Vale of Evesham School

I was pleased to welcome back my old friends from the Vale of Evesham Special School to the Pottery. Once a year the staff bring around ten students for a clay session and picnic (back in the 90's I used to visit the school every Thursday to work with the Upper school in their purpose-built pottery room).

We started by passing around examples of my work for the students to experience. After chatting about clay, inspiration and techniques, I gave a demo on the potter's wheel. The thrown pot quickly evolved into a beautiful collaborative owl with everybody making feathers and features to stick on.

I regularly pose the question "where does clay come from?"..."Redditch!" came the spontaneous answer from a very knowledgeable lad who then explained the derivative -"Red-Ditch" - presumably clay pits where the material would have been excavated? You learn something new every day!