How family heirloom inspired famous pottery name’s revival

Curiosity over pig gave art teacher idea to bring Fife brand back to life

When art teacher Griselda Hill moved from Cambridge to Fife, a big brightly-painted pottery pig in her grandmother’ s house caught her eye – and changed her life.

As she grew up, she learned it had been made in Kirkcaldy and was a piece of Wemyss Ware.

The name dates from 1882 and was the brainchild of Fife Pottery owner Robert Heron, who wanted to reproduce a version of the beautiful hand-painted pottery he had seen on the continent.

Produced at Fife Pottery, it was named in honour of the patronage of the aristocratic Wemyss family and became so much a part of the country’s heritage that it features on the Great Tapestry of Scotland.

“Wemyss Ware carried on in Fife for 50 years and was then bought by a pottery in Devon but none was produced after 1957,” Griselda explains.

Knowing a piece of porcine pottery like her grandmother’s would cost £2,000 to buy, she decided to try making one of her own and dug deep into her memories of childhood.

“The curator at Kirkcaldy Museum at the time kindly offered to let me copy the cats and pigs in their collection and said the shop would sell any pieces I made. I set to work and produced the first cats in December 1985.”

The response was immediate and heartwarming – Wemyss Ware had come home. Griselda bought the trade mark in 1994 and today her studio is a four-star visitor attraction where families can see her single-handedly making and painting each piece, her grandmother’s pig in pride of place.

“Children always like the animals best and try to persuade their parents to buy one for them,” smiles Griselda.

Earlier this year she forced to lay off her five staff, but she is determined to keep the Wemyss Ware name alive.

“It would be so great to re-employ my former employees, whose skills base is phenomenal,” she adds.

Griselda Hill making one of her Wemyss Ware items.