The Leach Legacy
Many potters and artists from all over the world were apprenticed at the Leach Pottery, and spread Leach's style and philosophy.
In Britain associates and trainees include: Michael Cardew, Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie, Nora Braden, his sons David Leach and Michael Leach, his third wife Janet Darnell Leach, William Marshall, Kenneth Quick and Richard Batterham.
His American apprentices include Warren MacKenzie (who likewise influenced many potters through his teaching at the University of Minnesota), Byron Temple, Clary Illian and Jeff Oestrich. He was a major influence on the leading New Zealand potter Len Castle who travelled to London to spend time working with him in the mid-1950s. Many of his Canadian apprentices, including John Reeve, made up the pottery scene of the Canadian west coast during the 1970s in Vancouver.
A Leach Pottery ‘family tree’ is available on the Ceramike website http://www.ceramike.com/LeachTree.asp
We do not have room on this site to do justice to every potter who passed through the Leach Pottery during the past 90 years. In Marion Whybrow’s publication, ‘Leach Pottery St. Ives: The Legacy of Bernard Leach’ she details 73 of the potters who worked and trained here over the years. This book is available to buy from the Leach Pottery shop or by mail order.
The Leach Restoration Project has acquired, restored and developed the site and its buildings in order to make them fully accessible to the general public and usable by a new generation of potters. The project celebrates the life, work, influences and legacy of Bernard Leach through the preservation of the old pottery and, importantly, through the living work of a contemporary working pottery.
The Leach Pottery museum holds collections from Cornwall Council and the Dartington Hall Trust as well as our own small collection of Leach related pots, prints and artefacts.
For all copyright enquiries concerning Bernard Leach and the Leach Pottery standard ware please contact the Leach Pottery on 01736-799703.