Woolwich kiln - dig and eventual fate of 17th century pottery kiln

 

Three months ago an important piece of Woolwich industrial history was utterly destroyed – and quite deliberately.  The deed was even done in the car park of the Greenwich Heritage Centre. What was going on?

In 1974 a group of eager young people were part of an archaeological excavation along the Woolwich Waterfront – most of them weren’t professional archaeologists, but enthusiasts keen to learn and do their bit. They found a lot of stuff – but there was one big star item.  The Woolwich kiln.  It was a kiln for making pottery – making what were called Bellarmines, jugs for beer with a modelled face on the front.  It dated from the seventeenth century – said to be the oldest such kiln ever found in this country – and a very very important find. Experts from the British Museum came to look at it and it was decided it must be kept.

Greenwich Council offered to look after the huge kiln.  It was lifted up – I don’t know how – and taken down to the Council’s then Depot at Tunnel Avenue on the Greenwich Peninsula.  And there is stayed, all boxed up.   The Waterside Leisure Centre was built in the place where it had been found in Woolwich.

In 1990 it could no longer stay in Tunnel Avenue, so , all 43 tons of it were put on a low loader and brought back to Woolwich and left on the Arsenal site.  There was some nervousness by then about what was actually in the box – had it all disintegrated?? Had there been seeds inside which had become plant growth and destroyed it?    Museum staff climbed a ladder, opened the box – and found it was all ok.

So – then it sat outside the Heritage Centre for the next 28 years and people wondered what to do with it.  The solution arrived with Oxford Archaeology who now have the ability to slice it, section it, record it digitally –and destroy it. So this is what has happened.  Beforehand many of those keen young archaeologists came back to see it – now grey haired retirees –some with distinguished archaeological to their credit.  Another visitor was an important expert on stone glazed ware from this kiln – and whose Greenwich pottery produces something similar today.

So on 30^th March the Woolwich kiln was no more – an important and early part of our industrial history gone forever.  Its fate also outlines a current problem facing the museum world – we simply can’t keep everything we find.  We need now to see the report on the digitisation from Oxford Archaeology, and hope that is a solution for the future.

This is one of the problems which Greenwich Industrial History Society will be discussing at their meeting on 10^th October – what should we doing about our amazing industrial heritage in Greenwich. We hope the discussion will be lead by historians working on the Arsenal site, at Enderby Wharf in Greenwich and others, including some with a general overview of London, and beyond.  Its at 7.30 at Age Exchange Bakehouse,Bennet Park, SE3  (at the rear of their shop in Blackheath Village). Come and lets hear your views on this.

Greenwich Weekender September 2018