My nephew, Jason and I set out on a bike ride over the weekend that brought us through parts of Newburyport, West Newbury and Newbury, Massachusetts. He had asked if we could go somewhere we had never ridden to before - and considering the amount of riding we do - it seemed like somewhat of a lot to ask. We've ridden to William Pecker's place of operation in Merrimacport (here is a
link to a story written about that ride for the October 2013 New England Antiques Journal), Massachusetts before. We've gone past the places where the Bayley family and Ebenezer Morrison worked in Newburyport in the eighteenth-century. We've even gone past numerous locations on the Merrimac River - where large amounts of eighteenth and nineteenth-century trash used to be deposited. Today, the partial remains of some of these deposits sometimes appear on the shoreline after storms. We have occasionally found some red earthenware sherds - which help define some of the locally made potter's wares; although these deposits also provide many others products of interest. Rivers all over world can tell stories of the past in a similar manner since dumping local trash was a popular practice in urban environments. There was no such thing as a trash pickup day back then - so it had to go somewhere a river was sometimes the easiest solution.
We thought up a plan - I told him he could take a few minutes to look for frogs in a swampy part of a place known as the
Artichoke (which is also the local water supply for Newburyport) along the city's boundaries to the southwest. I quickly took that statement back when I saw the amount of poison ivy. I used to go to the
Artichoke with my childhood friends as a kid looking for frogs, turtles and to fish in the 1980s and early 1990s. The area has always had myths and legend into the size of huge snapping turtles that were mostly made up by the imagination of children. The
Artichoke Reservoir is also the place of a very-early Quaker settlement that all that remains of its memory today is a cemetery. All the buildings and meeting houses vanished years ago.
Jason and I took this route for at least a mile riding past springtime flowers in full-bloom, early New England homes and what I would purely describe as a beautiful county New England setting - with lots of wildlife, swamps, ponds, streams and trees. We could occasionally hear the songs of birds and bullfrogs in the air. Our route was entirely lined with early-built rock walls. We did venture off our path a little bit, but we always found our way back to the main road. We both ride Giant Mountain Bikes so we occasionally put them to good use.
This road eventually brought us to a road that ran next to an Interstate 95 on-ramp and off-ramp near the Newbury State Police Barracks known as
Scotland Road.
Scotland Road was our way back to Newburyport. It brought us to the Newburyport industrial park, which we then took to the Newburyport MBTA train station, the scenic rail trail and through Newburyport before we arrived home. Scotland Road is also a scenic ride. We went by a working farm with chickens and sheep out front, running brooks, blossoming springtime trees and an occasional home.
In all, our ride probably lasted for about five-miles. The longest ride we've taken together was when we visited the workplace of William Pecker last summer. That ride was about twelve-miles with plenty of hills that stretched along the beautiful Merrimac River.
Before we were about to re-enter Newburyport and a short distance from the industrial park, I noticed a huge pile of dirt that laid just off Scotland road to the left of a dirt driveway. The dirt driveway went uphill for a little bit leading to a newly built house. Out of curiosity, I entered the driveway to see if the dirt pile had any red earthenware shards laying on top of it, but as soon as I made that turn into the driveway - I noticed this was
not only one dirt pile, but one of many. The piles looked like one succeeded the next from the back of dump trucks. There must have been at least a dozen piles - and as soon as I saw that first pile, I could clearly see discarded artifacts, sherds and shards. All the piles appeared this way. The dirt was likely not random piles either, but rather - it was likely landfill taken from somewhere (possibly the newish house up on the hill) and this was where it had been deposited.
A Few of the Dirt Piles Facing Back Towards the Dirt Driveway
They Went for Quite a Distance
The Row of Dirt Piles Facing Away From the Dirt Driveway
The Piles Were Littered with 19th and 20th Century Trash
The Dirt Piles Looking Back at Scotland Road in Newbury, Ma
More of the Dirt Piles Looking Back at Scotland Road in Newbury, Ma
Each Pile Probably Stood About 8 Feet High
There Were About a Dozen or-so Piles of Dirt Dumped in this Area
All the Piles Appeared to be a Dump Truck Size
Among the artifacts we saw included - transfer decorated nineteenth-century ceramics, nineteenth-century ironstone, twentieth-century glass, nineteenth-century glass, Chinese export ceramics, cow bones, a nineteenth-century canning jar, an early horse shoe, a couple of glass marbles and many examples of red earthenware - which I presume were mostly made by local potters.
Broken Glass and Ceramics
Unglazed Red Earthenware Sherd Protruding From One of the Piles
Broken Ceramics
More Broken Ceramics
Even More Broken Ceramics and Red Earthenware
My nephew almost immediately found a broken spade, which he toted around for much of the our adventure looking over all the artifacts that laid atop the piles of dirt. We did not do any digging - we just observed what could visibly be seen. The possession he appears to have cherished most was probably a horse shoe - because it likely reminded him of a farm he has been hanging out at on Saturdays this spring - which has a few horses.
My Nephew, Jason with a Broken Spade
One of the Marbles My Nephew Found
Probably 20th Century
A Second Marble My Nephew Found
Also Probably 20th Century
The most interesting New England-made artifacts I saw were the partial remains of a rim to a red earthenware milk pan, a hand-turned nineteenth-century flower pot, a chunk from a thickly potted black glazed red earthenware sherd (probably 18th century) and a very interesting slip decorated pan or deep dish of some-sort (also probably 18th century).
The milk pan rim reminded me of some products made in the southern part of Maine in the nineteenth-century with a typical glaze often associated with that area; although I assume dairy products like this were also made in the Newburyport-area - since the towns that surround Newburyport were - and still are farming communities. There must have been a demand for products like milk pans and utilitarian crocks in all farming communities across America.
The black glazed sherd could very-well be related to the eighteenth-century industry that roughly operated between 1765-1799 in Newburyport. There were two main businesses located across the street from each other - the first was run by Daniel Bayley and his family and the second by Ebenezer Morrison. Products from each of these companies appear similar. I have viewed shards collected by Lura Woodside Watkins (Early New England Potters and Their Wares) at the site of the Bayley Pottery, now kept at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and this is how some of those products appear - thickly potted wares with black glazes.
Black Glazed Red Earthenware Shard
Possibly from One of the Potters Who Worked in Newburyport, Ma
Possibly Dates Back to the 19th Century
Appears Thickly Potted
This next sherd fascinates me - it is approximately three inches long. It appears to be the remains of some kind of small pan or a deep dish, which was covered in slip decoration at one-time. It is also thinnly potted. Similar products have been found at the site of the Daniel Bayley Pottery Company and other parts of New England that have been properly attributed to the Bayley Pottery. It appears eighteenth-century to me. If it were left up to me - the form and decoration suggest an eighteenth-century potter - and the businesses in Newburyport would make the most sense.
Possible 18th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Pan or Deep Dish
Form and Decoration Conforms with Some Products Made in Newburyport, Ma Before 1775
Exterior of Pan or Deep Dish
Appears Thinly Potted
Interior of Pan or Deep Dish
Measures About 3" Long - the Size of the Pan Wouldn't Have Been A Great Amount Larger
I would love to learn more about the dirt that was trucked into this area. I don't believe it came from the house that sat atop the hill. I have many questions that surround it; Where did the dirt come from? Why was it removed? What is the land's history that it was removed from? What has the land's ownership been like? These are the types of questions that I think of - especially since I am seeing what may be colonial red earthenware artifacts from important Newburyport potters. It's all a bit of a mystery at the moment. I can only imagine the information that may lay within these piles. Fascinating! Isn't it?
Much More to Come...
