Bell House Pottery - The First Year - A Volunteer’s View

It’s August. The first year of the pottery’s life is completed, and it is closed and quiet for a month whilst tutors have a well-earned rest.  

I say ‘quiet’ but I doubt it has been quiet at all. There is always something going on at the pottery - work never seems to stop. I’m sure tutors are, in fact, getting ready for September, and I see that a lovely new forecourt has been installed since classes stopped for the summer.

I started as a volunteer before the building of the studio was even completed so I have seen it transformed from a roofless structure to the beautiful, airy space it has become. There are further developments to look forward to all the time, such as new garden planting nearby and outdoor seating to enjoy in the future months.

My role, which I fell into almost by accident, has turned out to be interesting and rewarding. Becoming part of the Bell House Pottery Committee has meant working with a talented and committed group which believes in the importance and value of individual creativity, and in providing opportunities for people to be involved in a practical and personal way. Through the bursary places and the ‘Let’s clay together’ programme there are free or low-cost courses available to people in the community who could not otherwise afford it. I have found the effort and commitment of those who envisaged the project and are now leading it, very impressive.

The tasks I have helped with might sound mundane in some ways: taking minutes at the monthly planning meetings; putting forward a volunteer’s point of view; being an extra adult helper at some classes; helping in practical ways or at open events. However the volunteer role has given me the opportunity to think about things new to me, and to meet an entirely new set of people. I’ve even enjoyed mopping the floors after a few particularly messy courses, thanks to the friendly conversations with tutors and participants while clearing up is going on.  As a former teacher, I’ve particularly liked seeing young people having great fun while trying a new skill which is not available in every school. 

Highlights of the year for me have been the opening of the pottery studio itself, the enthusiasm of people for the place and the courses, the hundreds of visitors during Dulwich Open House, and the Christmas events and party. 

I’ve also sampled some of the courses myself. First a two hour taster session, which many people reading this will have tried. I went along with two friends. There was much laughter at the time and even more when we collected our pots - they were tiny - but at least they looked as if they were intended to be pots!

Then I tried two evening sessions involving using slip and decoration techniques. I managed to make some small but passable pots. I began to think that some of my mother’s genes had been passed down to me. Pottery was her hobby and consequently I never thought to try it out. Encouraged by my first ‘magnificent’ pieces, I booked taster sessions for my family as a Christmas present. However they wanted me to come too. We all know the expression “Pride comes before a fall”.  My nephew seemed naturally talented and threw several successful pieces first time. I could not produce a single pot that day! They would all have gone into Brymer Jones’ reject bucket, so I saved him the trouble and threw them in myself. But it was a great Christmas present for us all to enjoy together.

After such dismal failure will I go back again?

Even as a beginner, there is something absorbing, fascinating and even therapeutic in the process of handling clay. Sometimes the pots seem to want to build themselves, it feels natural, but that day the clay seemed to resist my efforts to create anything at all recognisable, except a mess.

I have to go back to face the challenge.

I want two vaguely similar soup bowls by the end of this year.

Jacqui Pick, Aug 2024

Theft at Bell House

On Saturday 2 December 1769, Thomas Wright was the victim of theft in his new house at Dulwich. James Simpson was accused of stealing a woollen coat, value twenty shillings. Wright’s coachman, Rubon Cannicot, gave evidence at the Old Bailey:

The coachhouse where the theft took place

‘I am coachman to Thomas Wright; he lives at Dulwich; our coach was locked up, and the great coat on the coach box. The key was left in the door, on the outside; the yard gate was all fast, and the yard is walled all round; whoever got the coat must get over the wall. I know nothing of the prisoner, I never saw him to my knowledge before I saw him here at the bar, it, (the coat) was missing last Saturday morning.’

Was this the coat stolen from Thomas?

Simpson took the coat to Cheapside, offering it to a clothes-dealer called Hugh Riley. Riley and Simpson then went to a pub in Paternoster-row where Riley offered Simpson fourteen shillings for the coat but would not pay until Simpson could prove it was his to sell. Riley was also a watchman for the City police force and becoming suspicious the coat was stolen, took Simpson to the lord mayor. Rubon Cannicot (the coachman) accurately described the coat to the lord mayor ‘before he saw it’. The prisoner’s defence:

‘My brother was a coachman; I had this coat of him; he was coachman to Mr Hutchinson in Southampton. I offered it to this man; (I) am bricklayer; my brother has been dead some time; I am a Guernsey man.’

Simpson was found guilty and transported to the American colonies. Simpson must have reflected on his bad luck that when he stole a coat five miles from London he then tried to sell it a stone’s throw from Thomas Wright’s business, a place where its livery was likely to be recognised and that the person he offered it to was a member of the City's own police force.