Whichford Pottery
A working pottery on the Warwickshire edge of the Cotswolds, hand-throwing terracotta flowerpots since 1976.
A working pottery on the Warwickshire edge of the Cotswolds, hand-throwing terracotta flowerpots since 1976.
Whichford is one of those places that feels entirely itself. The pottery sits in a cluster of old buildings at the edge of a quiet village on the Warwickshire side of the Cotswold border, near Shipston-on-Stour, and Jim and Dominique Keeling have been making terracotta here since 1976. What still surprises us on every visit is how open it is: you can wander straight into the workshops and watch the whole thing happen, clay being wedged, pots thrown on the wheel, decorative swags pressed and applied by hand. Nothing is rushed, nothing is mass-produced, and the team of potters are happy to look up and explain what they are doing.
The finished pots, from simple long toms to enormous decorated urns, are lovely things, frost-proof and built to last a lifetime in an English garden. Even if you are not planning to buy, the showroom is free to walk around and genuinely absorbing. We tend to leave the cottage mid-morning, have a slow look through the workshops and yard, and then settle in at the Straw Kitchen for lunch. It is an easy half day, and the sort of outing that suits mixed groups, since there is something here for the gardeners, the makers and the people who just want a good coffee in the sun.
A quick sense of what makes it worth the drive:
The café is worth the trip on its own. It lives in an old barn at the end of the car park that the Keelings rebuilt themselves from straw bales and other natural materials, opening in 2014, and it has a warm, slightly ramshackle charm that suits the place perfectly. Indoor seating is limited, but there is a covered terrace and plenty of grass to spread out on, so on a fine day people bring blankets and settle in. The kitchen changes its menu with the seasons and leans hard on the kitchen garden and local suppliers, and everything from the bacon sandwiches to the cakes is made in house. We always mean to have a quick coffee and somehow end up staying most of the afternoon. You can read more on our Straw Kitchen page.
Whichford is roughly half an hour from Well Cottage, a pretty drive north through Chipping Norton and up over the rolling country towards Long Compton before you drop into the village. It is worth checking the opening times before you set out, as the pottery and the café keep slightly different hours and the café is often quieter earlier in the week; the current details are on the pottery's own site. We would not attempt it in a hurry, since the whole appeal is being able to potter about at your own pace, but as a relaxed morning or afternoon out it is hard to beat.
“We went for the pots and stayed for the cake. Watching people make something so beautiful by hand, and then eating lunch on the grass in the sun, is about as good as a day out in this part of the world gets.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.