WHEN Alan Potter first started tracing his family history he never dreamed that one day he would hold pots made by his ancestors some 700 years earlier.

But this week more than 9,000 sherds (fragments) of pots made by generations of Potters have gone on display for the first time as part of a Summer of Archaeology exhibition.

The rare remains were discovered in Potter Lane, Samlesbury, during construction of a gas pipeline in 2002.

The sherds lay undiscovered beneath piles of rubble since the middle of the 14th century.

And the finds, which date back to 1350, represent only the third recorded medieval production site in the whole of England.

Alan, 73, said: “I felt a strange sense of accomplishment in that a great many people have surnames taken from the occupations of their distant ancestors but it must be exceedingly rare to identify the time and then visit the place in which that surname was gained.

“An additional thrill for me was to be able run my own fingers over the curves of the pots of my ancestors’ making,” said Alan, who emigrated to Australia with his wife Ursula and two children in the early 1970s.

The retired project manager began tracing his family history several years ago after letters from the Potter side of the family were passed down to him.

“I spent quite some time in the Lancashire Records Office on my last visit to the UK and started to slowly piece together my family tree,” said Alan, who was born in Blackpool.

The first Potters he came across in Samlesbury were chapel wardens.

St Leonard's Church still houses a box pew with the initials of his ancestors John Potter and his wife Alice engraved in the wood, with the date 1713.

Further back there were dozens of Potters registered in the area in the 1500s, notably a juror listed on manor court verdicts of Samlesbury in 1576.

Many others were tailors, who were mentioned in wills found from relatives who lived at Potter Farm, which once stood near Nabs Head.

The earliest Potters Alan has traced are from the Samlesbury lay subscriptions register (poll tax), which show a family of Potters paying four pence each in 1379.

It is these Potters who would have worked in the pottery factory which once stood in Potters Lane.

David Hunt, curator since 1982 at South Ribble Museum And Exhibition Centre, where the Samlesbury pots are bring displayed, said it was a privilege to have such a collection under their roof.

He added: “Nobody had any idea pots were being made in Samlesbury for 300 years.

"Things like that can be lost in time and can turn up at any moment, and that is what they did.

“The really interesting thing is that you can see fingermarks on the pots — and these potters have been dead for 700 years,” said David, who has written several Lancashire local history books.

The pots, which have been stored at The Museum of Lancashire since they were recovered, are a rare find in this area, according to David.

He added: “The assemblage represents the largest body of medieval pottery recovered from North West England and provides rare evidence for a ceramic production centre in the region.

“The discovery of the sites in Potter Lane is no co-incidence.

"A Potter family was well-established in the area. Pot making wasn’t, however, regarded as a skilled job.

"It was seasonal and children and women played a big part.

"They will have made daily crockery, containers for milk and water and it will have been sold at Blackburn market on the weekends.“ Alan is now the proud owner of several pieces of his ancestors' pots after returning to Samlesbury to visit the street where members of his family once worked and lived.

He added: “I had passed unknowingly the very street in the past on several occasions, and when I wandered over no more than grass for cattle now, I found a pot sherd in a drainage ditch from the excavation, which I carried back to Australia with some pride.”

l Summer of Archaeology, on now and until October — South Ribble Museum And Exhibition Centre museum, open on Tuesdays and Fridays from 10am-4pm; Thursdays from 1pm-4pm and Saturdays from 10am-1pm.