Speen Pottery

Hallmark February 1983 report by Miles Marshall

There must be something about this area of the Chiltern Hills that encourages local craft work; perhaps it is the traditions of the bodgers or the lacemakers in the blood or just the keen air seven hundred feet about sea level, but be that as it may, there can be no doubt that we are singularly well endowed around here with gifted men and women ready to defy mass production and to create with their own hands and minds, things of lasting beauty and usefulness.

About three. years ago, Tessa Rubbra started ‘Speen Pottery’ in an extension of 2 Valley Cottage, her home in Highwood Bottom where despite her domestic responsibilities of a husband and young teenage son and daughter, she produces a steady flow of most attractive, decorated and plain earthenware. The Pottery is open from ten till five, seven days a week and displays, for visitors to inspect, a fine range of plates and dishes, mugs, vases and pots of all kinds, all shaped, coloured and decorated to her own original designs and available from stock at very reasonable prices. The cover drawing depicts one of the interesting display racks.

Chiltern clay may make very good bricks, but it is unsuitable for fine pottery, and so the raw material comes from Stoke on Trent. First it must be 'wedged' or worked into a malleable condition with no air bubbles, ready for 'throwing' on the potter's wheel. This is now done with a pug-mill though previously it was a tedious hand process. It is then 'thrown' on a power-driven wheel and moulded into the desire shape with deft movements of the potter's hands. It looks so easy when the hands are skilled and experienced, but it must be done swiftly and accurately to achieve the required shape and size, allowing for shrinkage too, before the clay becomes over-worked and 'slack'.

The embryo pieces are then set aside to dry off naturally to a condition of ‘leather' firmness, when they are ready for colouring and decorating, if desired, and having handles, where appropriate, stuck on.

There are many techniques for pottery decoration, including hand-painting, transfers and so on, but a simple and effective method which I watched Tessa using is to stick on to the 'leather-hard' clay, small pieces of wet newspaper cut out to the desired pattern. When the paper is stuck, the article is dipped into a creamy mixture of clay and water called 'slip'. This may be plain clay of a different colour or a mixture of clays to obtain the desired contrast with basic clay of the piece. Allowed to dry again, the paper starts to peel off and when it is removed it reveals the basic colour showing up the pattern against the slip coating. With handles attached if necessary, they are ready for the first or ‘biscuit’ firing. Further decorative effects may be achieved after this by adding colour to the glaze before the final’ firing.

Tessa uses mainly two basic clays, unmixed buff and a red clay with various mixtures of the two to obtain a range of natural earth colours which are most attractive, and often need no added colour to the glaze. When ready for firing they must be stacked into the electric kiln with great care and thoughtful planning so as to get the maximum number of pieces into the kiln without letting any two touch or they will be marked and spoilt.

Any articles of earthenware will be made to order: sets of plates and dishes, cups and saucers, mugs, oven-proof casseroles and so on, all decorated with individual designs (even names) to the customers’ own choice. What delightful wedding presents!

Tessa studied pottery in London at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and was still a student when she married Benedict Rubbra who was born at Valley Cottage, the second son of the composer Edmund Rubbra who lived and worked there for so many years. The small wooden retreat, high in the trees above the cottage, is well known by local people as the birthplace of much of his music.

Benedict Rubbra, whilst inheriting a keen interest in music from both his parents to the extent of playing the violin for pleasure, is by profession a portrait painter of some note. Readers may recollect an announcement in the press last October that he had been commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers to paint a portrait of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, to hang with other Royals in Fishmongers Hall. He nevertheless combines his artistic talents with a very practical turn of mind for he built with his own hands the considerable extension to the old cottage as well as the ‘granny-flat' which he built for his mother (formerly a well-known French violinist), and which on her death some three years ago, he adapted for Tessa‘s Pottery.

As with most of these old cottages in Highwood Bottom, there is a useful but modest strip of level vegetable or pleasure garden before the ground rises too steeply for cultivation. The Rubbras have however kept hens and even grazed sheep and a donkey on the steep slope, but with the increasing demands of the Pottery on Tessa's time, the lambs have had to go, though one ewe remains as company for the donkey – they are very good friends.

The Bottom is still a remarkably tranquil spot with a climate quite of its own and though it may sometimes be shrouded in mist whilst Speen and Lacey Green are basking in sunshine, the average temperature must be many degrees warmer down there for lots of tender plants seem to flourish. It makes a delightful walk either from Kiln Lane, Speen or over one of the many public footpaths which descend into the Bottom from either side. There is virtually no through traffic, once the Postman has gone, and the peace and beauty of the lane has to be experienced to be credited. The road however is a bit rough and motorists are well advised to approach the Pottery from the Speen end. It is well signposted from the steep bend above Flowers Bottom and there is room to park off the narrow lane just beyond the cottage garden.