Celebrating a new arrival

These three pieces of pottery have a story to tell about a Castleford family. They were given to Castleford Library in 1968 but no information was recorded about their history.

The jar has the name and date ALFRED SAVOURY 1901 inscribed on a yellow band below the rim. The bowl is cheerfully decorated inside with cut out shapes outlined by a yellow slip, and on the rim the name SARAH is spelled out in dots. The small jug clearly belongs with them but has no inscription on it.

Who were Alfred Savoury and Sarah? And why were these pots made with their names on?

The pots are not high quality, so Alfred and Sarah were probably working people who wouldn’t have left many records behind. Fortunately, however, when a census is taken everyone is listed, and the 1901 Census can be consulted online.

A search revealed that there was a family recorded in Castleford called Savory (spelt differently, but no doubt the same people). When the Census was taken, baby Alfred was only one week old. So the jar was probably a present to mark Alfred’s arrival. His mother was called Sarah, so the bowl was probably given to her on the same occasion.

The whole family consisted of parents Alfred and Sarah, Harold (8), Percy (5), Annie (4) and baby Alfred. Alfred senior was listed as working as a ‘Tesser’ in the glass bottle works and they lived at 7 Smith’s Row, which was handy for the glassworks. He had been born at Henlow in Bedfordshire, but must have come to Castleford for work, where he married local girl Sarah.