Whichford Woodfired

Trained as a Country Potter in the 1970s, Jim used his skills to revive the English flowerpot tradition, establishing Whichford Pottery as the last remaining large-scale handmaking flowerpot company in England. Exporting our flowerpots led him to Japan in the 1990s, where he was struck by the directness and integrity of the work being made in Bizen — a living tradition that, like Whichford, relies on the beauty of raw clay rather than applied glazes.

Inspired, Jim and Adam have built the Whichford Woodfired Kiln. Whichford Woodfired wares are made in the same workshop and shaped by the same skilled team who have defined our work for decades. The new process represents a deepening of what we have always done: reinvigorating traditional crafts skills to produce good wares that draw the tradition forward.

The design of our kiln has been in development for over fifteen years, incorporating elements of Japanese tradition alongside North American and European kiln design. In style this is the simplest and one of the most ancient types of high temperature kiln, it is just a chimney laid down to trap the heat – called ‘anagama’ in Japanese. 

Unusually, it is large enough to walk into upright and is built with a flat floor rather than the more typical stepped ‘climbing’ design. This allows for the easier loading of larger pieces. Many of the materials used in its construction were reclaimed — the substantial arch bricks, kindly given to Jim by his friend David Garland, originally formed part of a nineteenth-century Cotswold circular lime kiln.

It is one of very few woodfired kilns of this scale in the UK and represents a serious commitment to traditional firing methods.

As the kiln is large in scale, Jim is now focused on creating larger sculptural works, allowing the movement of flame and ash to play across varied surfaces and forms. Alongside these, our woodfired flowerpots are made in a light-bodied stoneware, blended in our clay room before being handthrown on the wheel and decorated by our team.

They carry the aesthetic of the English flowerpot tradition, while being carefully designed to withstand the intensity of their long firing and to reveal the path of flame within the kiln.

The clay is left raw and unglazed, allowing the firing itself to create depth, texture and natural variation — a quiet dialogue between maker and process.

Loading our woodfired kiln can take up to ten days. Each piece is carefully positioned according to the anticipated path of the flame — rather like placing boulders in a mountain stream, where every pot diverts the fire and creates eddies of slower, ash-laden heat. Placement within the chamber directly affects colour and surface: pieces nearer the fireboxes receive the full force of the flame and heavier ash deposits, while those further back develop softer, more atmospheric effects.

Every piece is set on small refractory clay wads to prevent it fusing to the kiln floor or to neighbouring pots as the ash melts and vitrifies at high temperature — a careful and time-consuming process in itself.

The firing begins gently, allowing any remaining moisture to leave the clay before the temperature is steadily raised. Over the following days, the kiln is kept alive through constant stoking, done in six hour shifts by our team. We use local wood, mainly pine off-cuts with some oak, feeding them rhythmically into the main fire box, side and top stoke holes to sustain and build heat. The aim is to create a rolling sweep of flame from front to back, drawing heat and ash through the chamber and across every surface. As the kiln climbs towards peak temperature, stoking rhythm speeds up, with up to five stokers working closely as a team – a medieval scene of shooting flame and smoke, with the kiln finally coming to life, with a deep, insistent roar. After all of this it will be ten nervous days waiting for the kiln to cool before unloading can begin… 

The woodfiring process itself is a great inspiration. The material (clay) and process (fire) together generate extraordinary textures and finishes. The many different dramatic effects are created simply by the flames themselves as they lick around the pots; or by melted wood ash which settles and sticks during the firing; or by deep coverings of white-hot embers. No two parts of the object are the same, each one telling its own story and we are very excited about what our team will be able to create and achieve!