Richard Batterham (born 1936) is one of the most original but faithful potters to have emerged from the Leach School. Original in the sense that he evolved his own very personal functional style, but one still acknowledging the best of simple medieval European and Far Eastern pots. It has been his ability to refine and distil these various influences into a distinctive range of domestic ware and individual pieces that has marked him out.

Trained at the Leach Pottery, Batterham set up a workshop at Durweston in Dorset in 1959, and where he has remained ever since. He works primarily with ash and iron glazes on stoneware, but has made porcelain, and occasionally fires with salt. Cutting, faceting, turning and incising are his preferred methods of enhancing form, without losing any clarity of design. His big bowls and tall bottles have a strongly sculptural quality. Batterham is in many ways the quintessential country potter, working quietly and with dedication to the tempo of the seasons.

David Whiting