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Craft & Industries: Glass-Working

Cecily Spall

Three pieces of possible glass-working waste were recovered from Period 3 contexts at Blue Bridge Lane and a fourth residually from a Period 4 pit at Fishergate House. Two pieces are of light-green glass and appear to be malformed wound glass, probably failed beads (Find nos 972 and 6077). Find no 6077 shows signs of having been removed from a larger piece is a semi-liquid state, while Find no 972 has an incomplete perforation and a flared end. In addition to these malformed beads a small spherical globule of light-green glass was recovered from Period 3 cesspit F381B and is likely to be a by-product of glass-working. A small length of possible black glass rod was recovered from Period 3 pit F427B and may relate to bead-making at the site, although black glass is often 'accidental' and secondary to other processes such as ironworking.

Glass-working fragments

This assemblage of waste is small, but these pieces do appear to indicate glass-working at Blue Bridge Lane and can be added to evidence for glass-working recovered from 46-54 Fishergate in the form of misshapen beads (Rogers 1993, 1379). The product at Blue Bridge Lane appears to have been beads, which would have been an easily saleable commodity. The large fragment of raw amber recovered from a Period 3 pit at Blue Bridge Lane is a further possible indicator of bead-making at the site, since it is most likely to have been converted into beads or pendants (see Stone objects). The scale of the industry however, does not appear to be substantial and this craft may have been comparatively casual.