Throughout the Middle Ages pottery making was widespread in England and there were many local and regional styles. The pots from most kilns were sold or bartered locally, but the ware from some, such as those in Stamford and Scarborough, had a much wider distribution.

A pottery industry developed at Scarborough after the founding of the castle in the reign of King Stephen (1135–54) and flourished until the mid-fourteenth century, when the town declined in importance. The pots were made of a reddish, pinkish-buff or off-white fabric, depending on date, and copper-green or yellow lead glazes are typical. As well as food containers, such as pipkins and bowls, the potters made aquamaniles in the shape of animals, and large jugs exuberantly decorated with modelled knights on horseback, or with bearded masks and arms below the spouts. Others were less extravagantly decorated with applied scales, strips and pellets of clay.

Excavated and chance finds have shown that Scarborough ware was exported to many places in north- and south-eastern England and as far away as Aberdeen, Bergen and Bruges. This jug was found in a passage under a house in St Paul's Street, Stamford, Lincolnshire. Part of its handle has been restored, but the rest is remarkably well preserved. A jug of this kind was probably used for serving drinks or for hand washing at meals. Plainer examples were used for many different purposes such as fetching water from wells and taking drinks to labourers in the fields.