History of clay
LIN ( Webb) started the June meeting of Barrow-upon-Soar WI giving details of Barrow Open Gardens which are on 24/25th June. Her own garden is open and she will be selling homemade cakes, proceeds to Rainbows. Donations of cakes from the WI would be very welcome. The WI garden is also open. We also need baked goods for the summer market on 9th July. Continuing the baking theme, next month’s meeting is “Rosie Makes Jam” with a scone bake-off as the competition. The small group that went to Chatsworth House, enjoyed their visit. There is a possibility a further trip may be organised for Chatsworth’s Christmas Market and seasonal display. Our guest speakers for the evening John & Annette Christophers from Albrighton Pottery gave a light-hearted talk on “Clay” starting with a brief history of clay & its uses, (interjected with many jokes from John which we were not expecting!) The definition of clay is - a natural, earthy material that is plastic when wet, used for making bricks (including many other parts of houses) pottery, etc. Heating to a high temperature, removes the water, changing it to a strong consistency and shape. It’s use originates before the Neothlic period; digs uncovering artefacts from Japan to Mexico. It is one of man’s oldest inventions. The early form of pottery, earthenware, was used mainly for cooking pots. Heated on open bonfires using wood or cow dung, it was unglazed and hand decorated . It has evolved greatly over time. We are more familiar with our “own” potteries in Stoke-on-Trent. In it’s heyday, the skyline was dominated by 4000 bottle-shaped smoky kilns with only 46 remaining today (now listed) after the Clean Air Act. John distributed a piece of clay to each of us with the instruction to make a disc shape with half, shape the initial of your christian name and a symbol of a favourite hobby with the remaining half. Any left overs, had to be made into “malteser” shapes. Not good if you were wearing white or had your nails painted! John continued with more pottery history whilst Annette was beavering in the background. She then stood in front of us with a cloth covering an object she was holding, whipping it off she showed us a large, decorated terracota bowl which was made from all our efforts merged together. Amazing! Annette explained that we could have the bowl once fired but we would have to collect from Wolverhampton where they are based. It would look lovely in our WI garden planted up. The evening finished with us admiring the lovely pottery they had brought with them. We thanked John & Annette for their very amusing talk and demonstration. Next month’s meeting will be on July 12, at the Con’s club function room at 7.30pm when Rosemary Jameson will be entertaining us with “Rosie makes jam”. Visitors are always welcome.