Longley, Bill Longley

Designer	Bill Longley
Maker	Bill Longley
Marks	Small impressed stamp “Bill Longley Australia” to side of base
Description	Well made, heavy wheel thrown earthenware bowl with strap handle fitted over depressed demi-lune inset on rim.   Hand painted floral design to interior of bowl.  Off-white gloss glaze applied to both interior and exterior, except foot.  Thin light-blue line around top of rim and near the base of the interior of bowl.
Condition	Very Good
Number
Production Date	1980s
Width	175mm
Depth	50mm
Length (with handle)	172mm
Weight	500gm
Volume	300ml
Acquisition	Salvos Noble Park 2 Dec 2011
Rameking Reference Number	BIL 001 BIL 002 BIL 003 BIL 004 BIL 005 BIL 006

Had they been made around a century ago, instead of recently, I could almost describe these as a missing link between a bowl and a ramekin.  Using my own definition, these have to be ramekins because they have a functional handle to one side.  They are of a modern shape and design, being made of a fine earthenware with glaze to inside and out with an unglazed foot and are stamped “Bill Longley Australia” to the base.

Bill Longley began an apprenticeship with “Kingwood Rural Industries” Surrey in 1948.  They then became “Greyshott Pottery” in 1956.  This Pottery is about an hour west of London and was producing ceramic giftware for London stores and gift shops. It now creates studio art ceramics for galleries and homes around the UK and under its “Grayshott Stoneware” brand; it makes catering ware for many well-known pubs and restaurants, as well as custom ceramics for celebrity chefs. 

After a long stint in the Royal Air Force (1954 to 1977) and later, teacher training, Bill bought the “Penderleath Pottery”; St Ives, Cornwall in 1977 from Anthony Richards and renamed it the “Cripplesease Pottery.”  The interestingly named place is just outside the village of Nancledra, in Towednack Parish.  Cripplesease is belived to mean that it is a resting place.  Bill made a wide range of domestic stoneware.  He built up the pottery into a successful business, eventually selling in 1981 and migrating to Australia with his wife Sue.  The business then became less successful until around 1984 when other owners took over.

Arriving in Melbourne, Bill began making and selling pottery at weekend markets, as well as helping Robert Gordon (June Dyson’s son) set up his pottery, begun in 1979, in Pakenham, now an outer suburb of Melbourne.  The Robert Gordon Pottery is now a fully mechanized works and one of Australia's largest pottery businesses.   They also do a nice coffee and a reasonable Devonshire Tea, it is worth a visit.  These ramekins are very similar to Robert Gordon Pottery, where Bill worked as an advisor and thrower for some time.

Robert Gordon Pottery makes high-fired (2000 deg.) stoneware kitchenware, dinnerware and bakeware.  Bill then retired in the late 1980s to Daylesford, a picturesque country town in central Victoria where he keeps his hand in as a craft instructor and mentor.

Bill in Daylesford, Victoria 1988