Winchcombe Pottery, near Winchcombe in Tewkesbury Borough, North Gloucestershire, is an English craft pottery founded in 1926.
Winchcombe Pottery, near Winchcombe in Tewkesbury Borough, North Gloucestershire, is an English craft pottery founded in 1926.
There has been a pottery, with a Bottle kiln, on the current site in Greet since at least 1800, 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Winchcombe. [1] Known as Greet Potteries under the management of R A Beckett (who died in 1913), it produced a range of farmhouse ware, advertised as "Garden, Sea-Cale, Rhubarb, & Chimney Pots". Closed in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I, it did not restart again after the war. [2]
Bernard Leach is credited with restarting craftsman pottery in Britain in 1920. One of his early students was Michael Cardew who, at 25, was looking for a suitable site for his own pottery and in 1926 rented the old pottery buildings. [3] Influencing his choice were the availability of local clay and the original bottle kiln. Cardew recruited two locals, critically Elijah Comfort, aged 63 and who had worked before in the pottery, and inspirationally, in 1927, Sidney Tustin (aged 13). [1] [4]
Cardew wanted people to use his pottery in regular daily use, as has been the tradition in early centuries. He followed the classic English slipware style using the red earthenware Winchcombe clay. After a difficult star and many trials, he managed to start slipware production. Experiments with firing the pots in the bottle kiln were eventually successful. For the produce of three men, the bottle kiln was really too large but it was what they had. A firing went on for three days. Gradually Cardew's skills and hard work were recognised. In 1935 he had one of his pots exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1935 the team was expanded to include Charlie, Sid's younger brother. A young chemist called Ray Finch tried to join the pottery staff in 1935 but was sent away by Cardew to gain some pottery experience. Finch returned in 1936, aged 22, and was able to convince Cardew that he now knew enough and he joined the team. [5] [6]
Cardew was a restless spirit and left to set up Wenfordbridge in Bodmin as his new pottery, leaving Finch to run Winchcombe Pottery. The 2nd World War caused the Tustin brothers to be called up and the bottle kiln was now too large. A small kiln was constructed in 1940. [4] In 1943, Finch was called up and the pottery closed.
In 1946 Finch bought the business from Cardew and restarted the pottery with the help of Sidney Tustin. [7] The staff expanded and at last the bottle kiln saw proper usage. Students joined the pottery staff to learn the craft as they worked and many of them subsequently went on to be established potters in their own right. But the business was not as successful as hoped and in the early 1950s, the pottery was downsized. The last bottle kiln firing took place in 1954. [1]
Finch had always been inspired by the Japanese potter Shoji Hamada, and starting experiments with stoneware in 1952. A new stoneware kiln was built and slipware production continued using electric kilns until 1964 when all production switched to stoneware. In 1974 a wood fired kiln was built to replace the oil fired kiln for stoneware production and is still in use.
In the 1960s the pottery began to supply tableware to the Cranks chain of vegetarian restaurants. [8]
Two of Ray Finch's sons followed their father's career. Mike Finch runs Winchcombe Pottery and Joe Finch runs his own pottery in Wales.
Ray Finch, who continued work into his nineties, died on 18 January 2012. [8]
2017 The Pottery continues to produce production wares with one offs and specials available in the shop. A small selection of slipware has been reintroduced to the shop. Winchcombe Pottery is now run by Matt Grimmitt after Mike Finch took retirement in 2016. Matt is a relative of Elijah Comfort.
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a potter is also called a pottery. The definition of pottery, used by the ASTM International, is "all fired ceramic wares that contain clay when formed, except technical, structural, and refractory products". End applications include tableware, decorative ware, sanitary ware, and in technology and industry such as electrical insulators and laboratory ware. In art history and archaeology, especially of ancient and prehistoric periods, pottery often means only vessels, and sculpted figurines of the same material are called terracottas.
Winchcombe is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Tewkesbury in the county of Gloucestershire, England, it is 6 miles (10 km) north-east of Cheltenham. The population was recorded as 4,538 in the 2011 census and estimated at 5,347 in 2019. The town is located in the Cotswolds and has many features and buildings dating back to medieval times. In 2021 it was the primary strike site of the eponymous Winchcombe meteorite.
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A saggar is a type of kiln furniture. It is a ceramic boxlike container used in the firing of pottery to enclose or protect ware being fired inside a kiln. The name may be a contraction of the word safeguard.
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Michael Ambrose Cardew (1901–1983), was an English studio potter who worked in West Africa for twenty years.
KatherineHarriot Duncombe Pleydell-Bouverie was a pioneer in modern English studio pottery, known for her wood-ash glazes.
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Ray Finch MBE, formally Alfred Raymond Finch, was an English studio potter who worked at Winchcombe Pottery for a period spanning seventy-five years.
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