New Manor Ware is a bespoke table setting designed especially for the Banqueting Room of the Manor Lodge Turret House developed in response to the Yorkshire Artspace Ceramic Residency program based at their Manor Oaks Ceramic Studio and on site at Sheffield Manor Lodge. During the 17th century, local potter John Fox set up a workshop in a disused wing of The Manor House at Manor Lodge producing functional domestic pottery known as Manor Ware. Widely used across Sheffield, remnants of the pottery are still being found in the archaeological digs that regularly take place across the Manor Lodge site today. During the residency I have worked with a number of different community groups to explore the ornately decorated plasterwork ceiling in the banqueting room of the Tudor Turret House, using original drawings made by individuals from these groups to from the basis of a range of surface pattern designs for a contemporary take on Manor Ware. Inspired by the traditional use of the banqueting room as a place to hold lavish sweet feasts, I also worked closely with the students and staff in the Freeman College Whittle Tang Cutlery Department to create a set of steel and ceramic Cake Slices that form part of the complete table setting. New Manor Ware is my personal response to the richly layered history of craftsmanship and decorative art that forms an integral part of the Manor Lodge story, from the 16th century through to the present day. New Manor Ware was presented as part of the Sheffield Manor Lodge Field to Feast Festival on Saturday the 24th September in the banqueting room that inspired it’s design. Guest were invited to climb the spiral staircase of the turret house to partake in a sweet feast of specially made, gold leaf decorated ginger cake, baked on site by Green Estate café manager Anthony Dunn. This event was documented by timelapse filmmaker Richard Bolam.

Thank you to all the participants who contributed to the designs for New Manor Ware: Manor Lodge Over 50’s Lunch Club. Anchor Court Sheltered Housing. Enable – Kathleen Finchett, Michelle Belton & Bethany, Andrew, Jackie, Gareth, Mark, Tracy & Marlene. Endeavour – Patrick Callingham & Nabair, Darren, Bohus, Perla, Katrina, Noordin, Jan, Robert, Liam & Julius. Freeman College – Richard Beatson, Carole Baugh & Jake, Sarah, James, Luke, Lee, Lewis & John. Thank you also to: The staff teams at Yorkshire Artspace & Green Estate, especially Mir Jansen, Sue France, Anna Plant, Peter Machan & Tony Dunn. All the Yorkshire Artspace studio artists, especially Sue Disley, Miles Gavin, Joel Neild, Annette Petch, Finnbarr Lucas & Emillie Taylor.Emma Paragreen & Sarah McNeil at Sheffield Assay Office. Clare Starkie at Sheffield Museums