Can anyone throw some light upon this please?

[Maggie.]

Thanks josey 

I have wasted yet another morning on that when there were Other Things I ought to have been doing.

I shall rule out the English Delftware then.  The embossed edging certainly looks remarkably like the embossed edged cheap plain white supermarket kitchen plates I bought a few years ago!!

Incidentally the image is blue not black.

[Galium]

It could be Staffordshire pearlware. I can't find one exactly like it, but this is very similar in style, especially the moulded border:
   

http://www.rootschat.com/links/01a00/

Scroll down to the larger picture. Sorry, it's an ebay sale that has ended, so I don't know how long the image will remain.

[groom]

That does look remarkably similar, even the style of clothing.

[alpinecottage]

I found a few similar plates, but not as similar as that one.  I agree it looks like pearlware - mid nineteenth century, i think.

[Maggie.]

I like Gallium's find a lot.  That plate does have a similar feel to mine.  No clue as to date though?

[Treetotal]

Another similar one:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/133489576430015365/

Carol

[Galium]

I don't know about a date (other than 19thC probably), but maybe if you emailed a picture to the Potteries Museum, they might be able to help?

[Maggie.]

That's an interesting and similar plate Carol - I like the dog 

I'm really grateful for the input from everybody - thank-you all for opening up different areas to consider.

We have also sent the pics to a pottery expert we know but it's by snail mail as he has no internet so it could be a while before he gets back to us.  His opinion could be interesting.  A date for the plate could definitely help establishing what was going on in this place we are investigating, but at least it tends to indicate some sort of domestic activity in addition to the industrial and farming usage we have already found evidence for.

[alpinecottage]

but at least it tends to indicate some sort of domestic activity in addition to the industrial and farming usage we have already found evidence for.

Well, actually, not necessarily domestic activity on the site.  It was, and still is, common to spread muck onto fields from the muck heaps near to the farmhouse, stable and cow shed etc.  Domestic rubbish also ended up on the muck heap, so domestic rubbish would then end up on the fields some distance from the farmhouse itself.