Latest pictures of our work day HERE
About
Clay Hill Potters is a group of more than 35 pottery enthusiasts and the club name comes from an adjoining hill called Clay Hill.
Many of us at one time attended pottery classes at the Five Acres College near Berry Hill, Coleford.
In 2007 the College closed their pottery course and we were in the fortunate position to be able to buy the equipment from them. We were very generously offered a fine set of single story barns in a beautiful location overlooking the River Severn near Newnham on Severn. We transported all the things we had bought across the Forest of Dean to our new home.
We not only brought the kilns, wheels, pug mills, cabinets, tables, chairs, but we hired our teacher Joan Doherty too.
After some initial work by professionals to do the the floor and the wiring, over the following twelve months a core group of volunteers met most weekends to finish the project. People like Geoff Jennings and Rod Melville were key to getting the job done, but there were others too who made important contributions. You can see pictures of the work we did on our 'History' page. We held our first class on 16th September 2008.
So now we run our own classes and continue to learn how to make pots under Joan's instruction. We use many types of clay including, stoneware, earthenware, porcelain and crank. Sometimes we have a raku firing.
Many of our members seem to be very good cooks, and there is often a good excuse to have a gathering. This can happen any time but usually at a workday, raku firing or after our AGM around Christmas time.
Over the years we have been able to add to our equipment so that we can cater for a wide variety of making types. We now have 5 electric kilns, a gas kiln, 6 or 7 wheels, a slab roller, an extruder and two pug mills.
More recently we have taken on a resident potter Derek Lamb. Derek started life in Stoke on Trent and seems to have clay in his bones! He has his own studio, but is on hand most days to offer expert advice as well as run some of our classes.
Other resumés will be published here when they become available.
Over the years we have been fortunate to have been given demonstrations by some very well known professional potters, such as:-
Back in the summer of 2011 we were able to make our facilities available to a Owen Maseko a visiting potter from Zimbabwe. You can see an example of his work amongst our photos.
