philip heath | pottery
Lossenham Pottery Project - part III (2025/6)
This is a primarily visual diary from the the Lossenham Pottery project 2025/6 and will be added to as the work progresses. There will also be journal entries going into detail about specific aspects of the project. These can be found by selecting the "Lossenham Pottery Project" topic on the journal page.
We are very grateful to Rye Castle Museum for support including access to their medieval pottery collection, and collaboration over public engagement activities. We would also like to thank Diana Hall and John Winterbottom for helpful discussions about floor tiles, woodblocks, and toolmaking; Andrew Richardson and Paul-Samual Amour of Isle Heritage CIC, for discussions about, and access to, the archaeological finds from excavations on the farm, and Celia Jennings for access to her collection of medieval tiles.
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In the image galleries below tap an image to open a larger version and see the caption.
The project was initiated by Russell Burden in 2022 as part of a landscape-based arts residency at Lossenham Farm, with the initial purpose of testing whether a workable pottery clay could be found in the landscape on the farm, exploring the making of pots and tiles relating to the Carmelite priory (1235-1538) on the site and the local pottery industry of the period, and using materials from the landscape to build and fire an earth kiln. A second phase, in 2023/4, involved a wider exploration of the clay resources on the site, practical investigation of medieval pottery forms and making techniques, developing a contemporary response to the landscape and history, and building and firing a new and improved earth kiln.
A full visual record of the previous years of the project (2022 and 2023-2024) can be found on Russell Burden's web site here: https://riverwork.studio/projects/earth-kiln/ (and - to avoid confusion - yes, the Philip Warren mentioned there is me!). Summaries of previous years can also be found in the journal.
Related journal posts:
Background; Pottery project 2022; Pottery project 2024 - I; Pottery project 2024 - II
Aims this year include:
~ refining the kiln design and carry out further firings of both pots and tiles;
~ experimenting with tilemaking techniques, based on Lossenham Priory tile remains;
~ developing, building and using a new 'medieval' pottery wheel;
~ producing documentation for all the stages of the project to date.
A mixture of clays from last year, some unprocessed, provides good material for experimenting with different throwing techniques and getting used to dealing with clay that is a unpredictable in consistency and contains many impurities, such as stones and organic material.
Related journal entry: Taming wild clay
Although there are some clays left from last year's work, new clay takes time to process and this year we are need to use the clays which are available in quantity and from last year's experiments we know to fire reliably.
Related journal entry: A medieval potter's wheel
A cooking pot on the wheel (complete with medieval wobble!)
Various tools have been made for the project. These are somewhat speculative as there is limited evidence of the tools medieval potters used, but they are all things which have specific uses for the pots and tiles we are making, and could readily have been made with materials potters had to hand.
Wood kiln firing 19/09/2025
Related journal entry: Second firing of the earth kiln
Experiments with moulds, forming and cutting
Related journal entries: Conversation with a medieval floor tile; The work of tile making - I
Experiments with stamping, slip and different clays
Related journal entry: The work of tile making II - pattern and finishing
Spring 2026 in the pottery - medieval potters worked seasonally, and so are we.
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