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The Arts Society Kennet & Swindon `TASKS’ – March 2022 Meeting and AGM
21 March 2022 @ 10:30 am
The meeting will be held at the Ellendune Centre in Wroughton, SN4 9MW
The Annual General Meeting of the Society will take place promptly at 10.30 on Monday 21st March at the Ellendune Centre, Wroughton. Coffee will be served from 10 00. Although no longer mandatory we would prefer you wear a mask while walking round the building. We would also be grateful if you could take a Lateral Flow test that morning. However we are aware that these tests are now hard to source and you will need to prioritize when you will use such tests.
The monthly lecture will follow the meeting at 11 00.
The March Lecture – ‘A POTTED HISTORY OF BRITAIN’.
Ceramics are part of everyday life, from the cups, saucers and plates that we eat and drink from to other, less obvious but equally useful vessels. But the flawless and uniform products of modern industry are just the final development of a process that started in Britain 6000 year ago.
In this talk Julian Richards examines Britain’s ‘potted’ history, starting with an explanation of the properties of clay and, by extension, what makes a pot. The story then starts with the simple products of the early Neolithic and then Julian then charts changes in technology through time: the control over fire that comes with the first metalworking and the introduction of the potter’s wheel and the kiln. But just as industry and inventiveness helps to create uniformity and perfection so, in the 19th century, we see the desire for individuality expressed in the work of potters like William de Morgan. So we can see the threads that link the products of those first anonymous Neolithic potters to their 21st century counterparts, still taking clay and fashioning objects of function and beauty.
