South Shields, pottery vessel

Mrs Ernest Blair, Underhill Road, Cleadon, placed on loan an urn of brick-red unglazed ware found at South Shields apparently of Roman date. Lieut-Colonel Spain explained that this vessel which was 7.5 inches high with two-thirds of the upper rim broken off and missing had been found south of the South Wall of the Cemetery at South Shields on the course of the old Letch on clay about two feet below the modern surface. The Ordnance Survey almost certainly misinterpreted the findspot, suggesting the cemetery in question was that of St. Stephen's, west of the Roman fort, whereas St. Hilda's seems much more likely, and would fit in with the suggested letch to the south. The Ordnance Survey added (in 1952) that Mrs E. Blair, of 9 Underhill Rd, Cleadon, had no recollection of the urn and certainly did not loan it to the Society of Antiquaries.