2005 – present, Research, collection and dissemination
Sadie has been researching, presenting and writing about North Devon Pottery since moving to Bideford in 2005 and becoming fascinated with what makes Bideford a unique and special place. She is particularly interested in Elizabethan, 17th C and early 18th C wares and its trade with the Eastern Seaboard of the United States of America.
Sadie was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship in 2010 to research collections of Pottery in Virginia and North Carolina and to visit and make connections to Bideford’s twin town of Manteo on Roanoke Island. As a result she has been hooked about North Devon Pottery ever since. Sadie is creating her own collection of sherds and fragments found on local beaches, which include significant finds of Baluster jars, bowls, pipkins and rarer decorative sgraffito ware.
Read Sadie’s Churchill Fellowship report here
Sadie’s passion about pottery has led her to be involved with other projects. This includes the Devonshire Assocation’s ‘Devon Newfoundland Story’, where she presented at their International symposium. She also devised and managed the Devon Newfoundland North Devon festivities in Bideford, which included a procession, guided tours, workshops, folk music concert and talk, a pop up cafe and information displays by historical groups and organisations.
Sadie has delivered numerous talks to a variety of audiences. In 2023 she presented a talk at the Devonshire Association’s President’s Symposium on Devon’s Ceramic Heritage entitled ‘North Devon Sgraffito-ware: pottery shapes, their distinctive decoration and trade with the North American Colonies’