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After finalising his retrospective exhibition of works on paper with
Reg Lloyd it was left for me to find pottery that would complement the work.
My first and logical choice was the earthenware produced by Philip Leach and
his wife, Frannie. Reg Lloyd had been a very good friend of Philip’s father,
Michael, and they all share a love of traditional Devon slipware, which has
been an influence on the pottery that the Leach’s produce.
Although Philip was born in Hampshire, most of his early childhood was
spent at Beagle Cross next door to the Leach Pottery in St. Ives. His father,
who was Bernard Leach’s youngest son, worked at the pottery and taught at
Penzance School of Art. Philip has early memories of Bill Marshall, Horatio
Dunn and other characters at the pottery but in 1956 he moved with his family
to North Devon, where his father started Yelland Pottery.
After
leaving school with Art and Zoology “A” levels, Philip gained a Teacher’s
Certificate and got his first teaching post in Paddington. After a year or so
he travelled to Iran where he remained for six years. Not only did he teach
in the American Community School but set up a number of pottery workshops and
“got quite hooked on the lovely Persian blue glaze found on the tiles in the
mosques”.
In 1976 he returned to England and worked at Yelland for three months
before joining his brother-in-law, Clive Bowen, who had just built a
wood-fired kiln at his pottery. There he stayed for over two years until
starting his own Springfield Pottery where he remains to this day.
Frannie Leach was born in London and was introduced to pottery during her
three dimensional design course at High Wycombe College. After graduating she
got a job in New York but quickly realised that interior design was not for
her. She started taking pottery seriously and after learning to throw gained
an apprenticeship at a pottery in Massachusetts. In the spring of 1976 she
returned to England and took a job with Philip’s father at Yelland. A few
months later Philip returned from Iran and obviously they got on very well as
they were married the following March. Frannie continued working for her
father-in-law until she moved with Philip to the Springfield Pottery.
At their pottery Philip and Frannie make a variety of functional earthenware
using a blend of red Stoke Marl, Fremington clay and Hyplas 71 from Meeth.
Most of the work is thrown but they do produce slab plates and vases. Tiles
are also made using an old hand operated press, with wood blocks carved by
Philip used for relief tiles. Frannie works mainly on a range of standard
ware, which I know Reg and Louise Lloyd use alongside older items produced by
Michael Leach, with Philip making more individual pots.
I shall be going down to the pottery to make the final selection of items for
the exhibition and besides the work pictured above I will try and bring back
as wide a selection of their work as possible. Images of some of this will be
added later in the week.
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