HATS GO FLYING AT FARNHAM POTTERY

Thanks to The Herald for its report on 11 November 2011

The Farnham Pottery in Quennells Hill, Wrecclesham, was the subject of the Farnham Public Art Trust's annual open meeting in October. More than 80 people crowded into the Garden Gallery at the Museum to hear a talk about plans for the future, given by the pottery's new owners Guy and Elaine Haines, assisted by Ashley Howard of the University for the Creative Arts and Julia Quigley of West Street Potters.

The 19th century pottery is one of Farnham's most important features, a remarkable survival of a Victorian country pottery which was nearly lost a few years ago.

Sue Farrow, chairman of the Public Art Trust, gave a short outline of its history, pointing out that it followed in the tradition of the long- established local pottery industry, which goes back to Roman times.

The Farnham Pottery was established in Wrecclesham in 1873 by local potter Absalom Harris, and continued on the same Site for nearly 130 years, run by five successive generations of the Harris family.

In its heyday the pottery made and sold domestic, architectural and garden wares in large quantities - unbelievably, a skilled potter could produce over 1,000 garden pots in a single day.

Farnham Greenware was much sought after, and the pottery made links with the Farnham Art School, producing a range of Farnham Art Pottery which was sold at Liberty's, Heals and across the world. Many well known potters learnt their craft at Wrecclesham, and students were always welcomed.

After World War II however, the pottery began to decline. Skilled potters became harder to find and in spite of the sale of parts of the site in the 1980s and 1990s to provide injections of capital, things did not improve and in 1998 the business was on its last legs.

The unique historic buildings, built by the potters themselves using their own materials - bricks, tiles and even window frames - were by then mostly disused, leaking, damp and semi- derelict, and in danger of demolition.

If it had not been for the intervention of the Farnham Building Preservation Trust this whole piece of local history could have vanished, the site cleared and replaced with a housing estate. The Farnham Trust, however, stepped in and spent 12 years carrying out a slow, careful programme of restoration, letting space to tenants as it became useable, before putting the pottery on the market in 2010.

New owner Guy Haines outlined plans to relaunch the pottery as a practical space providing education for both novice and experienced ceramicists, working with the Farnham Pottery Trust which includes both the established ceramics group West Street Potters, and Ashley Howard, tutor at UCA.

Julia Quigley explained how West Street Potters had come to the Farnham Pottery in 2000 when they were homeless because their premises in West Street were due to be redeveloped. The group runs daily classes as well as workshops for schools, and lottery-funded events for the wider com­munity. Ashley Howard outlined plans to build a programme of courses, initially short ones, but expanding towards, an accredited course in partnership with UCA. These would focus on vocational skills within ceramics, and in the longer term would encourage for­eign visitors to attend sum­mer schools and residen­cies.

On Sunday, October 30, Guy and Elaine Haines organised a 'christening' party at the pottery, with a large crowd of supporters of the new enterprise, and a cake shaped like a pottery kiln, topped with a fizzing firework.

After lunch all the guests gathered in the car park in front of the iconic pottery buildings, to give cheers and throw hats worn as instructed in the invitation, into the air was a fitting celebration of the Farnham Pottery’s new life, looking forward to an exciting and secure future in the 21st century.

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