1985/3 p2

A dated Dutch slipware bowl from Epsom

In 1978 no. 6 South Street, Epsom, a late Stuart structure of c.1680–90, was totally rebuilt. It was situated in Shoulder of Mutton Close, now known to have been near the centre of Epsom in the later Spa period.

During reconstruction works, sherds of a decorated redware bowl were recovered which form part of a type of pottery known as North Holland Slipware. The vessel is a small bowl with opposed loop handles showing internal decoration in white trailed slip of a cockerel and a date ‘1712’. This type of pottery imported from Holland is increasingly recognised as finds from archaeological sites in this country and forms a sequence of dated vessels spanning the period 1573–1711. The ‘Cockerel Dishes’ as they are known constitute the latest group and, in fact, the hitherto latest dated example of North Holland Slipware was a bowl of 1711 from London. The range is thus extended albeit by one year! Although the find is rather exotic for Epsom it is perhaps not surprising when one remembers that the New Well of Livingstone was in the heyday of its popularity at this time.

Steve Nelson