The Dartington Pottery Training Workshop (DPTW) was formed in 1975 to help young potters develop their skills after leaving college before setting up their own potteries. It was the brainchild of David Canter, then chairman of the CPA and David Leach, Marianne de Trey and Mick Casson became involved ensuring that students would benefit from their knowledge and skills.

Recently I had an email from Francis Toms who was one of the first trainees taken on at Dartington in 1976. Since leaving, Francis has spent most of his life in the USA and now lives in the idyllic sounding town of Paradise in California. In 2018 Paradise was destroyed by a devastating wildfire, I do not know if Francis survived. Our correspondence involved swapping images taken at the Workshop and I thought that it would be interesting to share these with you. Perhaps you attended the DPTW yourself, maybe you have a photograph that you would like to share, If so, please get in touch via the Contact page.

My thanks to Peter Starkey for letting me know that Don Morgan and Ross Emerson were the unknown potters on the 1978 image.