Dennis Lane was born in London in 1922. His original training was as an electrical engineer, but after studying at Camberwell he opened his first pottery in Richmond, Surrey. The pottery had to close when the local council asked for the cottage back so that they could knock it down to build a school.

In 1956 he moved to Cornwall and found ideal premises at Newlyn. There was room for his workshop at the back and a retail showroom at the front, overlooking the harbour. Newlyn Harbour Pottery seemed an ideal name for the new venture. This was before the days of Celtic and Troika, and the only potter of note working in Newlyn was Eric Leaper.

The bread-and-butter work of the pottery was coffee sets, jugs and plates for the tourist trade, but Dennis also made one-off decorative pieces. Following his marriage in 1966 he started potting from home in nearby Trevithal and employed people to look after the showroom.

In the early 1970s the marriage broke up and Dennis, who was suffering from pains in the shoulders, decided to give up Newlyn Harbour Pottery and to continue to work from home under the name Trevithal Studio. He officially retired in 1985, but carried on making pots intermittently for most of the remainder of the twentieth century.