Tintagel Pottery
 

Kathleen Everard and P Cunningham Qvam set up the Tintagel Pottery in 1948 at Bossiney Court a few hundred yards up the road from Tintagel Castle, thought to be the home of King Arthur.

Early Tintagel label

The pottery produced earthenware pots with Celtic designs redolent of the Arthurian period. In 1951 Enid Mutton started work at the pottery. Leonard Knight was a potter at Tintagel Pottery in the early days, but left to set up Knight's Tintagel, a rival pottery in the village.

On the deaths of Everard and Qvam which occurred in quick succession in the early 1970s Enid took over the pottery and still runs it with her partner, Roger Howard. Roger is the thrower and Enid the decorator, assisted by Teresa Anderson who has been with them since 1973. There is no selling staff - visitors can buy straight from the potters, and retail outlets send in their orders on a regular basis without the assistance of sales reps.

The style of Tintagel is firmly established and easily recognized. The familiar colours are produced by recipes that Enid keeps a closely guarded secret. Tintagel is a bright, clean and tidy pottery using two electric kilns and there are weekly firings. Production is down to a fine art and mishaps hardly ever happen. Roger also produces studio pieces in stoneware, but these are not distributed to retail outlets; they are available only to callers at the pottery.

Enid is often asked about marks used by the pottery, but doesn't remember dates of changes. Various square stamps have been used, sometimes the name was brushed in black, and in the 1950s and 60s the marks were incised by hand with a dead ballpoint pen.