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The stage is set, the curtain’s up, and our Magritte inspired Christmas windows are revealed.

Clouds, pipes, curtains, and bowler hats are some of the most immediately recognizable icons of René Magritte, the Belgian surrealist – and we’ve reimagined them here in our Christmas windows. Magritte’s work turned commonplace things into extraordinary objects of beauty, slotting them into unfamiliar or uncanny scenes, or deliberately mislabelling them in order to “make the most everyday objects shriek aloud.” With his pictorial and linguistic puzzles, Magritte made the familiar disturbing, posing questions about the nature of representation and the boundaries of reality.

Come view our windows, and visit our store, and reimagine your Christmas by making gifts of our “everyday objects shriek aloud”!

 

“The wash house was almost part of folklore. Some of our older volunteers had remote memories of it so we decided to explore more. We weren’t disappointed” said the Director of Middleport Pottery, John Lowther.

This workers’ washroom – possibly the only one of its kind – was unearthed six years ago at Middleport Pottery, having been buried and forgotten by development for a good 60 years or so. It is believed Middleport Pottery was the first pottery factory to provide such a facility for its workers, which was also made available for use by their families on Sundays.

 
 

The hidden underground complex of historic washrooms, with its bank of eight Victorian sinks, beautiful brick tiles, and vast ceramic bath, is believed to be part of the original 1888 factory design, and has been recognised as a rare find, an important piece of commercial and social history, and thankfully worthy of preservation.

Now restored, it is open to the public, and is a must-see when visiting the potteries. Middleport Pottery, Port St, Burslem, Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent ST6 3PE

Click here for Middleport Pottery’s website

Middleport Pottery, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, is a must-see. Tucked away behind rows of back-to back factory workers’ Victorian terraces it quietly sits, a ghost of its former self, the days of bustle and toil long gone. Yet its fire still burns – if only part time, as it’s still a working pottery; one of very few.

This Grade II* listed Pottery has been the home of Burleigh since 1889, and is the UK’s last working Victorian pot bank in continuous production. It holds one of the last surviving beautifully sculptural bottle kilns – which recently provided the backdrop for an atmospheric scene in the tv drama Peaky Blinders.

 

For us the beauty here lies in the utilitarian and the Victorian factory aesthetic: from the municipal colours of the paint used on doors and window frames; the design of the brick built workshops; the arresting shelved corridors of pottery moulds; and the stunning bank of sinks and wall-to-wall white tiling of the worker’s washroom.

Nearby – back in the late 1920s – at Newport Potteries (now gone), Clarice Cliff was “mixing shades of memory with splashes of anticipation” in her daringly bright coloured jazz-age abstract designs, which were then applied by her “Bizarre girls” with bold brushstrokes to vases, plates and tea sets. Newport’s great success with Clarice’s Bizarre ranges, at a time when all the potteries were hit severely by the early 1930s depression, no doubt shone a light on the way forward, which Middleport then emulated in their Burleigh Ware boldly decorated jugs, and Charlotte Rhead’s floral tube-lined designs.

Middleport has been through the mill in recent years, falling into disrepair, and was rescued in 2010 by the Prince’s Regeneration Trust with 9m in funds from The National Lottery and English Heritage. It is now also the home of Denby Holdings Ltd, and of Poole pottery, and is owned and run by Re-Form Heritage.

 

For the visitor today it is a story of beautiful Victorian utilitarian brickwork and humble machinery, born from clay, smoke and hard graft.

The King’s Breakfast is served! We have raided Balmoral’s below-stairs for the finest ironstone wares – everything is for sale, bequeathed by her late majesty.

The King sobbed, “Oh, deary me!”
And went back to bed.
“Nobody,”
He whimpered,
“Could call me
A fussy man;
I only want
A little plate returned for
My bread!”

 
   
 

The King asked
The Queen, and
The Queen asked
The Dairymaid:
“Could we have a plate returned for
The Royal slice of bread?”
The Queen asked the Dairymaid,
The Dairymaid
Said, “Certainly,
I’ll go and tell A G Hendy & Co
Before they go to bed.”

Our spring windows are in. A collection of wonderful mid-century Cannes pattern plates designed in 1954 by the celebrated architect and designer Sir Hugh Casson for Midwinter potteries. Each piece is signed on the underside, and we’re selling them singularly.

Sir Hugh Casson’s sketches and watercolours of France – Parisian style cafes, fishing boats and harbours – were applied to Midwinter’s “Stylecraft” and “Fashion” plates, coffee and tea sets, cruets and tureens. The illustrations are joyous and Casson’s lyrical line is both charming and uplifting.

The poet John Betjeman said that Casson sketched just as most people hummed when going about their daily lives. And that’s just it: this charming plate scene is happiness personified, reminding us of Mediterranean holidays, sun, sand and sea – and may be a gorgeous seafood lunch we once had by a harbour bobbing with boats. A most happy hum indeed.

 
   
 

This charming plate scene of a cafe with its blue shutters is yet more happiness personified, reminding us of holidays and escape, and may be that perfect salad nicoise lunch we once had under the shade of a striped awning with the buzz of mopeds on the street. A most happy hum indeed.

Our Christmas windows are in! Peep through a Sleeping Beauty thicket of twigs, mossy trunks and ivy, to spy on gnomes in a glen, each window a snowy nook. Then walk through our door and the magic continues with wondrous gifts galore.

Robins have flown in and the gnomes have built a wood pile in our Christmas windows. There’s been much Christmas busyness in the Sleeping Beauty thicket.

Pop down to Hastings to spy on our gnomes in their snowy glen; we’re open today and every day now until Christmas. Our jolly green, red and twiggy storey continues through our store and we’re stuffed with wondrous Christmas gifts and ideas galore.

‘I was walking down the high street
When I heard footsteps behind me
And there was a little old man (hello)
In scarlet and grey, chuckling away…
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
“I’m a laughing gnome and you don’t catch me”…..’

Update from the gnome office: we’re open every day now up to and including Christmas Eve, so if you haven’t a gnome to go to, come on down to Hastings. Our gnomes have delved, chuckled and toiled, and our store is now stuffed full of wondrous gifts.

A Jolly Christmas to you all!

Autumn is here, and full on, with its gumboots, leaves, quinces and rain – and, of course, our autumnal windows.

We’re drumming in the season’s ochres and siennas with our one-man band arrangements of Edwardian hat boxes, ceiling brushes, feather dusters and straw brooms.

All of the brushes shown here are handmade and are in our online shop. Do email us for hatbox prices.

 

The quinces are for sale too, just £2.50 a bag.

Call us on +44 (0)1424 447171 or email info@aghendy.com for more information

The final curtain of our Elizabethan age is about to be drawn. Our windows, in honour and thanks to Her Majesty The Queen, are set in readiness for this final farewell: The State Funeral. Your devotion to service, your devotion to your people, and your devotion to the world, will live on. We can’t thank you enough.

We have all lost what feels like our favourite neighbour in common. Our steadfast and reassuring moral compass. We salute you Ma’am, Madge, Mummy, Lilibet, Liz, Her Majesty, The Queen, HM, Elizabeth, Brenda. God Save The Queen.

All the containers came today
And it looks as though they’re here to stay
Oh You Pretty Things…

All for sale. We’re open. The sea is waiting.
So wake up you sleepy head
Put on some clothes, shake up your bed
…and get yourself down to Hastings!

Garden spades, forks, rakes, hoes, shears, edgers and peat shovels; watering cans, plants and planters; we’ve got everything for your garden, terrace or balcony. It’s a right ol’ sizzler today, just the day for a sea plunge, so come on down to Hasting for a cool-off. We’re open as usual ….see y’all later.  Or, catch you on the flipper, as they say down Massachusetts way.

“Best in show” …our summer windows are in. Rows of staged geraniums planted in vintage Denby tea cups and saucers, and all for sale at £9.50 each. Open today, so don’t miss out – we still have a handful left.