Donyatt Potteries

I have just bought a jug on ebay that originated from the donyatt area , I know there were a few kilns around there for donkeys yrs , mine comes from the Horton area , does anyone know when that pottery closed ?I believe the last in the whole area was 1945 , but a few closed well before that , dating is difficult when not marked , I can find many puzzle jugs etc on the net but this slightly different , it's a lidded jug in the form of a woman .

From what I can find there seems to have been 3 significant potteries in the Donyatt area.

The first of these was at Whitney Bottom that was most active in the 17th/18th century and closed around 1750. However, pottery seems to have been revived there in the 19th century but closed well before 1900. Remains of an old kiln seem to have been used for burning rubbish in around 1920.

Then there was the Crock Street Pottery that was run by three generations of the Rogers family, with all the potters named James. That closed in 1900.

That leaves the Pit Pottery, which I am assuming is the Horton one. I know that it was still working in 1910 under a potter named Caleb Arlidge and I must therefore assume that it was that pottery that remained open until 1945.

Thanks SP , I'll definitely have a look at that cheers , info is thin on the ground apart from a very expensive book , so the latest my piece will be 1945 but I reckon earlier , I'll post when I get it in the post .

Here's a link an item made at the Pit Pottery in 1910 in the Glaisher Collection at the Fitzwilliam Museum.

http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/opac/search/cataloguedetail.html?&priref=72593&_function_=xslt&_limit_=10

There are other items from Donyatt in the collection too.

As Brin Might say WOW! , they are amazing pots , I love that sort of stuff , give me that and contemporary studio and I'm a happy bunny .

Apparently the Curtis Museum and Allen Gallery in Alton has examples. I'll have to pay another visit.

http://www.burtonartgallery.co.uk/index.php/collections/gallery/pots/P40

you may like to look through this collection a few Donyatts as well as many others

big ed wrote:http://www.burtonartgallery.co.uk/index.php/collections/gallery/pots/P40

you may like to look through this collection a few Donyatts as well as many others

I saw many of these and handled a few the first time I went to see the painter, R.J. (Reg) Lloyd, who had built up much of the collection from the 1950s onwards. He told me that many came from house clearances, as he became known in the trade as the person who would buy the old pots no-one else wanted!

https://www.20thcenturyforum.com/t11485-r-j-lloyd-artist-and-collector

Amazing collection John , As For Being Known as "The person who would buy the old pots no-one else wanted! shows what a blimmin' good eye he had then , is he still around ?

He's 88 and has been ill recently but he still lives in Bideford.

He was always a wheeler/dealer as well as being an artist.

thanks , sounds like he's enjoyed life to the full .

.................... and his second wife is younger than you!

I feel everybody's younger than me

Donyatt Pottery puzzle jug by Doug Back, c.1970-80s

http://paulthepotter.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/donyatt-pots.html?m=1