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oak tree in the autumn at eastnor castle estate

two oaks in eastnor castle deer park

Why not complement your pottery experience with a stroll around Eastnor’s beautiful Deer Park?

The deer are never too far away and although you might not spot one, the stags certainly make themselves heard in the rutting season. What you do experience, however, are fantastic walks and magnificent views of Eastnor Castle and the Malvern Hills.

There’s also an onsite café. The Woodshed is situated at the park entrance and offers free parking, WiFi and a selection of teas, coffees and light snacks – perfect for a cuppa and cake at your journey’s end.

woodshed cafe at eastnor deer park

eastnor deer park in the autumneastnor deer park cafe the woodshed

eastnor pottery owners sarah monk and jon williams getting ready to reopen after lockdown

eastnor pottery owners sarah monk and jon williams getting ready to reopen after lockdownJust under three weeks to go before we welcome back all you aspiring potters and creatives! We are so looking forward to seeing you and have been beavering away making changes to products and studio spaces, all designed to make you feel confident to visit and comfortable whilst you’re here.

For those of you who haven’t had the good fortune to visit our wonderful studio on the idyllic Herefordshire Eastnor Castle Estate, we are blessed with bags of outside space. Whenever the weather permits we’ll be facilitating sessions in the garden and in our boutique ‘Potting Tent’ marquee.

The Potting Tent Marquee at Eastnor Potterykick wheel at eastnor pottery and the flying potter

If’ is looking chilly, we still have ample room in the Pottery to social distance a battalion of would be potters! Well not quite that many, but we are very confident in our planning and spacing. Inevitably, we’ll be seeing less of you as classes will be smaller. In fact, during July, we’re offering dedicated classes per booking. So, if you are a family or couple you’ll have your very own private session! Give us a call on 01531 633886 or email admin@eastnorpottery.co.uk to book your session.

Here’s a list of other things we’re going to be doing to make people feel comfortable when they visit Eastnor Pottery.

  • To avoid handling cash and cards, we’re asking for full payment in advance of customer’s sessions – BACS our preferred method of payment and we’ll provide customers with our account details as soon as they are in the diary.
  • Customers will need to bring their own apron and old towel (sharing is fine). The clay doesn’t stain and washes out easily so wearing old clothes is perfectly acceptable too, but please don’t forget the towel!
  • We’ll be asking customers to arrive no earlier than 5 mins before their session starts. This will give plenty of opportunity for previous guests to finish their session and proceed on their merry way.
  • On arrival, customers will be directed to a waiting area and asked to wash their hands. Their experience will commence once the previous participants have departed and we’ve had opportunity to clean tools and prepare the wheel(s)
  • We’ve set up the furniture and potter’s wheels to account for the 2m social distancing rule and will be observing social distancing through-out the experience.
  • Sadly, the legendary complimentary cuppas and fresh coffee are on hold for the time being :( That said, customers are very welcome to bring their own beverages and water bottles.

Jacob the Potter helping at Eastnor Castle making ceramic dinosaur heads

We spent five busy and rewarding days working in the fabulous courtyard at Eastnor Castle making collaborative, terracotta dinosuar heads.

The t-rex, triceratops and three raptors will be fired, photographed and splashed across all our social media channels in the coming months.

Each day we took a series of photographs documenting the Jurassic creativity:

Sunday 31 July

Monday 1 Aug

Tuesday 2 Aug

Wednesday 3 Aug

Elliot the potter with Eastnor Pottery producing clay dinosFamilies and Friends at Eastnor Castle making clay terracotta dinosaursadd to the ceramic dinosaur head at Eastnor Castle with Eastnor Pottery

Eastnor Pottery Team Photo after Mudrunner 2015Terribly sad that the 2015 Mudrunner Classic held in October was likely to be the last Mudrunner event held in Eastnor. Team Eastnor Pottery have taken part in the race nearly as long as we’ve been making the clay medals presented to those who actually make it to the finish line. We’ll be very sad to see it go and must congratulate Mudrunner organisers D3, on the magnificent job of facilitating the event over the past six years. #sad

 

 

Flower vases created by Eastnor Pottery for a 4th July 2015 wedding at Eastnor Castle Dont know how we did it but we somehow manged to make, fire and glaze these rather tasty flower vases inside 10 days!

A bride and groom who were tying the knot in the Castle wanted to gift their guests something special and unique to Eastnor. (I think we ticked all the boxes here!)

Before they could take them away, the vases were filled with beautiful blooms supplied by Oops a Daisy and displayed in the guest’s bedrooms.