Rye Pottery

History

The Rye pottery has its origins in a pottery and brickworks at Cadborough Farm, just to the west of the town of Rye. In the early 19th century, Jeremiah Smith, the owner of the farm, put William Mitchell in charge of the pottery. The clay used was dug in the farm itself.

Mitchell was in charge of the pottery by 1834, and had bought the business from Smith by 1840. He was assisted by his two sons, Henry and Frederick. Frederick, along with another potter called William Watson, developed a style of applied relief decoration, which was to become characteristic of the firm's production. In 1869, Frederick Mitchell moved production of the decorative ware to new premises in Ferry Road Rye, called the Belle Vue pottery, while more functional products continued to be made at Cadborough, by William Mitchell, and after his death in 1870 by Frederick's brother Henry.

The products of the Belle Vue Pottery were sold under the name the trade name of Sussex Rustic Ware. The relief decoration on the ware represented hops - an important local crop - or leaves and flowers. Another product, which was also made at Cadborough Pottery, was the "Sussex Pig", a vessel of porcine form, with the detachable head serving as a cup.

After Frederick's death in 1875, the business was carried on by his widow Caroline, assisted by William Watson. When Caroline Mitchell died in 1896, the pottery was taken over by her husband's nephew, also called Frederick. It was inherited by his wife, Edith in 1920, and sold to Ella Mills in 1930. The products remained little changed until the closure of the pottery with the outbreak of war in 1939.

In 1947 the Belle Vue Pottery was bought and reopened by the brothers Walter Cole (1913–1999) and John Cole. Immediately before this, Walter Cole had been on the staff of the Council for Industrial Design, and had also taught on the Central School's Industrial Design course. In the 1930s the brothers had produced both stoneware and earthenware at a kiln they had built at Plumstead.

At Rye, the Cole brothers decided to make earthenware, which gave the possibility of brighter look and a wider range of colours than the stoneware popular with most craft potters at the time. They produced both one-off exhibition pieces, and more practical domestic ware.

Walter Cole's son Tarquin took over the running of the pottery in 1978.

References

References

1. Bergesen, Victoria, ''Bergesen's Price Guide: British Ceramics'', pp. 224-225, 1992, Barrie & Jenkins, {{ISBN. 0712653821
2. "Potteries in Rye". Rye Castle Museum.
3. (1878). "Ceramic Art of Great Britain". Virtue.
4. Emmanuel Cooper. (28 January 1999). "Obituary: Walter Cole". The Independent.
5. "Rye Pottery: nearly 250 years of collectability". Rye Museum.
6. (1999). "Miller's twentieth-century ceramics: a collector's guide to British and North American factory-produced ceramics". Mitchell Beazley.