Research, development and recreation of Cistercian ware - Naomi Aderonke

Naomi Aderonke, a local ceramicist who has a passion for history, has recreated a style of pottery made in medieval Wakefield. 

In the middle ages Cistercian ware was made in Potovens (pot ovens) in Wrenthorpe. Initially, they supplied practical bowls and cups to Cistercian monks in their abbeys. The abbeys closed in 1540. However, the pots were so popular in Wakefield that they kept making them. In the 1600s, they started also decorating the pots in coloured slip. 

Naomi lives near the site of the Wrenthorpe pottery kilns. She has researched the medieval techniques and style to recreate examples from our collections. Her work has now gone on display with original Cistercian ware at Wakefield Museum.

Read on to discover more about Naomi's research and work in her guest blog.

Naomi Aderonke hosting her tyg making workshop

Why Cistercian ware?

I was looking for a historical link between Wakefield and Ceramics. I’d been interested in looking into alternative industries that might have been significant in Wakefield's history, that weren't textiles and coal mining.

Being a ceramicist myself I wanted to find a link between where I grew up and the craft I loved. 

Researching this I stumbled upon an article on Engole. Here I learnt of Wakefield's link to Cistercian ware. 

I then cross-referenced with other sources, like the archaeology data service and Historic England's records. I learnt more about Cistercian ware's significance, not just to Wakefield, but the surrounding areas of Yorkshire.

The first hurdles

Initially, I wanted to truly recreate as much as I could of the original process that was used in the 1500s.

Potovens was named for the kilns there. A recreation of the original kilns used is outside Wrenthorpe's village hall. Sadly, I do not have the funding, land or skill to recreate an original replica of a working Potovens kiln.

Another issue I had was sourcing local clay. I worked with a local geologist who obtained maps of clay deposits in the area. I started my inquiries.

I sent several emails to the local parks, castles, estates, canals, lakes. I also contacted the original places the potters would use for their clay, Outwood Colliery.

All answers came back as negative. However, it did give me a deeper insight into the local land.

Most original clay deposits would later become coal mines; leaving the land surrounding them unstable. The old pits themselves have been rewilded into marshland for local birds and animals. The castles, parks, estates and lakes such as Newmillerdam and Pugneys are protected land or have been made unstable due to mining. And finally, the canals cannot be dug up due to it causing canal erosion. 

While initially I felt sad and frustrated at this dead end, I knew that the protection of Wakefield's wildlife and history was more important than a few bags of wild, local clay.

Project research and development 

One of the first things I did once I was able to start this project was contact Wakefield Museum. I wanted to learn more about Cisterian ware in Wakefield from an historian's perspective. 

A piece of Late Cistercian ware pot, decorated with white slip and a heavy iron oxide glaze

I was invited by them to the museum store in Ossett. I got to handle original Cistercian ware dug up from both Sandal Castle and Pontefract Castle.

After seeing these original examples of Cistercian ware I threw myself into the practical development side of the project. 

A Wrenthorpe pot used to practice pulling handles on - hence all the handles! 

What makes Cistercian ware look the way it does?

First I looked for a red clay to recreate the original red clays used at the time. I ended up using one called Keuper Red. This gave me the dark reddish, almost purple, when fired, clay.  

Initially in the late middle ages they used a clay called 'glacial clay'. This white clay was easily found on the surface without too much digging. This clay contained many impurities. It was the main clay used in Brandsby-type pottery popular in the 1200s and 1300s.

The next thing I did with this clay was make around 30 to 40 test tiles. It was important for working out how I was going to make the colour for the pots.

After handling the pieces in the museum store I realised there was the use of two slips under the glaze, not one. A red/brown colour and a yellow slip (or so I believed at the time). 

A Wrenthorpe pot in the museum collection

Trial and error: development

I was not sure how they’d done the yellow slip with glaze. However, I knew from extrapolating the resources and knowledge of ceramics at the time, the colour most likely used in the slip was a red iron oxide.

Red iron oxide tends to create a reddish-brown colour. This explained the rich red-brown colour of the pots, even the ones where the glaze had chipped away (but the surface of the clay had not). 

With this, I created a multitude of test glazes and slips with different red iron oxide percentages. I kept some slip and glaze test tiles without the separate and used a mix of both slip and glaze on others. 

Test tiles stood to dry, with differing percentages of red iron oxide

I also tried to create a yellow slip with yellow staining. Unfortunately, this was a failure, and forced me to go back to the drawing board.

The base glaze was a peer-reviewed transparent glaze for dark clays. This prevented the base glaze from causing any clouding.

After working out the glazes, lead-free compared to the glazes used in the late medieval era, I began to focus on the shapes of the pieces.

Shaping the pieces

Similar to using a sketch book, I used my miniature wheel to create miniature versions of Cistercian shapes I had seen and researched.

Creating smaller versions of these reduced clay usage for failed pots. It also allowed me to create multiple variations of shapes without worry of trimming. 

Miniature test pots

Tygs

I decided to try both throwing and hand-building larger versions of Cistercian ware pieces, specifically tygs. This was a later Cistercian ware style, from around the 1700s.

A tyg was a mug with multiple handles, with each handle breathing up the mug into separate sections of the rim. This allowed people to share and pass around a drink more easily.

One of the original, incomplete tygs in our collection, and Naomi's miniature replica

None of the original tygs would have been hand-built. However, I decided to do this due to my desire to later host a workshop on 'making your own tygs'. A hand-built method would allow me to teach multiple people how to make their own tygs more easily.

Using these initial hand-built tygs, I decided to recreate the traditional yellow designs or post-reformation Cistercian ware again. 

I looked back on references from the museum store, as well as yellow and brown slip ware from Staffordshire in the 1600s. From this, I was able to extrapolate that the slip was actually not yellow at all. Instead, I worked out it was the old white clay initially used in Cistercian ware back in the 1400s. It was tinted yellow by the iron heavy glaze used.

I tried this method out on some of my failed pots. Unfortunately, they held little colour as I’d not added enough red iron oxide, nor dipped them for enough time.

However, as you can see on these zoomed-in areas, when the glaze pooled it allowed a colour going towards the yellow colour I was looking for: 

Two close-up examples nearing the desired yellow slip effect

Final stage

After putting all I had learnt to practice, I focused back on the workshop and end pieces for the Cistercian display for Wakefield Museum.

Firstly, I made and tested templates for the tyg workshop. I created net templates to work out how to get the best effect.

After working that out, I sought to create an example tyg using this method. This was then decorated with Yorkshire iconography such as rhubarb and Pontefract cakes. 

One of Naomi's tygs with a 'Pontefract Cakes' design

For the pieces for the museum display I wanted to respect the original pieces, but I did not aim to make exact replicas.

The choice to do miniatures came from the fact miniature throwing is a big part of my practice. I wanted to reflect not only the original piece but recontextualise it for a modern era.

Most people enjoy collecting miniatures of ceramic pieces. It allows them to collect much more, especially if they have smaller homes. Most miniatures are wholly based on modern ceramics. I think that having the ability to have a small part of history (whether local or international) allows people to reconnect more with the ceramics of the past.

Naomi's miniatures with their original inspiration pieces at the museum store

I would like to thank Wakefield Council for funding this as part of Our Year - Wakefield District 2024 and the help and support of Wakefield Museums and Castles.

Naomi's pieces are now on display with original Cistercian ware from our collection, in a new exhibit at Wakefield Museum.

The Cistercian ware display at Wakefield Museum