![Part of the famous T G Green Factory - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Part_of_the_famous_T_G_Green_Factory_-_geograph.org.uk_-_28040.jpg)
Cornishware is a striped kitchenware brand trademarked to and manufactured by T.G. Green & Co Ltd.
Originally introduced in the 1920s and manufactured in
Church Gresley
Church Gresley is a large village and former civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England. The village is situated between Castle Gresley and the town of Swadlincote, with which it is contiguous. By the time of the 2011 ...
, Derbyshire, it was a huge success for the company and in the succeeding 30 years it was exported around the world.
The company ceased production in June 2007 when the factory closed under the ownership of parent company
The Tabletop Group.
The range was revived in 2009 after T.G. Green was bought by a trio of British investors.
Name
The name "Cornish Kitchen Ware" was said to have come from an observation by a T.G Green salesmen that the blue colour used to decorate the dishware reminded him of the sky and sea in
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
. However, the T.G.Green Museum have now disproved this as travel to Cornwall from Church Gresley at that time was virtually impossible. Cornwall was however the initial source for the clay to make the blue slip applied to the pottery.
History
T.G. Green & Co was founded by Thomas Goodwin Green of
Boston, Lincolnshire
Boston is a market town and inland port in the borough of the same name in the county of Lincolnshire, England. Boston is north of London, north-east of Peterborough, east of Nottingham, south-east of Lincoln, south-southeast of Hul ...
in around 1864.
[Cornish Ware , Atterbury , Paul , 2001 , Cornish Ware & domestic pottery by T.G. Green of Church Gresley, Derbyshire , Richard Denis , ] Having made a fortune in Australia, Green returned to England to marry Mary Tenniel, the sister of ''
Punch
Punch commonly refers to:
* Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist
* Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice
Punch may also refer to:
Places
* Pun ...
'' and ''
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creature ...
'' illustrator Sir
John Tenniel
Sir John Tenniel (; 28 February 182025 February 1914)Johnson, Lewis (2003), "Tenniel, John", ''Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online'', Oxford University Press. Web. Retrieved 12 December 2016. was an English illustrator, graphic humorist and poli ...
. He bought an existing pottery in
Church Gresley
Church Gresley is a large village and former civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England. The village is situated between Castle Gresley and the town of Swadlincote, with which it is contiguous. By the time of the 2011 ...
from Henry Wileman, while on honeymoon in
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
Places Australia
* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
* Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong
* Scarborough, Queensland, su ...
[
]
The exact date that Cornishware was created is vague, but it is known to have been introduced by Frederick Parker who joined Green's as a General Manager in 1919. Initially he introduced E-Blue Banded Wares, selling in china shops in 1922. The earliest mention of Cornishware by name is in a T.G. Green Trade Catalogue dated 1923. By the 1930s, the range was well established with a thriving export business. The pottery was widely sold throughout the UK through major department stores and independent shops.
Cornishware stockists carried a standard range of lettered jars, such as flour, sugar, salt, currants, sultanas, raisins, tea and coffee, but purchasers could request jars with customised wording (for instance, paprika, arrowroot, thyme, mace, viota, macaroni). The retailer would then send a request slip to the factory and customised jars would be created then sent back to the store. T.G. Green never kept records of these requests, so there is no complete list of customised jar produced.
The signature colour was referred to as 'E.blue' – meaning electric blue.[ and in 1959 Sunlit Yellow was introduced to the range. In the 1960s new designers were brought in from the ]Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...
– Scandinavian designer Berit Ternell and, most notably, Judith Onions. She restyled the Cornishware range to give it the distinctive shapes that are still in use today.[ Some of Onions' designs are held in the V&A collection, as part of the Ceramics Study Galleries.]
Cornishware today
After the Church Gresley factory closed in 2007, designer Perry Haydn Taylor
Perry Haydn Taylor (born 1966) is an English creative director, designer and entrepreneur, who lives in Somerset and works in London. He is the founder and "chief stoker" of Big Fish Design, a brand, design and marketing consultancy.
Career
Hayd ...
and 'lifelong admirers' Charles Rickards and Paul Burston restored the brand.
Today the new T.G.Green produces a range of Cornishware products in various colours, including the traditional blue and white stripes.
Original vintage Cornishware is highly collectible, with pieces in black, green, orange, yellow, red, and blue pieces with rare lettering, selling for particularly high prices.
A number of active Facebook groups as well as Pinterest sites and the appearance of Cornishware on many British television shows, ranging from ''The Great British Bake Off
''The Great British Bake Off'' (often abbreviated to ''Bake Off'' or ''GBBO'') is a British television baking competition, produced by Love Productions, in which a group of amateur bakers compete against each other in a series of rounds, atte ...
'' to '' The Young Ones'' have kept Cornishware very much in the public eye and still very popular to this day. Cornishware was extensively used in the 2015 film adaptation of Alan Bennett's ''The Lady in the Van
''The Lady in the Van'' is a 2015 British comedy-drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner, and starring Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings, based on the memoir of the same name created by Alan Bennett. It was written by Bennett, and it tells the (most ...
''.
Lifetime collector Iain M Hambling who began collecting Cornishware in 1991 is the Official Historian & Archivist for Cornishware. After a working association with the four previous parent companies Iain now runs the Archive Office in Church Gresley
Church Gresley is a large village and former civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England. The village is situated between Castle Gresley and the town of Swadlincote, with which it is contiguous. By the time of the 2011 ...
and continually builds the online virtual museum recreating the missing catalogues of patterns.
References
{{reflist, 2
External links
Official Website
Historian & Archivists Website
T.G.Green Online Museum
History of T.G.Green on YouTube
Ceramics manufacturers of England
Companies based in Derbyshire
Kitchenware brands
English pottery