Bovey Tracey Potteries
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The Bovey Tracey Potteries were a collection of potteries in the
Bovey Tracey Bovey Tracey () is a small town and civil parish in Devon, England, on the edge of Dartmoor, its proximity to which gives rise to the "slogan" used on the town's boundary signs, "The Gateway to the Moor". It is often known locally as "Bovey". ...
area of
Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, based on the clay from the
Bovey Basin The Bovey Formation is a deposit of sands, clays and lignite, probably over 1000 feet thick. It lies in a sedimentary basin termed the Bovey Basin which extends from Bovey Tracey to Newton Abbot in South Devon, England. The Bovey Basin lies ...
. Pottery making developed in the area developed on an industrial scale from around 1750 and lasted for around 200 years under various owners and names.


History

Pottery is known to have been produced in the area since the early part of the 18th century as a kiln containing several unfinished and kiln-damaged saltglazed pots dated from 1760 was discovered in 1932 in Fore Street, Bovey Tracey. The kiln has since been moved to The Bovey Tracey Heritage Centre and the pots to The Bovey Pottery Museum where they can be seen on display. Lord
William Courtenay William Courtenay ( 134231 July 1396) was Archbishop of Canterbury (1381–1396), having previously been Bishop of Hereford and Bishop of London. Early life and education Courtenay was a younger son of Hugh de Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon ( ...
,
Earl of Devon Earl of Devon was created several times in the English peerage, and was possessed first (after the Norman Conquest of 1066) by the de Redvers (''alias'' de Reviers, Revieres, etc.) family, and later by the Courtenay family. It is not to be co ...
opened a
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
and lignite (brown coal) pit in 1750 at what has come to be known at Blue Waters near Bovey Tracey. Referred to as the "coal adventure" in the pottery industry at the time, several potters from Staffordshire moved to the area to make use of the raw materials and avoid transportation costs but the coal was not of sufficient quality to produce the quality of pottery desired. This was documented by Jeremiah Milles,
Dean of Exeter The Dean of Exeter is the head of the Chapter of Cathedral Church of Saint Peter in Exeter, England. The chapter was established by William Briwere, Bishop of Exeter (1224–44) who set up the offices of dean and chancellor of Exeter Cathedr ...
at the time, who said: "the Bovey coal… was not of a heat intense enough to answer the purpose".


Known potteries

The best-known potteries at Bovey Tracey included The Indeo Pottery, The Folly Pottery, The Bovey Tracey Pottery Company and The Bovey Pottery Company Limited, covering a period from 1766 to 1999.


The Indeo Pottery (1766-1836)

In 1766 Nicholas Crisp, a London businessman, moved to Bovey Heathfield (the town which would later come to be known as
Bovey Tracey Bovey Tracey () is a small town and civil parish in Devon, England, on the edge of Dartmoor, its proximity to which gives rise to the "slogan" used on the town's boundary signs, "The Gateway to the Moor". It is often known locally as "Bovey". ...
), bringing with him the backing of other investors and several key workers. He established a new company for the manufacture of porcelain and pottery at Indeo House. Indeo Pottery were well known for their
Saltglaze Salt-glaze or salt glaze pottery is pottery, usually stoneware, with a glaze of glossy, translucent and slightly orange-peel-like texture which was formed by throwing common salt into the kiln during the higher temperature part of the firing pr ...
,
Creamware Creamware is a cream-coloured refined earthenware with a lead glaze over a pale body, known in France as '' faïence fine'', in the Netherlands as ''Engels porselein'', and in Italy as ''terraglia inglese''.Osborne, 140 It was created about 17 ...
and Pearlware Tea Canisters inscribed with owners names, but within 2 years the company was declared bankrupt. In 1772 William Ellis, a local potter, raised enough funds to re-establish the Indeo Pottery. The company lasted under various partnerships until 1836.


The Folly Pottery (1801-1836)

In 1801 a new pottery was built in Bovey as a direct competitor to the nearby Indeo Pottery. This new company underwent several changes, until 1820 when it became popularly known as "The Folly Pottery" due to "the failure of different particulars". This name was eventually adopted and used in official documentation. The Honeychurch family, who had taken over the business in 1805, continued to run it until 1836 when business declined. The Folly Pottery was one of the largest potteries in the west of England, employing at one stage up to 50 people across various pottery-making trades all undertaken at the same site, unlike most other potteries of the time.


The Bovey Tracey Pottery Company (1843-1894)

In 1827 both The Indeo Pottery and The Folly Pottery were "in a state of insolvency due to bad management" and in 1835 the Honeychurch family were declared bankrupt. The premises were saved from a state of dereliction and revived in 1843 by Buller, Divett and Company. Their landlord, the Earl of Devon, rented it under the condition that "not less than £400" be spent on erecting new buildings and a kiln, and by 1851 there were 300 employees, who were said to be producing "earthenware equal in quality and design to the best Staffordshire wares". The pottery was well known for Mess Ware commissioned for use on Naval Ships, as well as presentation mugs and clotted cream jars. The pottery continued to run successfully until 1885 when it was taken over by new management and saw a steady decline until worker strikes led to the eventual closure in 1894.


The Bovey Pottery Company Limited (1894-1957 and 1994-1999)

Following the closure of The Bovey Pottery Company, a creditor intervened to ensure the pottery was incorporated under the directorship of Bristol-based pottery, T.B Johnson. The company's fortunes declined due to several challenges including the depression, loss of workers to the war effort and union strikes, and closed in 1957. The pottery was best known for Commemorative cups, Dartmoor Ware and a collection of porcelain figurines called 'Our Gang' including representations of
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
,
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
and
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
. Pottery making was briefly resurrected under The Bovey Pottery Company Limited in 1994 by House of Marbles, who occupy the site in the present day. New products were in the style of 1930s Dartmoor Ware but the venture only lasted for six years until 1999 when it was decided to focus on the other more profitable industries of games and glass.


Further points of note


Wedgwood

Josiah Wedgwood Josiah Wedgwood (12 July 1730 – 3 January 1795) was an English potter, entrepreneur and abolitionist. Founding the Wedgwood company in 1759, he developed improved pottery bodies by systematic experimentation, and was the leader in the indus ...
visited The Indeo Pottery on 31 May 1775, commenting "it is a poor trifling concern, and conducted in a wretched slovenly manner. We carry their clay and flints from Devonshire into Staffordshire, there manufacture them into ware, and send it back to their own doors better and cheaper than they can make it!".


Wemyss Ware

The production of Wemyss Ware moved to The Bovey Tracey Pottery Company Limited with Joseph Nekola (son of original decorator Karel Nekola) in 1930 following the closure of the original Fife pottery during the Great Depression. Nekola trained several apprentices at The Bovey Tracey Potteries during his term, including Esther Weeks (née Clark) who took over as head decorator after his death in 1952. The production of Wemyss Ware ended at this site in 1957 after protracted workforce strikes forced closure.


Plichta

In 1939 Jan Plichta, an exporter and wholesaler of china and pottery, began to purchase goods from The Bovey Tracey Pottery with his own "Plichta" stamp. Some but not all of the items produced under the Plichta stamp at The Bovey Tracey Potteries were made by Wemyss Ware decorators, leading to confusion over identification of pottery in subsequent years. The exporting of goods abroad was one of the few ways for the country to raise much needed revenue for Britain during World War II, as production of decorative ware was otherwise prohibited during the wartime era, except for the purpose of export.


Bovey Tracey railway station

Bovey Railway Station Bovey railway station sometimes known as Bovey for Ilsington was on the Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway at Bovey Tracey, Devon, England. The station was built on the west side of the town, opening on 4 July 1866. Two platforms were p ...
was built in the 1860s as part of the Exeter to Plymouth line, branching off through Moretonhampstead. It is thought that the train station was brought to the town due to investment by The Bovey Tracey Pottery Company, but in any case the pottery certainly used the line in order to easily transport its wares to other areas of the country, as evidenced by the siding at the site.


Present day

The buildings of the former potteries based on Pottery Road were acquired by a company called House of Marbles in 1990 for the manufacture and distribution of games and glassware. The company houses The Bovey Pottery Museum with many items produced at the Bovey Potteries on display. There are also three muffle
kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...
s on the site that are protected as
scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
s. They are one of just two sites left in the UK where muffle kilns (also referred to as enamel kilns) can be found, the other site being at
Gladstone Pottery Museum The Gladstone Pottery Museum is a working museum of a medium-sized coal-fired pottery, typical of those once common in the North Staffordshire area of England from the time of the industrial revolution in the 18th century to the mid 20th cent ...
in Stoke-on-Trent


References


Sources

* * {{Cite book, title=A Potwork in Devonshire: The History and Products of the Bovey Tracey Potteries 1750-1836 , last1=Adams , first1=Brian , last2=Thomas , first2=Anthony , publisher=Sayce Publishing , year=1996 , location=Bovey Tracey , isbn=978-0952739203


External links

* http://www.houseofmarbles.com/about/family-fun-devon/what-to-see/7/ * https://www.bonhams.com/search/?q=bovey%20pottery&main_index_key=lot#/q0=bovey%2520pottery&MR0_display=search&m0=0?q=bovey%2Bpottery * http://www.bowporcelain.net/ * https://boveytraceyhistory.org.uk/topics/a-project-to-collect-pottery-from-gardens-in-bovey-tracey-frances-has-been-researching-our-local-history-and-we-found-ourselves-wondering-if-pottery-finds-from-local-gardens-could-provide-a-further-in/ Devonian pottery Ceramics manufacturers of England History of Devon Bovey Tracey