As always on large scale excavations, important discoveries are made in the final hour. The concrete surfaces of the western end of the sub terrain northern yards were removed and an addition drying room were discovered. This appears to line up with the early phase of the drying room to the east. There has been truncation through the centre of the area due to the later addition of clay storage tanks. It is possible this flue system led into a chimney found to the east of the other drying rooms.
Cleaning of the site
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To the west of this new drying room, there is a later circular brick structure. This appears to be a base with some pipe fitments. This is possible a tank or machine base. This structure was below the chimney in the northern yards.
The excavation over the last nine months we have made some major discoveries about pottery. The pottery was unique due to the innovations of Murray and MacIntyre and their development of the gas fired kilns. Although this appeared have been a successful invention, the later Hartley phase of the pottery returned back to the coal fired kilns. In addition to understanding how the kilns were fired with gas, the evolution of the gas production area is important for understanding how the gas was produced on site.
The production output of the pottery over its seventy year history was phenomenal as shown by the amount of material dumped. The excavation of dumps was unique as this was the first time in Scotland that any excavation has been carried out on a large scale pottery dump. This has given us the chance to examine in depth what caused wasters from the pottery production and how the individual pottery processes worked. The range of pottery products found on site has increased our knowledge of Caledonian products.
The pottery dumps
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The excavation of the Caledonian pottery has been a brilliant opportunity to study the third largest pottery in Glasgow. We would like to thank the people of Rutherglen for their enthusiasm about the site and their past. The site supervisors would like to thank all the team for their hard work through some adverse weather conditions. We would also like to thank all the machine drivers that help us excavate the site, particularly Robert Waddell for providing us with sausages and enthusiasm for the archaeology even when ours was waning.
Robert Waddell
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The team
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THANKS from the Caledonian Pottery.
Site Director: Candy Hatherley
Site Project officers: Ali Robertson and Roz Gillis
Find Manager: Julie Cassidy
Site Supervisors: Tony Baxter, Laura MacCalman, Steve Digney, Simon Coxe, Tara Gullbrand, Robert McMorran, Craig Williams, Steve Keightley and Simon Cox
Site Assistants: Marianne Gorman, Sherly McLellan, Andrea Jackson, Martin Housam, Nina Olofson, Amanda Charland, Richard Campbell, Clare Cross, Chris O’Brien, Emma Thomas and Dr. Chris Bowles,
Site Surveyors: Simon Coxe, Sefer Umay, Martin Housam, Magda Lenartowicz and Samira Ben Mohammad.
