When hosts of Channel 4’s The Great Pottery Throw Down set a challenge to make retro souvenirs from their favourite seaside resorts, there was only one winner – Swanage in Dorset!
In week five of series 9 of Sunday evening’s popular TV show, eight potters remained in the process and two of them had no hesitation in choosing the Jurassic Coast as inspiration for four pieces of seaside kitsch.
Andrew with other contestants on The Great Pottery Throw Down
Named Swanage as their happy place
Contestants were required to make retro souvenir sets – a ribboned wall plate, a tankard, a bell and either a wheelbarrow, a conch shell or a clog – all decorated with scenes from their top seaside destination.
Two of them had no hesitation in naming Swanage as their happy place – English teacher Andrew, whose father came from Lulworth, and teaching assistant Bill, who has spent many happy summer holidays in the seaside town.
The Channel 4 show, to discover Britain’s best amateur potters, has been running for a decade and is one of the station’s best loved shows, pulling in between two and three million viewers per episode.
Andrew at work on his Durdle Door bell and a tankard featuring his granny in the sea at Swanage
“Taking a dip in Dorset!”
In the episode, Andrew said he had counted pottery among his passions since a friend invited him along to an evening class 18 years ago:
“I used to go on holiday to Swanage when we were kids, my dad was born in Lulworth and grew up, so he would take us back on family holidays whenever he could.
“And since we had to make a bell as part of the challenge, I thought I would sculpt the shape of Durdle Door as the handle of my bell to get a Durdle doorbell!
“I’m going to decorate my pieces with bold, picture postcard illustrations of the Jurassic Coast, and my souvenir tankard is going to be dedicated to someone very special – my granny.
“She was a really important part of my childhood, my mum wasn’t very well when we were little and my granny brought us all up. I have pictures of her paddling in the sea with us, although we could never get her to go very far into the water!
“So I am going to decorate the tankard with a sprig mould of my granny and a nice ring of shells around it, taking a dip in Dorset!”
Bill made a tankard with a Swanage Railway steam locomotive on it
“A lovely day out in Swanage”
In the show, another contestant Bill, of Herefordshire, said he was introduced to clay when he was young by his grandmother who loved sculpting animals.
He has dyslexia, dyspraxia and autism, and enjoys living in a quiet, relaxed area, and also found he was able to relax on holidays in Swanage.
Bill said:
“They were real family occasions, with my mum, dad, brother, my grandma, the whole lot of us – although my younger brother could be a bit annoying!
“I’m doing something very similar to Andrew, who is doing Durdle Door, so it is going to be like the battle of Dorset today.
“I’m making a wheelbarrow model with figures of some amazing childhood memories inside – my bucket and spade, ammonites, a hat and a crab, all the things you’d need on a lovely day out in Swanage.
“I had a great time making it, although not everything went well – piercing the plate so that you could thread a ribbon through it took so much longer than I expected, and each cut weakened the structure. But the judges praised my wheelbarrow as ‘funky’ and I was happy with that!”
Show presenter Siobhan McSweeney and judges Rich Mills and Keith Brymer Jones
“Fun souvenirs that make us smile!”
The programme, which began life on BBC2 and grew its audience share after moving to C4, is presented by Bafta winning actress Siobhan McSweeney, who is best known from the hit comedy series Derry Girls, where she played Sister George Michael. The judges are Rich Mills and Keith Brymer Jones.
Judge Rich Mills, a professional ceramicist, said:
“We were looking for fun, retro souvenirs that make us smile! We asked our contestants to both throw and hand build in this challenge, and also to give us some surface decoration in the form of sprig moulds and ribbon piercing.
“It was very much a practical challenge, so the tankard needed to be useable, the plate had to have ribbons through it and the bell had to ring.
“It sounded easy, but piercing the plates can damage the core structure, extra decorations on the tankards could trap air underneath it and risk it popping off, and the pieces had to be cohesive, so whichever resort our contestants chose had to be reflected in the decoration.
“I was very keen to hear the stories they told through their choices – we wanted to have a bit of fun with this challenge and wanted them to make us smile, but at the same time we wanted to be impressed!”
Former Derry Girl Siobhan McSweeney presents The Great Pottery Throw Down
“It is wonderful to be a part of”
Presenter Siobhan McSweeney said:
“As usual, we have a group of really, really lovely, very interesting and incredibly talented potters. They all have different skills, but there’s quite a level playing field, with everyone having their own distinct style and their own strengths and weaknesses.
“In the past, we’ve found it hard to get certain demographics, because ceramics was being axed from school curriculums. So you were only getting brilliant, extraordinary potters who felt like it was their passion, or people who had retired, and were able to dedicate time and money to it.
“People say our show is just entertainment, a bit of fluff for sitting down having your Sunday night tea in front of, and it is, and that’s deeply important, but what I think people don’t realise is how it has a real-life effect.
“What’s been wonderful is the amount of people over the years who have taken up pottery after watching the show – I know pottery teachers who have said they now have waiting lists for their classes, and it is wonderful to be a part of that.”
Contestant Andrew working on his Swanage plate
Bill decorated his souvenir tankard with a Swanage Railway inspired steam locomotive
Andrew and his finished set of Swanage souvenirs
A close up look at Andrew’s finished souvenirs
Contestant Bill with his finished set of seaside souvenirs
Bill’s Swanageware set, with Corfe Castle on his tankard
Further information
- See the finished results and find out who did best by watching episode 5 of The Great Pottery Throw Down on C4’s website
