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| Captain Nemo at the wheel |
Having your own personal pottery facilities is expensive and requires a huge amount of space. So at the Old Forge Pottery, 33A Newland Street, Eynsham, 10 potters rent the building collectively and share the workshop, wheels, drying racks and kilns. It's not a shop and it's often open to the public so the Eynsham Winter Artweekend is a rare opportunity to see what goes on inside.
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| Potter Adrian Moyes |
The pottery was the brainchild of Eynsham residents Adrian Moyes (
pictured with two of his creations) and his wife Sue Raikes.
"The Old Forge building was not being used, so when we went to have a look at it, we were amazed to see that the actual old forge fireplace, including bellows and flue were still intact! "A nice rough working space like this was just perfect for us and so in 2006 the The Old Forge Pottery began life," says Adrian.
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| The Old Forge Pottery |
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| The old forge itself |
From the outside the building looks pretty unprepossessing, but inside it's full of history and creativity. Indeed, the story goes that it was at the old forge that Cromwell's (and perhaps Charles I's too) horses were shod in the 1640s.
Isn't it good to think that a building once used by the village farrier and blacksmith is still used by local craftspeople to make useful and beautiful things?
