Pottery; Unglazed stamped sugar mould

Rim of a sugar mould with the name 'W ASHCROF[T]' impressed around outer edge. It is just one of a small number of stamped sugar mould fragments identified amongst the thousands recovered from the site of the Museum of Liverpool before construction. The complete stamp reads 'W Ashcroft Prescot'. William Ashcroft owned the Moss Pottery in Prescot in the later 18th century, dying in 1806 around the time the pottery was dumped on the waterfront site. These stamped fragments provide a direct link between two of the major industries of the Liverpool area at this time: pottery manufacture and sugar refining. The vessels were used to create sugar loaves which, when wrapped in blue paper, were sent to grocers who would break lumps of sugar off the loaf for sale to the public. Although made in Prescot they were probably supplied to one of the many sugar refineries operating in the centre of Liverpool at the time and they were probably thrown away either as the refinery closed or because the ceramic vessels were superceded by iron.