The Coxwold Pottery was set up in 1965 by potters Peter and Jill Dick and operated for nearly 40 years, before closing in 2012. 

The Pottery produced a distinctive style of ‘country’ pottery, mostly decorated slipware, including kitchenware, tableware, planters and commemorative pieces.

The site was located on land that was originally a dairy barn with an orchard. Peter and Jill converted the site into a pottery, with a showroom, workshops and a kiln.

Most of their pottery was thrown on the wheel and fired in a wood-fired kiln, a method that Peter had first experienced while working with Michael Cardew in Abuja, Nigeria in the early 1960s. Perhaps unusually, he designed and built the kiln himself. Though hugely labour intensive, needing an all-night firing, the wood-fired kiln produced beautiful results. The ash in the kiln landing on the pottery gave a special mottled effect to the largely brown and yellow glazes.

Peter’s early experience and training was with major figures in the Studio Pottery world, having worked alongside two of the most iconic figures in 20th century UK studio pottery, Michael Cardew in Nigeria and then with Ray Finch at Winchcombe Pottery in the Cotswolds.

Peter was described by the noted pottery expert John Mathieson in 2010: “Peter Dick is the most underrated and neglected of all British potters. His generosity of form, the warmth of his glazes (especially from the wood-firing), and the exceptional quality of his slip trailing and brushwork mark him as an outstanding artist.”

Jill Dick, an artist and noted potter in her own right. Having studied art at Gloucestershire College of Art, she established her own small pottery in Winchcombe before she and Peter married and moved to Coxwold. Latterly, she favoured a freer form of decoration and made more individual pieces using celadon glazes in a gas kiln.

As well as selling their pottery through the showroom in Coxwold, Peter and Jill exhibited their pottery in many galleries and exhibitions. They also sold through outlets such as the Elizabeth David shop, Harrods and the Craftsman Potters Shop in Soho, London.

Through the 1960s to 1980s, Peter and Jill contributed significantly to the growing UK Studio Pottery movement through their involvement with the Craft Potters Association and the Northern Potters Association. They took part in pottery demonstrations and meetings. They also wrote and published a number of articles, both about their Coxwold pottery and slipware techniques, in esteemed journals such as ‘Ceramic Review’. They also greatly encouraged trainee potters and had many apprentices and assistants working with them.

Source: Coxwold Village Website