West Pans: excavations at a ceramic production site in Musselburgh, East Lothian

Abstract

Excavations were undertaken in 1981 and 1990–1 at the site of the 18th-/19th-century ceramics
manufacturing complex of West Pans, near Musselburgh. The foundations of several structures were
uncovered although many proved impossible to interpret or date. Several puddling pits, most of them
quite small, were identified, as was part of a hovel (the circular structure surrounding a kiln) and
the remains of two kilns, one of which might have been for glass-making. Other buildings could have
been drying rooms or stores. The large quantities of ceramics from several phases of occupation
between the early 18th and the early 19th century included porcelain wasters from the period when
William Littler was at West Pans, c 1764 and 1777. Some evidence of the 19th-century village of West
Pans was uncovered to the north of the area, on land reclaimed from the sea. To the east of the main
site, a watching brief in 2002 and a salvage excavation in 2003 revealed part of a brick structure
possibly associated with salt-making, another important early industry at West Pans.