The Leach Pottery

The Leach Pottery Founded in 1920 by Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada Pottery, Museum, Shop and Gallery in St Ives, Cornwall, UK.
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Established by Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada in 1920.

01/06/2026

This Volunteers Week, we celebrated the Leach Pottery’s wonderful volunteers with a Hakeme Brush making workshop – led by Neil, our Make with Leach Coordinator. We picked grasses on the dunes (being careful to forage responsibly) and headed to for coffee and brush making in a beautiful setting. We run 4 creative quarterlies for volunteers every year, bringing people together over coffee and something creative.

We would like to take this opportunity to send a huge THANK YOU to all of Leach Pottery volunteers, past, present and future. We are so lucky to have volunteers who each bring a unique mix of skills and experience; alongside the warmth, passion and enthusiasm for community, heritage and clay that they all share. We have volunteers supporting on workshops and events; making tiles; preserving museum artefacts and gardening (and will need lots of volunteers to support our newly refurbished museum when we reopen in 2027). We are always open to new applications – please get in touch if you would like to find out more.

26/05/2026

While we work behind the scenes on exciting updates to our website, we’re offering 10% off all ceramics in our St Ives shop until Sunday 4pm!

Take a look around the shelves in our latest reel and discover handmade pottery fresh from the studio and our many individual makers. From everyday Standard Ware to one-of-a-kind pieces, there’s lots to explore.

Thank you for your patience and support while we make these improvements. We can’t wait to share the new website with you soon.

Thank you to Timm Young for the video footage!

Don't forget you can join us tomorrow on Porthminster Beach in St Ives at our pop-up pottery studio, Leach on the Beach!...
25/05/2026

Don't forget you can join us tomorrow on Porthminster Beach in St Ives at our pop-up pottery studio, Leach on the Beach! Bring clay together with elements of the beach to make a collection of clay-based experiments and play. See what you can create!

Price: This a free drop-in workshop, no need to book.
Time: 10-12pm & 1-3pm

And as an extra treat… 10% off shop purchases for May Half-Term workshop participants. Vouchers are valid Saturday 23 – Sunday 31 May 2026 and can be redeemed in-store. Pop in and see what takes your fancy!

More details available here: https://www.leachpottery.com/may-half-term-leach-on-the-beach

We’re excited to launch our new website on Wednesday 27 May! ✨The new site will make browsing and booking much smoother,...
24/05/2026

We’re excited to launch our new website on Wednesday 27 May! ✨

The new site will make browsing and booking much smoother, from searchable ceramics and easier checkout in our online shop, to clearer course listings with dates and skill levels for our Adult programmes.

For now, the refresh focuses on our commercial pages, with updates to the wider site, including Schools, Families & Community, and Exhibitions coming in the future.

Please note that the website will be temporarily unavailable on Tuesday 26 May, so we recommend making any urgent purchases before then. If you need to get in touch, you can reach us on 01736 799703.

Thank you for your patience while we make these improvements. As a thank you, we’ll also be offering 10% off all ceramics in our St Ives shop from Monday 25 May until Sunday 31 May 💙


Photo credit: Callum Cowie

To mark Dementia Action Week we wanted to share some thoughts about bring audiences with dementia together with clay. Al...
24/05/2026

To mark Dementia Action Week we wanted to share some thoughts about bring audiences with dementia together with clay.

Alongside collaborating with the Sensory Trust to lead to the Wednesday Wanderers, we enjoy working with many of the local care homes and memory cafes to offer creative opportunities for the service users. These workshops could simply be a throwing demonstration where the participants can watch the pots grow from nothing, sometimes reaching out to touch the turning pot on the wheel. Sometimes the workshops take the form of handling pots, enjoying the cool surface of a shiny glaze or giggling at the malleable quality of cold wet clay. And at times, participants might be making their own pots. Carers work alongside people with dementia, united by starting from scratch- all introduced to a new material and way of working together. Occasionally we meet people who have relationships with the Leach Pottery from many years ago, previous production potters or old neighbours who remember as children scrambling across the Stennack river to take seconds from disappointing firings!

The Wednesday Wanderers are a collaboration between the Leach Pottery and the for people living with dementia in the St Ives area. The group explore the connection between landscape, nature and memories and use natural materials to make tools to make with clay and contribute to the creative programme with Leach Pottery once a month. Across the workshops participants have the opportunity to collaborate with potters, encounter skills such as throwing on a wheel, hand building, slip decoration and use of press moulds.

The pictures you see are from a workshop with the Wednesday Wanderers at Godolphin house last year. Despite the simplicity of the workshop, the group still reminisce about this workshop, thinking it was the most enjoyable activity! We made little insects out of clay and hid them across gardens!


Join us for a collaborative drop-in workshop celebrating spring, creativity, and community at ! Three large hand-thrown ...
23/05/2026

Join us for a collaborative drop-in workshop celebrating spring, creativity, and community at !

Three large hand-thrown pots, thrown by Studio Potter Britta James, will form the focus of the session. Create “spring decorations” — small, flat-backed decorative forms that will be added to the surfaces of these collaborative vessels. Once complete, the collaborative pots will be glazed and given a permanent home in Leach Pottery Garden.

Where: The Tate Gallery St Ives. You can read more about it on the Tate Website
Price: Free with admission or Locals pass. Drop-in session, no need to book

We wanted to show these beautiful harvest jugs!Young people from the Community Hospitial Educational Services with were...
22/05/2026

We wanted to show these beautiful harvest jugs!

Young people from the Community Hospitial Educational Services with were all presented with a harvest jug to adpat and decorate. In a nod to the harvest jug's history of often telling a narrative of place (of indeed, harvest), the group considered places which are impportant to them and carved and drew these into the slipped surface of the jugs.

The resulting pots are joyous and full of life...please note the snake's head peeking from one!

Can you spot St Michael's Mount?

Thank you to Hamish Jackson for throwing these wonderful pots for the young people.

21/05/2026

Congratulations to for winning a bronze award at with the Seasalt Garden sponsored by . Once the show finishes garden designer Lynn James is donating it to the Leach Pottery for our garden renovation as part of the pottery's three-year Capital Project.

Address

Higher Stennack
Saint Ives
TR262HE

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 5pm
Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm

Telephone

01736 799703

Website

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