Ben Sharp and Michael Avery share some memories of their friend, teacher and colleague, Dennis Townsend.
Memories of Dennis Townsend by Ben Sharp
I’m writing this while drinking beer from a huge tankard Dennis made for me which he also decorated with my name on. It holds about two pints and that is the thing I remember about Dennis and that is his mischievous and puckish humour. I got to know Dennis properly after he had retired from making production ceramics at his pottery manufacturing firm, Iden Pottery, which he had founded and ran with his late wife Maureen. Now I won’t go into the history of Dennis and his Rye Pottery days and his Iden Pottery days because this isn’t a history lesson and it’s out there anyway for all to read.
This is my own appreciation of a rather delightful chap who I found to be not only great company to drink beer with in Snargate and other places of ale dotted about the Marsh but also such an inspirational and deeply intelligent and informed fellow. He was just so in touch with the current pulse in culture and politics, I remember him coming round to my place with Maureen, she drove him around because he didn’t drive. He said they wouldn’t give him a licence because he was too erratic in his personality, again Dennis humour. Anyway, I had a record playing and as he came in he said, ”Ah, the Scissor Sisters, they’re good.” He was such a modern and progressive chap and this really showed in his designs and ceramics. He loved Scandinavian art and especially the designs of Stig Lindberg and Bjorn Wiinblad in not only the aesthetic but also the quality of execution.
Dennis’ work has always been of the highest quality in making and design. He was a huge fund of ceramic knowledge in practice and history, and I would listen to him share his love of medieval Italian ceramics and also his days at Rye and of the great Bert Twort. Dennis and I recreated Bert Twort’s miniatures ‘Lustre Kiln’ which was essentially a huge thrown domed pot similar to a rhubarb forcer in which you had a gas burner underneath. Ours exploded. Bert Twort also showed Dennis how to throw on the wheel and construct the traditional Sussex Pig. So, as I sit here typing away and drinking from my Dennis made bucket tankard I will think of Dennis and the jollity and history he exuded, his kindness and fairness and honesty in all things including his freeness of opinion.
Memories of Dennis Townsend by Michael Avery
Dennis should be and will be remembered when the real and true history of the potteries in Rye is written. He was an absolute master of his craft, the best. Dennis had been working at Rye Pottery with David Sharp where they had been taught by Jack Cole and Bert Twort. Clay was dug by hand from the banks of the river Tillingham and placed in a mulching pit where it was worked and kneaded constantly to remove air bubbles. The kiln was fired by chopped up hop poles given by local hop growers. Bert Twort was a smallish wiry man, always well-dressed with a cap and waistcoat. A generous man with his knowledge and skills, a snuff tin would appear from his waistcoat pocket on meeting and a pinch offered.
At some point, Dennis and David Sharp decided to part company. Dennis took David Smeed, a local man and a brilliant thrower and craftsman, and started a small pottery in his mother-in-laws double garage on Winchelsea Road. David Sharp decided to team up with George Gray and opened a pottery at the bottom of the Mint before moving to the mews next to Landgate and then on to the Monastery on Conduit Hill.
I first went to work with him and David Smeed in 1967 in the little workshop at the top of Conduit Hill which had just been vacated by Ray Everitt (potter) to teach pottery at Sussex University. I had studied as an illustrator and developed drawing and painting skills at Hastings School of Art but I had no knowledge of glazing and decorating pottery. Dennis took time to teach me everything about the art. Dennis was a strict taskmaster but a brilliant and patient teacher. We, David and myself, knew what sort of day we were in for when Dennis came through the door. If he was whistling through his teeth we were in for a prickly time. If, however, he came through the door imitating a trombone we were in for a good day! Dennis learned to play the trombone as a young man. He was the only one in the potteries of Rye who taught me how to mix the glaze and all the glazing techniques, dipping, pouring, spraying etc. Having learned this, glazing and decoration became my forte for many years. I developed many designs that were painted by myself and others onto vases, plaques, plates, tea and coffee sets. I went on to work with Rye Pottery, Rye Tiles, Cinque Ports Pottery and David Sharp.
I feel very fortunate and privileged to have been able to work with and learn from Dennis.
Image Credits: H is for Home , Juliet Duff .