Kirkcaldy, Links Street, Linktown Pottery

NT29SE 98 278 906

Awaiting DES entry 96/239 & 96/241.

NT 278 906. Limited trial excavation and a watching brief on contractors' foundation trenches were carried out on this site during the period December 1995 to April 1996. On the Links Street frontage it was hoped that evidence of medieval/post-medieval occupation might have survived, but hand and machine excavation plus a watching brief on ground disturbance for services failed to find any such evidence. Modern buildings (late 18th or 19th century) had apparently truncated the surface, removing any such remains that may have existed.

Evidence of Links pottery in the form of building remains, finds and deposits was abundant and occurred in virtually all of the recorded trenches. Brick and stone walls and floors were found that related to various pottery buildings. Deposits of burnt sand may indicate a former kiln site. Unfortunately later structures had badly disturbed the area and further investigation was not considered worthwhile.

The mixed assemblage of finds recovered during the investigation of the Links pottery site includes a variety of early modern pottery fabric types, with no single type predominant. The vessel forms represented are mainly tableware types. Also recovered were several fragments of plaster-of-Paris moulds and pieces of kiln furniture. The mould fragments were recovered from the SW part of the site, which may have been used for dumping at one stage. Most of the material is of late 18th to early 20th-century date.

Sponsors: Fife Regional Council Archaeological Service, Historic Scotland, Kingdom Housing Association Ltd.

R Cachart and A Cox 1996

NT 2775 9064 An archaeological evaluation was undertaken prior to the redevelopment of a gap site in the angle between Saunders Street and Methven Road. Exploratory trenching and watching briefs to the N of Methven Road in 1995 and 1996 revealed traces of buildings in what had been the N part of the Linktown Pottery (DES 1996, 49). The recent excavations in the S part of the works also uncovered traces of several brick and stone buildings although dating those buildings and interpreting their functions was difficult. The large quantities of small-bore field drains retrieved from the excavation presumably were produced in the brick and tile works which occupied much of the S part of the works between 1714 and 1897. Pottery comprises mainly white wares, which probably originated in the N half of the site, but very little brown Rockingham ware which was manufactured in the Saunders Street area.

Sponsor: Kingdom Housing Association Ltd.

J Lewis 2000

NT 2775 9064 Following an archaeological evaluation on the site of the former Methven's Pottery (DES 2000, 41), a watching brief was kept during excavations in the early stages of construction of new residential accommodation in Linktown. The principal aim of this project was to retrieve as much pottery as possible from the 18th/19th-century works. By far the greatest concentration of finds was uncovered following the demolition of a retaining wall which formed part of the W boundary on Saunders Street. Cleaning and cataloguing this very large ceramic assemblage is still under way.

During the excavation of a trench for a new sewer pipe, part of what appeared to be a rectangular kiln was uncovered below the centre of Saunders Street, near its junction with Methven Road. Piercing the E side of the kiln were three equally spaced openings, presumably flues, each 0.5m square and roofed with low arches. Tentative interpretation of this structure as a brick kiln is contradicted by sherds of White Ware pottery retrieved from ash which filled the three openings, although it is possible that the ash was one of the materials used as levelling beneath the road.

Sponsor: Kingdom Housing Association Ltd.

J Terry 2001