2004:1379 - BANAGHER: Chuch Street, Offaly

On 2 May 2004, on a visit to the old St Rynagh's Church, in Church Street, Banagher, evidence for a pottery kiln was observed on a building site adjacent to the graveyard. A brick flue was visible in a section face and numerous sherds of pottery were noted on a mound of topsoil stockpiled beside the graveyard wall and in the surface of the old garden soil. With the permission of the contractor, the remains of a multi-flued up-draught kiln were excavated over the Bank Holiday weekend, 4–6 June 2004, by the writer and Cóilín Ó Drisceoil.

The kiln was situated on a building site between Church Street and the south wall of the graveyard around St Rynagh's Church. While the church ruins are believed to be of late medieval construction, Bradley identifies the site as the Early Christian church of Cill Righnaighe, on the basis of late medieval historical references.

Working back from the flue exposed in the section face, the full extent of the kiln was uncovered in a 3m by 1.9m cutting. Fortuitously, the groundworks for the development had clipped the southern edge of the kiln, removing only the outer edge of the furnace wall and the end of one of the flues. The kiln was constructed on the surface of natural sand and was approximately circular, with an overall diameter of c. 2.4m and surviving maximum height of 0.26m. The outer wall, 0.6m wide, was built of limestone boulders and clay, with an internal lining of brick forming the oven or firing chamber, 1.2m in diameter. The brick lining, one brick thick, survived to a maximum of three bricks high (0.25m). The centre of the oven was occupied by a plinth or pedestal, 0.9m in diameter, built of clay and edged with one to two courses of brick, which would have formed the base of the oven during firing.

Three brick-built flues, evenly spaced in the circuit of the outer wall, led into a penannular channel, 0.12–0.17m wide, around the pedestal. The channel and three flues were filled with a loose deposit of burnt clay and over-fired sherds representing the residue of the last firings. On the west side, the pedestal reached to the wall of the oven, beside a fourth flue set at a slightly higher level. The texture of the charcoal in the flues suggests that peat may have been used as fuel, rather than wood or coal.

The bricks used in the kiln were handmade and none was complete. Most conformed to 'half-brick' size and measured 100–110mm wide, 70–80mm thick and up to 175mm long. The bricks were bonded with clay, which was usually oxidised to the same colour and texture as the bricks.

The fill of a pit excavated into the western edge of the kiln, beside Flue 023, included a 60mm-thick layer of offcuts of window glass, including many 'bull's eyes', but there was no evidence that glass was made on the site. The pit contained some sherds as found in the kiln, but also one sherd of imported plain white-glazed earthenware of probable 19th-century date.

The total number of sherds recovered was c. 2700 (137kg). The pottery is glazed earthenware, fired to various colours from off-white to dark grey, but most commonly to a light-reddish-brown colour. The predominant forms are 'storage jars' and deep straight-sided bowls, most internally glazed and some with handles. There are smaller numbers of jugs, flanged dishes, pipkins, flowerpots and roof ridge tiles. Several small handles, most found in the kiln itself, are possibly from cups or tygs. Decoration is limited to one dish rim with applied 'wavy-line' slip decoration and three dish rims with 'piecrust' edges. There is one possible fragment of a saggar, a vessel used to hold wares during firing. This has a characteristic deposit of glaze and pottery chips on its internal base. Of the many bases, this is the only one that is string-cut on the underside. No other examples of kiln furniture were noted.

The kiln is provisionally dated to the early 19th century, based on contemporary descriptions of kilns elsewhere in Ireland and on the few non-local sherds recovered, although these were not from especially useful contexts.

A photo of the kiln appeared on the cover of the Excavations, 2004 bulletin. 

6 St Ultan's, Laytown, Drogheda