although W J Pountney says it was still partly standing (including its two kilns) in 1920, near the Lamb inn.  He also describes the kilns as being made of pennant stone.  The kilns, together with the public house, appear on the 1902 map.  A photograph of 1953 shows one of the kilns still standing.  Jewitt refers to it as "a small stoneware pottery, a wooden shed or two".  The site is now a car park for a delivery business.  The public house is now derelict.  

Marochan published an archaeological study in 1962.  The excavation showed a biscuit and a glost kiln, both fired by coal.  A number of shards were found (some are displayed in the Bristol Museum) of mocha ware.  The main body is either white, cream, or varying shades of buff.  It is decorated in bands of colours, with the main motif in the shape of trees or ferns.  On some items the bands are wide, in blue or orange; on others they are narrow in brown, buff, or light grey and vice versa.  The main decoration is in brown or blue.  The colors seemed to have been derived from tobacco, boiled in water and mixed with the dry pigment , or a brew of hops. The mixture would have been let to fall or blown onto the vessel, which was in the 'green' condition, and left to spread to form the fern-like pattern.  The only mark was found on a pie dish, and it reads (WAR)RANTED / (FIRE)PROOF (A).A.  The fireproof ties in with the loose sheet in Amatt's notebooks about, where he described himself as an Ironstone Manufacturer.

Marochan stated that the pottery operated from 1812 to 1819, Amatt being a tenant.  He derived the dates from land deeds and documents held by Bristol and West Tar Distillers Ltd. (the location of these documents is now unknown).  This is not supported by the poor rate books for St George, which show Amatt at Crews Hole between 1819 and 1826.  These dates tie in with his other known activity.  The entries for 1819-26 show a single property, but 1827 shows Amatt paying rates on a house with a garden, there is a separate entry for the pottery, but no rates were paid on this (i.e. it was empty).  The rate books for 1828-35 are missing and there is no mention of the pottery in 1836.

Mocha ware was a cheap earthenware, typically decorated with black trees on a chestnut ground.  It was first produced about 1793, continuing until the early 20th century and it was used in kitchens and public houses.  Mocha ware was also made by the Bristol pottery, from about 1800.

On January 1800 J and W Turner of Lane End (Longton), Stafffordshire patented a new type of hard, durable, opaque earthenware.  This was the first Ironstone, although the name was not used then.  Surving pieces of  'Turners Patent' are rare.  About 1805 the patent was bought by Josiah Spode who renamed the body 'Stone China'.  Spode produced dinner and dessert services in the new body.  In July 1813 Charles Mason of Lane Delph (Fenton), Staffordshire, took out a patent for Ironstone.  Mason's produced vast quantities of 'Patent Ironstone'.  Pountneys also made an Ironstone body. 

Why did Amatt use an expensive Ironstone body to make cheap mocha ware, when Spode and Mason's used it to make quality items?  Perhaps the production was not economic and this caused the pottery to close.  How did he find how to make Ironstone, by his own experiments, or by employing a Staffordshire potter?