When Alison Parkes went in search of the story behind mysterious ceramic fragments swept up on our beaches, she discovered some of the best places to search for sea pottery
COVERACK, CORNWALL
An old fishing village with an arc of sand and stones leading to a serpentine harbour. Here we have found patterned pottery, a white clay marble and a two-legged toy horse.
THE SCILLY ISLES
On the sandy beach near Tresco Harbour we’ve found patterned pieces and a tiny 1930s bottle marked ‘Sultan Drug Co, St Louis’. You could once find hundreds of earthenware beads at Beady Pool, St Agnes, from a 17th-century Dutch ship that was wrecked nearby.
WHITSTABLE, KENT
Along the coastline here domestic middens have eroded into the sea. Patterned sherds and figurines can be found scattered among the pebbles.
KIRKCALDY, FIFE
There were several potteries here until the early 20th century. Seconds or breakages would be discarded on beaches, where they were sucked out to sea, tumbled and returned to the tideline.
STROMNESS, ORKNEY
When the Albion sank just across the water off Graemsay in 1866, it spilled a cargo of stoneware, and bricks used for ballast, that can still be found on the beach.
For more coastal guides click here or pick up a copy of the magazine.
