Buckley Society Magazine Issue Four: Recent Fieldwork in the Buckley Potteries by Peter J. Davey: map of Site 9, Aaron Sharratt's Pottery"

Lamb's Pottery, Church Road, Buckley

April 1976

GEORGE HENRY LAMB AND GEORGE LAMB WITH SOME OF THEIR MUGS

Chronicle Special article Saturday 29.4.1949

"Then I went down to the potter's house", wrote the Prophet Jeremiah, "and behold he wrought a work on the wheels".

We may not have the chance for very long. The last Potter in Wales opened his kiln lately in Buckley, and took out the only hand-thrown pottery to be made since the war.

George Henry Lamb, Church Road, Buckley, is a son of George lamb, who owns a 200-year-old pottery works and kiln and was born with the art of pottery-making in his blood.

The young men will not take up this ancient and very skilled occupation; but there was the son who inherited the craft. During the war the kiln remained sealed - it reminded one of a sepulchre and hundreds of pottery articles awaited the return of "Mr. George" who had made them and burned them just before his call-up.

OLD KILN REOPENED

On his return in 1947 the old kiln was reopened and the contents sold. Then Mr. George started to "throw on the wheel" again, and all Buckley sighed in relief that its old glory would not be lost yet. The kiln was duly opened after the burning, but the entire contents had been sold long ago, for the supply cannot keep pace with the demand for the old "Buckley Mugs" of world-wide fame. One buyer from Carmarthen had reserved the lot.

Earthenware bins, jugs, bowls, flower pots - the place was stacked to the roof, but customers are eager and insistent; the demand incessant. Mr. George Lamb is the last of a long line of potters.

? but an Oswestry student began preaching meetings ? in part of "Lamb's cottage". Clay pipes used to be made in Buckley, but the industry died out. But young men will not be drawn into the old crafts - for hand-made pottery-making is a craft as well as a trade.

An unerring eye, a steady nerve, reliable judgment and a faultless aim - all these things can only come by long practice and often, only by inherited skill.

MORE LAMBS WANTED

In a few score years it may be that the hand-made pottery and the old "Buckley Mug" will be made no longer. Desperate attempts have been made to preserve the ancient industry; even the help of the L.E.A. has been invoked.

Let us hope that the Potter's Shed will not become the graveyard of what was once the glory of Buckley. After all, there is a large flock of Lambs in Buckley still.

Author: Chester Chronicle

Buckley Society Magazine Issue Four: Recent Fieldwork in the Buckley Potteries by Peter J. Davey: map of Site 9, Aaron Sharratt's Pottery"

Lamb's Pottery, Church Road, Buckley

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