The Early Years

My parents, Anne and Alan Lloyd met in the early 50's whilst attending Goldsmiths College of Art in London on a Teaching Arts and Craft training course. Six months after my twin and I were born, my parents moved the family back to Wales to settle and start on their teaching careers.

As children we all started playing with clay at a very young age, my parents had set up a small studio pottery at our home in Carmarthen, Wales. I can remember making my first pots on the wheel at 6 or 7 years of age - all ashtrays!

In January 1974, at seventeen years of age I was invited to join a production pottery as an apprentice. The pottery was in Pilling, Lancashire and was run by Jim and Vi Cross. Jim had been a student of my father's at Trinity College, Carmarthen. The adventure begun as I took my 1956 split windowed Morris 1000 up the M6 motorway to Lancashire. My home, a small caravan sited in the back garden of the pottery, surviving off cheese sandwiches and beer.

I remember the day vividly when I started the hard graft of learning to be a production potter. I was given the task of preparing clay for the production team using an old belt driven, upright pug mill. After many long weeks of doing lots of donkey work, I was gradually introduced more and more to the wheel. After 10 months I can remember throwing pot for pot with Wynne Thomas, one of the most experienced throwers making up to 300 pots per day. Even though initially my pots were never as good as his I was always chuffed to match his numbers. After 18 months I was throwing much more proficiently and hitting targets of 275 small pots in 6 hours. It was a great feeling to look down the racks and look at a sea of glistening wet pots made entirely by hand. I don't think I have ever worked as hard since, enormously satisfying!

In the summer of 1975 my mother became seriously ill and the I made the decision to return home to Wales and help establish a new family pottery business. A suitable end of terrace building was found with a shop and coach house situated in the old village part of Barry Island. After many months of hard work my father and I opened the Barry Island Pottery Shop on the 1st December 1975 in anticipation for the Christmas trade. Fortunately everything went off to a flying start and the shop flourished.

Hand made pottery was very popular and competition was huge, because of this we had to make and design a different style of pottery which would give a new business every chance of survival. In order to compete within this mass production world the introduction of hand pierced lamps and large coiled lamps began a new era and we sold under the trade name of Lloyd Ceramic Lamps. Within a few years we were supplying craft shops and department stores all over the world.

By 1989 a second pottery was established within a National Museum of Wales visitor centre at the Museum of Welsh Life in St.Fagans, Cardiff. I was appointed the resident potter and the main production was functional pottery made using traditional methods. The new retail pottery business grew quickly and became profitable selling directly to the visitors. My thanks must go to Peggy for the many years of loyalty together with her unrivalled retail skills.

The old Barry Island Pottery selling exclusively to the trade was closed in 1990 and I continued to produce my specialty, the hand pierced lamps at St.Fagans. The lamp range has continued to be developed with many new designs evolving and 30 odd years later the lamps are still very much in great demand and sold to customers all over the world.