Legio XX VV and Tile Production at Tarbock, Merseyside

Abstract

In 1993 excavations were undertaken at Ochre Brook, Tarbock, about 13 km east of Liverpool, in advance of the construction of the M57–A562 link-road, by R.W. Cowell and R.A. Philpott of the Field Archaeology Section of Liverpool Museum. The work located fragments of two enclosure ditches, a western entrance, and part of the interior of one enclosure, features generally similar to the boundary ditches often associated with rural settlements. However, inside the enclosure was a more or less rectangular building, 11.2 by 5.85–6.9 m in dimensions, its post-holes packed with stone and tile. From pits to the north of the building and from the fills of the enclosure ditches were recovered over 320 kg of apparently unused tile, including many underfired fragments and distorted over-fired waste, as well as burnt clay debris, mostly oxidised. There was, in addition, a relatively small amount of rather crudely made pottery (about 7.5 kg), some underfired. Petrological analyses by David Williams (University of Southampton) suggested that both the pottery and the tile had probably utilised the same basic clay source. Among the mostly orange fired clay debris examined by V.S., were several oxidised fragments of obvious kiln structure, the largest piece comprising the probable junction of the lining-wall of a kiln chamber and its protruding pier or pilaster. Though no actual kiln structure was found in situ in the area excavated, the evidence in toto strongly suggests that tile manufacture had taken place somewhere in the immediate vicinity, with perhaps a small amount of pottery being made simultaneously, in non-commercial quantities.