100 Years of Winchcombe Pottery
The world-renowned Winchcombe Pottery celebrates its centenary this year, so to honour the heritage of such an influential Gloucestershire landmark, we are showcasing a collection of early works by Michael Cardew, the Pottery’s founder, and the potters who helped to shape the works we now know and recognise.
There has been a Pottery on the current site in Greet, Winchcombe, since at least the early 1800s, along with its grade II listed updraft bottle kiln, used to wood-fire the early wares made using the abundance of red earthenware clay found on the Pottery grounds near the river Isbourne. The original Greet, or Beckett’s Pottery, which produced a range of farmhouse wares, closed during the outbreak of WW1, but in the autumn of 1926 the site was re-opened by a young Michael Cardew, a recent apprentice of studio potter Bernard Leach, at the Leach Pottery, St Ives. Winchcombe began with a team of 3, made up of Michael Cardew, Elijah Comfort, a potter from the earlier Beckett’s team, and Sid Tustin, a local 14-year-old lad who could mix clay, glazes, slips, and turn Comfort’s potter’s wheel, before becoming an apprentice and later their lead production potter.
This core team of all ages, strengths and abilities, were the ones who built the pottery we know and love today. They produced some of the pieces we have in our collection and on display, with a warmth, tactility, and energy that moves you to be in the presence of. The throwing lines, the marks from the presence of the makers hands, the history and the stories within all of these pieces is what draws us in and humbles us, and indeed why so many of us have them in our homes. Winchcombe Pottery is rich in its history of people; the potters, apprentices, visitors from all over the world, and the many lives it’s touched; whether that be as pots in people’s homes, every day, functional pots used for cooking or serving food, used in restaurants, as it was back in the 60s at Cranks vegetarian restaurant in London, or because it’s been a consistent and treasured part of Gloucestershire for the past 100 years.
Rooted in the arts and crafts movement, the pottery, situated not far from Nature in Art, originally produced earthenware items. In the early years the pots were mostly Comfort’s larger Beckett’s style pieces, with Cardew’s more refined slipware. Production gradually moved solely towards Cardew’s slipware, using the classic English slipware style seen in some of the early pieces on display, with the combing and slip decoration that became synonymous with Winchcombe Pottery from the early 30s.
Founded on Cardew’s early exposure and interest in historic earthenware slipware, along with his training with Bernard Leach, and the obvious connection between St Ives and Japanese pottery, Cardew brought a more contemporary yet affordable, functional, warm and handcraft focused pottery to Winchcombe’s local community and, eventually, to a wider market. Cardew’s passion for throwing, form and decoration is what brought Winchcombe Pottery to the fore, along with a growing team of enthusiastic potters wanting to be a part of the traditional rural Pottery.
The team changed, grew and developed over the years, with potters continuing Cardew’s vision, but also contributing their own unique styles and creative output, all of which have shaped the pottery we know today. Ray Finch joined the team and eventually took over the running of the pottery in 1946, when Cardew left to open a new pottery in Devon. This new era saw the beginnings of the, now, recognisable wood-fired stoneware range, using the same methods, original measurements, and specifications to produce today’s Winchcombe Pottery ‘standard range’.
Winchcombe Pottery, both old and new, is collected and shown all over the world. This exhibition, along with others celebrating the pottery’s achievements, aims to recognise and treasure the true importance of one of the last remaining traditional English Studio Potteries.
We sincerely thank the Edgeler Collection for loaning items for this display.
This exhibition is one a series celebrating 100 Years of Winchcombe pottery. See others at the Winchcombe Museum; the Edgeler Collection, Winchcombe; the Gordon Russell Design Museum, Broadway; Court Barn, Chipping Campden; plus events at Winchcombe Pottery itself.
There will be a private view and launch of the Nature in Art show on 28th July. Click here for details.