Tuesday 30th September 2025
Colour Splash.
Join us at Red Lion Heytesbury on Wednesday 8th October 2025 for a lovely evening of pottery painting!
Relax with some friends, enjoy some lovely food and drinks and let your imagination run free.
Contact Colour splash to book your place: telephone 07969 028774.
Monday 7th October 2024
South West Regional Group meeting of the Medieval and Later Pottery Research Group
Are you interested in pottery, and what it can tell us about the past?
Hear from a range of pottery specialists from the Medieval and Later Pottery Research Group (MLPRG) as they present the latest research in medieval pottery, and learn about projects underway to inform our understanding of the way people lived in the South West in the medieval period.
There will also be the opportunity to handle archaeological pottery specimens, and view medieval pottery from collections not normally on display from the stores of the Wiltshire Museum, including kiln material from Langley Burrell and Minety, and assemblages from Ludgershall Castle and Devizes.
Over 16s only or accompanied 14-15 year olds please, due to the fragile nature of the archaeological collections.
Date: 23 November 2024
Time: 10am – 4pm
Location: Wiltshire Museum, Devizes.
Cost: Free
Booking: essential (see note below), book online.
This event is organised and run by the Medieval and Later Pottery Research Group, who have allocated a few places to supporters of Wiltshire Museum.
Sunday 5th August 2018
Flying Saucers, Painting Pottery Cafe,
8 Weymouth Street, Warminster, BA12 9NR.
Telephone 01985 220110.
Photographs taken by Danny Howell
on Sunday 5th August 2018.
Monday 2nd December 2013
Currently for sale on eBay, as a “buy it now” purchase, for £218.42, is this ceramic pot with a connection to the Warminster area. Vasefinder, through the StudioPottery.com website are the vendors and they describe it as an “exquisite Katharine Pleydell Bouverie organic form.”
They give the following details about the maker: “Katharine Pleydell-Bouverie, known to her friends as Beano, was born in 1895. She became interested in ceramics after seeing pots by Roger Fry, and enrolled in classes at the Central School of Art under Dora Billlington. In 1924 she became one of Bernard Leach‘s first students at St. Ives. During her year at the Leach Pottery she came into contact with Cardew, Hamada, her good friend Norah Braden and one of her greatest influences, Matsubayashi.”
“After a year at St. Ives she started her own pottery, the Cole Pottery, in the grounds of her family’s estate at Coleshill, Berkshire. Here she started her life-long career of making and perfecting ash-glaze pots. She was a diligent note-taker and -maker, and meticulously wrote down all she heard at the many talks she attended at the Leach Pottery and elsewhere. Her knowledge of ash glazes became vast and Leach himself came to her many years later for advice on the subject. The setting at Coleshill was ideal for a pottery; there was an abundance of clay, water and trees to provide the large quantities of wood to fire the double-chamber kiln that Katharine had built with the help of her friend Ada ‘Peter’ Mason. In 1928 after Mason had left for the USA, Norah Braden joined Beano and stayed at Coleshill for eight years. Cole Pottery was active until the outbreak of the Second World War when it had to close in order to comply with blackout restriction. The firings took thirty-six hours, so it was impossible to confine them to the hours of daylight. Pleydell-Bouverie’s best work was produced at Coleshill.”
“After the war years the family estate was sold and Katharine moved to Kilmington Manor in Wiltshire. Norah Braden helped her build an oil-fired kiln that gave good service for fifteen years, after which it was replaced by a smaller electric kiln. She stayed at Kilmington Manor until her death in 1985.”
“Coming from an aristocratic and wealthy family, Pleydell-Bouverie never had to worry about making a living from her pots. Every pot she made and every glaze she experimented on was done for the love of the pursuit, and this shows in the ‘humane’ quality of her work. Her glazes were very well documented and have been a source of inspiration and study for many potters.”
Vasefinder-online are based in Fernley, Nevada, USA, and they have the pot for sale at the buy-it-now price of $357.77 (£218.42) plus $45.85 (£27.99) postage and packing.
Friday 27th April 2012
A new business is about to open at
Weymouth Street, Warminster.
It’s a painting and pottery cafe called Flying Saucers.
These photographs taken by Danny Howell
on the afternoon of Friday 27th April 2012
show a name sign already up
and posters in the windows advertising
the impending “visit by aliens”
Some people passing by failed to take any notice,
others looked at the posters and seemed bemused,
while others said they welcomed the new venture.
A similar venture, called Hippopotamouse,
in the Corn Market shopping precinct,
Warminster, not so long ago,
turned out to be a short-lived venture.
The painting and pottery cafe will be in
one of the rank of shops
behind the old Town Hall.
Ceramic artist and potter, Jo Duggan of Heytesbury, will be giving a demonstration to the Warminster Art Society, at the Lakeside Community Centre, in the Lake Pleasure Grounds (The Town Park), Warminster, on 21st February 2012, from 2.00 to 4.00 p.m.
Jo Duggan has always been involved with the arts in some way, and has been fascinated by the versatility of clay for nearly 30 years. She is strongly influenced by organic objects such as seedpods, buds, stones and the colours in rock formations. She hand builds some pieces with coils and then scrapes and smoothes until the surface is thin and even. At this stage, she either burnishes the piece ready for the bisque firing; or if she wants colour added, she will brush a coloured slip on the piece, in some cases using a masking tape or wet newspaper as a resist. After this treatment it is ready for burnishing which can take a few hours of rubbing with the back of a spoon, then bisque firing to a low temperature. Then the piece is smoked in a brick box using a variety of combustible materials, such as: sawdust, dried lavender storks, and newspaper. The piece is then polished with a furniture polish. Some of Jo’s smoked pieces are not glazed in any way so are slightly porous; so she does not recommend water be put into them. She also makes a range of traditional kitchen slipware, which are hand thrown on the wheel, and decorated in earthy colours using oxides to colour the slip. The work is then bisque fired as above, and then dipped into a transparent glaze to enhance the slip colours and give a glossy finish.
The demonstration will show something of the process with coloured slips. As time is limited Jo will show how to make a plate using a “hump” mould and will demonstrate the use of slips and resist worked pattern. If there is time, those who want to can try their hand at making a pinch pot.
Admission to Jo Duggan’s demonstration is £1.50 for Warminster Art Society members, and £3 for guests.
