SOMETIMES it seems that there's hardly a village or town in the North Yorkshire Dales or Moors without its resident potter. They flock there with grand plans and high ambitions and most last little more than a season or two.
A few, however, have the skill and determination to survive and become successful businesses...
WASH HOUSE POTTERY
The Wash House Pottery certainly looks the part. Up a little alley off Church Street in Whitby, much of the stock is displayed on the flagstones outside the little low building that, yes, was once the wash house. The flag stones are stacked with tiles, jugs, house name plaques and numbers, planters - a wonderful picture in the summer sun, when we get it.
Inside the tiny workshop, Laureen Shaw or her assistants are usually at work. Laureen is American, from Arizona, but coming to Whitby was, literally, like coming home.
"My mother was from Whitby and after I finished university I went travelling and stayed with my gran in Whitby. I just thought it was a lovely place to live."
Eventually she settled down here and, having studied ceramics at college, set to work and opened The Wash House in 1982 - making it now the oldest surviving pottery in Whitby.
"At first I did part-fired burnished pottery, and did a lot for exhibitions and galleries." But then she couldn't find the tiles she needed for her new kitchen.
"So I designed and made them myself, hand-painted them. Then friends started asking me to make them for them."
Now the tiles are a big part of her business. She also makes commemorative plaques. Don't know what to buy for a new baby or the Grandparents' Golden Wedding? Then Laureen will make a plate complete with suitable picture and the names and dates of the occasion.
The designs are interesting and different, partly influenced by her Arizona childhood. The traditional designs of American Indians or from the heat of Mexico look cheerfully right on the Yorkshire coast. But then next to something that looks distinctly native American, you'll see a plate with a map of the Archers' Ambridge - definitely a blend of different cultures here.
"Well, when I'm not talking to visitors I tend to sit here, working, listening to the radio."
Little plaques cost £18, large ones £40, she does mail order and the plates have gone all over the world.
"Tucked away where we are, it takes people a little while to find us, but once they have, they tend to come back."
l Wash House Pottery, Blackburns Yard, Church Street, Whitby, tel: (01947) 604995. Open 10am-5pm, every day.
WENSLEYDALE POTTERY
When Simon Shaw (no relation to Laureen) was a student, he specialised in making porcelain, fine and delicate.
But when he came to set up his studio in Hawes - a place he'd known and loved since childhood - he decided to specialise in domestic ware.
"The porcelain was wonderful, but people would take it home and just put it on a shelf. It was too precious to use and eventually they would not really look at it any more and it would just sit there gathering dust. I thought it was nicer to make things that people used and handled and looked at every day."
With wife Rebecca, he makes mugs and plates and bowls and other domestic items mainly in subtle blues and creams, "though I'm working on a green as well, but it has to be exactly right," he says.
This is a very sophisticated version of traditional table ware. It's solid enough but with an every-day elegance which makes it very nice to use. And there is a particular pleasure in using something that has been made individually by a craftsman/woman instead of turned out by the thousand.
What's more, the jugs pour properly, which helps.
They've been in Hawes since 1983. "It's a good place to be, a proper community that we like being part of." With young son Sam, they live, literally, above the pottery which is up an alleyway off the main street, in the same courtyard as Kit Calvert's bookshop (the one now run by Terry Cluderary). There's a small shop and showroom next to the workshop.
Prices start at £2.50, mugs are £4.20 and the most expensive item is a big and beautiful bread crock at £62.
As well as that elusive green, he's looking forward to developing some more new designs when Sam starts school in September. "We'll have a little more time then, time to do one offs and a few special things," he says.
This is a man who seems to have got the work/family balance, pretty perfect. As well as the domestic tableware, they also make promotional ware. If you've bought a cheese dish with Wensleydale Creamery on it or a pot from Elijah Allen, it was made by Wensleydale Pottery.
"We specialise in doing fairly small runs of promotional goods - not the hundreds or thousands that big firms expect as a minimum order - so we work for people all over the country who want something a bit different."
* Wensleydale Pottery, off the Market Place, Hawes, Tel: (01969) 667594. Open Monday to Saturday 10am-5.30pm, also currently open on Sundays as a result of the foot-and-mouth crisis. "If people have made the effort to come up and see us, we'll try and open for them." But better check first.
Published: Friday, April 27, 2001
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