Staffordshire Waster Sherds Burslem, Cobridge, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent
In the summer of 1986, ceramic scholar George L. Miller spent three months conducting research on the history of the Staffordshire pottery industry in Stoke-on-Trent. During this trip, Miller spent time on the weekends searching for ceramic waster sherds in several towns in the Stoke-on-Trent area. Road construction work in Hanley had disturbed large areas and cut through waster tips where manufactories had dumped pottery that had been broken in the kilns or otherwise damaged in the production process. He also collected ceramic wasters in Stoke-on-Trent, Burslem, and Cobridge in places where ground disturbance had occurred, and sherds were exposed.
In 2014, he donated to the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory a seventeen-box collection of ceramic wasters, which were from various 18th and 19th-century Staffordshire pottery manufacturers. See table below for detail on the collection.
Table 1. Waterfront Stadium Archaeological Complex Dumps Collected by Miller and Earls
| Box Name | Date | Additional Description |
|---|---|---|
| Burslem 1 | Enoch Street | |
| Burslem 2 | 1830-1840s | |
| Burslem 3 | Road Fill c. 1820 | Dipt earthenwares, white salt glazed stoneware, painted earthenware |
| Cobridge 3 | Moore Brothers | |
| Hanley 2 | 1820s | Printed underglaze earthenware in blue and brown |
| Hanley 4 | Neale & Company, Palmer, Wilson, Ridgway & Abington, shell edged earthenware, smear glaze, cream colored earthenware, decorated earthenware | |
| Hanley 5 | No detail given | |
| Hanley 7 | Enamelled cream colored earthenware, slipped earthenwares, white salt glaze stoneware | |
| Hanley 9 | Wide range of potteries | |
| Stoke-on-Trent | Ridgway & Abington |