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Winchcombe Pottery

ByJoseph Travis

I have never been to see Winchcombe Pottery, so when I was visiting the Lighthearts earlier in July they suggested we should go on a trip there.  In case you don’t know much about their history click here, needless to say Michael Cardew reopened the country pottery in 1926 with the help of Elijah Comfort and Sydney Tustin. It was then taken over by Ray Finch in 1946 and was run by him and his family until the last year. It is now run by Matt Grimmitt who is the Great Great Grandson of Elijah Comfort.

Entering the pottery they were emptying one kiln and getting ready to fill another ready for a glaze firing. Having never met Matt he recognised me on sight and I him due to the joys of social media.  He has his own Youtube channel which mostly covers his time before joining the Winchcombe team.

 

You can't really see the chimney till you get here
You can always spot a wood fired pottery from the chimney

hold still
Matt Grimmitt and Zed Lightheart looking at some of the pots that came out of the previous firing.
oh biscuits for tea time
Zed Lightheart examining a second from the kiln firing
too nice for a glaze test
Zed holding a glaze test piece
Production production production
Pottery waiting to go in the glaze firing
So familar, always reminds me of the LEach standard ware at St Ives and John Leach's production ware too.
This makes up a small section of the production wares
I like this more than their stoneware
Slip ware available in the shop
ready for work
A simple to make trim tool, I need to make a video for these.
History made solid.
These jugs were next to Matt’s wheel, as well as other tests and old broken pots.
no working horses here
The old horse drawn pugmill.
are you sure it isn't just an excuse to use an artsy shot
A broken jug on a stack of kiln bricks, it is always intersting to see the shards at older potteries
it is almost a tree now
The old bottle kiln, it feels a shame that this piece of history isn’t preserved as it should be.
I want to make some quality saggars that actually last
The saggars left in the kiln are so much nicer than mine.

I would love to go back and spend time there, take more photos and film the potters in action.  There is so much I really want to film in my life that isn’t me and it would mean filming other makers but don’t know how best to make it work.

To work out what to film I have been looking at what has been missing, and I think the wood working to make tools is useful but I  don’t know what to do after the miniseries.  So reader, what would you like to see?

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