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  • Hornsea Pottery Art Trail
  • Home
  • Your Visit
    • Plan your Visit
    • Travel Information
    • Museum Description
    • Museum Map
    • Terms & Conditions
  • Events
    • Museum Events
    • Regular Activities
    • Event Hire
  • Museum Shop
  • Groups & Schools
    • Groups
    • Schools
  • Jobs
    • Volunteers
    • Vacancies
    • Trustees
  • Galleries
    • Objects of the Month >
      • March 2022
      • February 2022
      • January 2022
      • November 2021
      • September 2021
      • August 2021
      • July 2021
      • June 2021
      • May 2021
      • April 2021
    • Aerial Views
    • Hornsea of Old
    • Hornsea Town >
      • Market Place
      • Newbegin
      • Eastgate
      • Westgate
      • Southgate
      • Cliff Road
      • Atwick Road
    • Seafront
    • The Mere
    • The Railway
  • Hornsea Pottery Art Trail

POTTER ABOUT HORNSEA

Heritage on the High Street
A Potted History
Potter About Hornsea is a public art trail celebrating Hornsea Pottery, a major employer in the town from the 1950s to the year 2000. 
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Hornsea Area Regeneration Partnership commissioned artist Adele Howitt to create a series of artworks for the town inspired by the pottery's people, processes and designs.  To accompany this, local poet Mary Aherne has produced a collection of poems. 

The trail takes inspiration from the people, innovative processes and unique designs.   

The pottery had a humble start.  In 1949 Desmond Rawson created plaster-of-Paris models in his scullery to sell to Hornsea's rising number of visitors.  His brother joined him and the two made the decision to risk everything to start a business making affordable homeware and giftware in clay.  Despite a number of barriers including the brother's lack of fuel and a small work force, the pottery went on to achieve global success.  The company prided itself on its innovation and excellence in design, receiving several Design Council awards.   

At its height, Hornsea Pottery employed 700 people over two sites in Hornsea and Lancaster.  It attracted world-class designers who created the class award-winning designs.   
Potter About Hornsea 
Follow the Public Art Trail and rediscover Hornsea Pottery's iconic designs.
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The involvement of the local community has been key to the art trail project and a series of exhibitions were held across the town to seek people's views on the proposed designs.  Hornsea School and Language College students have worked with ex-employees of Hornsea Pottery and Adele Howitt and Mary Aherne to explore the memories and stories from the factory and create original poetry which has been incorporated in the park artwork at the corner of Willows Drive.
​

Following the delivery of the heritage craft and design workshops a teaching resource for key stage 3 and 4 students has been developed and can be accessed by clicking on the links below.
Key Stage 3/4 Lesson Plan: Teachers_pack_2.pdf (639 KB)
File Size: 638 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Resource: Lines_and_Charisma_Leaves_for_Brick.pdf (52 KB)
File Size: 52 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Resource: Templates_for_Bricks.pdf (158 KB)
File Size: 158 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

​As holder of the world's largest collection of Hornsea Pottery, Hornsea Museum have been a key partner throughout the development of the public art trail, offering their expert guidance, advice and volunteer time which has been essential in helping the art trail to become an exciting addition to Hornsea's high street.
​

Pottery Poetry by Mary Aherne 
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The Artisan Garden 
Welcome, visitors, to Hornsea’s Pocket Garden, 
little haven of tranquillity on Newbegin. 
Take your time and, most importantly, look down, 


explore the bricked floor beneath your feet. 
What are these shapes and symbols, these shards? Repeating 
​rows of flowers and leaf motifs compete 


with staring fish-eyes, scores of vertical lines. 
This is no ordinary garden. It has designs 
on you; asks you to contemplate the world of calcined 

kaolin, of moulds; the chore of sponging and fettling, 
and just how jolly was the job of  jiggering and jolleying? 
To imagine the Pottery worker’s day, feathering 
contrasting coloured bands of slip on clay. 


4 Victoria Avenue 
An old Victorian terrace near the sea front, 
that’s where it started. Two brothers modelling 
plaster-of-Paris ‘fancies’ in the scullery to sell 
as souvenirs to Hornsea’s rising tide of tourists. 
It’s 1949, and everyone’s still reeling, dealing 
with the aftermath of war: CC41 utility clothing, 
power cuts, meals of spam and snoek, 
fresh meat rations down to 10d a week. 
Bombed out and bankrupt – not 
the most auspicious time to start a pottery. 
A second-hand kiln, size of a biscuit tin, 
was installed in the coal store and when fired 
it melted the butter in the adjoining pantry. 
Now they were cooking, working with clay. 
Soon posy troughs, pink elephants, clogs, 
Tommy Twaddle and Sam Thatcher Toby jugs 
filled the shelves in the old wash-house. 
Colin modelled while Desmond delivered 
these quirky bits and bobs in his old banger. 
Those early days recorded in black and white: 
serious men in overalls shaping moulds, 
a young chap who cycled every day 
from Beverley kept busy mixing clay 
by hand in an old tin bucket. Listen! 
You can almost hear the purr of the Catterson 
Smith, white-hot heart of the Hornsea Pottery. 

Sprayers, Jolleyers, Spongers and Fettlers

Sprayers, jolleyers, spongers and fettlers recall 
the glory days when pottery put Hornsea 
on the map. Geoff the jolleyer made between 
three and five thousand mugs a day. 
Tony the mould maker earned a fiver a week, 
12/6 more that he got delivering groceries 
for the Co-op. May loved spraying the fauna, 
and then the Elegance. Sprayed a gold leaf 
on some special ashtrays for Hull Brewery. 
Herbert’s first job was on the biscuit kiln 
and ‘the girls’ were busy sponging and fettling. 
John drove the kids round in the minibus 
while Joan led tours, sold seconds 
in the factory shop. All of Lydia’s family 
worked there – Mum and Dad and sister Ruth. 
Dad pulled pints in the ‘Good Companions’ club; 
Mum had her own plate-making machine. 
What Lydia loved was jolleying, while friend 
Jean stuck handles on the mugs hour after hour 
all day long with spits of slip and a little brush. 
Went like clockwork. You had to be quick.
​
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Below is a poem written by Hornsea School and Language Student, Quinlan Gillespie, about the Pottery: 
​

In a dark brown box a forgotten treasure lies in the murky cellar, 
Trying to find a new light to quench the darkness, 
Looking for a friend to help out with its burden 
And reminiscing the height of its life 

At the beginning, the crown jewel of a extremely large collection, 
The famous Israelite Statue the only one of its kind 
No one could tell what terrors were to unfold 
The crash of the business, the debt and the depression 

A dreamer looking to the future 
Because it knows that it’s going to reclaim its former glory 
This is why I tell this story 
To help the fantasy become reality. 
Quinlan Gillespie
To find out more about Hornsea Pottery visit Hornsea Museum
​www.hornseamuseum.co.uk
Permission to use Hornsea Pottery Designs has been agreed by Hornsea Pottery Intellectual Property Ltd.
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