SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

The ground is saturated following the thawing of recent snow and then rain. On February 6 2021 I noticed that Nanny Beck by the Tesco Express on King lane, Alwoodley, had a very much faster and heavier flow than normal. I did not though follow the beck to where it shortly joins Adel Beck as I expected the track would be extremely muddy but I did go to there on February 7. Though the beck was much higher then than normal there were clear signs its level had dropped.
What caught my eye though were the presence of lots of bits of broken pottery in the beck and by its sides. They were mainly white/cream bits but some thicker pieces were a reddish brown. I may just have never noticed them but I do not recall seeing such bits before. I wonder if they have been recently washed in from nearby or perhaps have become exposed with the strong recent flows washing some of the bed of the beck away. Verity's cafe that closed in the late 1950s was nearby so perhaps the bits of pottery were remains of now exposed long discarded and covered cups, teapots etc. A few years back the ground by the higher up small nearby pond had a small drainage channel dug and some white/cream pottery bits were exposed so the ones now seen in the beck may likely to be more of the long discarded pottery. I have added 3 photos that I took on February 7 2021 that show some of the pottery bits.

They must have discarded a hell of a lot of pottery back then, i would take a look at the red pottery you never know it could be very old.My mind wonders over to roman could be wishful thinking on my part.

tilly wrote: ↑

Mon 08 Feb, 2021 8:47 pm

They must have discarded a hell of a lot of pottery back then, i would take a look at the red pottery you never know it could be very old.My mind wonders over to roman could be wishful thinking on my part.

Hiya tilly .

That's an interesting thought. It would be fascinating if the pieces were bits of Roman pottery though my bet is still on Verity's cafe closure discards but if so it has taken them a very long time to reappear!

Hi Leodian i know samianware is very fine, but the Romans used thick pottery for general purposesThe nearest Roman camp to that area was on Black Moor in Adel its a long shot but you never know what the pottery you have seen could be.Just think what it would be like if you found an unknown Roman site it probably is not, but then again the mind boggles.

Alas, at least some of the bits of pottery at the site are not Roman!

Passing the site during a stroll yesterday (Feb 16 2021) I picked up/pulled out the 4 shards of pottery shown in the attached photo. The top left seems to be a piece of a saucer; the top right might be a piece of a teapot; the bottom left is a handle from a cup or perhaps a small teapot (it is much darker brown than the saucer so not once part of that) and the bottom right is likely to be a piece of the base of a stoneware jam pot. For scale a straight line from the topmost to bottommost of the handle is 10cm/4 inches.

From what I have found the full wording on the jam pot will be 'NOT GENUINE UNLESS BEARING Wm P. HARTLEY'S LABEL F.M.F.' that was impressed on the base of stoneware jam pots of Hartley's jam fame. I could not find an age for it but it seems such pots might have been made into at least the 1920s'. As intact ones sell for only a few £s on eBay I've clearly not made my fortune!

Hi Leodian alas not famous yet, but you are still a star with the photographs you put on site.I wonder how long the cafe was there looking at the amount of pottery sherds in the stream it could have been quite a long time.I was thinking could a lot of pottery have been left when they closed.It could be that kids got hold of it and smashed it all in the stream i cant see the owners doing that/

tilly wrote: ↑

Thu 18 Feb, 2021 2:18 pm

Hi Leodian alas not famous yet, but you are still a star with the photographs you put on site.I wonder how long the cafe was there looking at the amount of pottery sherds in the stream it could have been quite a long time.I was thinking could a lot of pottery have been left when they closed.It could be that kids got hold of it and smashed it all in the stream i cant see the owners doing that/

Thanks tilly for your nice words about me .

I've found the Verity's tea rooms (not Verity's cafe that I have wrongly long called it) started in about 1901 and was run by Francis Verity to around 1953 when she died. it was then run by someone else for a short while but closed in the late 1950s. In information I found it said a lot of the crockery she used was brown glazed earthenware, which could fit in with some of the pieces I found!

It must have been a very popular spot in the past, it ran for quite a long time I have never been to this area i would not mind having a walk around with my metal detector its in for repair at the moment. Although most places have been detected over the years thanks for your reply.