Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

Potters in medieval Yorkshire: their products, techniques, and origins

Yannick Signer, University of York

Fragments of medieval ceramic vessels are frequently found on excavations in Yorkshire, yet the people and techniques involved in creating them are often poorly understood and rarely investigated. Similarly, it has long been recognised that pottery production as a craft developed considerably in England during the medieval period, but how this took place in Yorkshire and who was driving these changes has yet to be established.

Based on a recently completed doctoral research project that analysed material from more than ten Yorkshire pottery production sites, this talk will present a new narrative on how (and perhaps more interestingly) why pottery production changed between the 11th and 13th centuries, and beyond. This new perspective not only lets us compare what is happening in Yorkshire with the rest of England, but also brings us closer to understanding who these potters were and where they learned their craft.

Biography: Yannick Signer is an archaeologist and postgraduate researcher at the University of York who specialises in archaeological pottery and medieval landscapes. Yannick just finished an AHRC-funded (through the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities) research project on the development of Yorkshire’s medieval pottery production with a particular focus on the 11th to 13th centuries.

7pm in the Tempest Anderson Lecture Theatre in the Yorkshire Museum on TUESDAY 6th October 2026.

YPS Members and students free, non members £5.  (No advance booking; come along on the evening and pay on the door.)

Member’s report:

Yannick Signer described his research into the development of the pottery industry in Yorkshire in the period from the start of the eleventh century to the end of the thirteenth century. His work included the identification of sites producing pottery and analyses of the production techniques used at each of the sites. The data was gathered by examination of the waste shards of pottery visually and by using X-ray imaging and thin section petrography, a technique borrowed from geology. These techniques enabled the structure of the pottery to be established (wheel thrown or built up from coils of clay) and the sources of the clay used at the different sites.

He established that in the first half of the eleventh century, before the Norman conquest, pottery production was almost unknown in Yorkshire. In the latter eleventh and first half of the twelfth century production was established at relatively few sites compared to later times. In the second half of the period covering the later twelfth and the thirteenth century pottery production became widespread and may have been associated with the proliferation of markets in developing towns.

Stylistic analysis of the pottery produced in Yorkshire indicates significant similarities with wares produced in modern day Belgium. It is possible that either potters migrated to Yorkshire during this period bringing their techniques with them or that trade and other cultural connections influenced local potters to imitate the designs of others.

This was a fascinating and well-illustrated lecture that engendered a lively discussion period.

Professor Andy Marvin