We are all aware of Bideford’s outstanding pottery heritage, but it is not very evident in the town or celebrated publicly. A Millenium project a generation ago sought to remedy this by constructing a replica bottle kiln in Victoria Park, next to the Burton Art Gallery. Although it was somewhat smaller than the many kilns which, from the seventeenth century onwards, marked Bideford as a pottery town, it was built as a working kiln and can accommodate quite a big collection of pots. 

In the 2000s, and up to about 2014, Firing Events took place involving both professional potters and projects from schools. These were public events, taking place over more than a week. First, the pots needed to be set in the kiln, then came the tricky business of firing the oven, which had to be fed and tended over a period of twelve hours. Finally, a week later, there was a grand opening ceremony and a chance to admire the finished products. It was a moment of tension for the potters, because there was no guarantee that all pieces would come out properly. 

Now there are plans afoot to revive the event. The kiln has lain semi-abandoned for some years now and will need an overhaul, not to mention a safety check, but time is needed anyway to plan the event. It could attract professional potters from across the south west as well as being a magnificent showcase for the creativity in our local area. 

The height of Bideford’s pottery trade was the late seventeenth century, when hundreds of thousands of items were exported annually to Wales, Ireland, and North America. Pieces of North Devon pottery have been found in Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland, where they are prized items in museums. The pottery industry was very closely associated with the tobacco trade, as ships going out with pottery would return with tobacco, providing the profits which built so many of our most signficant heritage buildings. 

There were eight kilns operating in Bideford in 1823, five of which occupied ‘Pottery Lane’ from Mill Street to North Road. In East the Water, Pottery Corner, on Torrington Lane, was the largest kiln in North Devon, as photos from the 1920s illustrate. It is also believed that the name ‘Pollyfield’ is derived from a ‘Pottery Field’ shown on a nineteenth century map. 

Bideford’s pottery heritage is part of its distinctiveness. We would do well to promote it more.