Clark, Uriah & Nephew Ltd. (Dicker Pottery)

Shaping a bowl at Dicker Pottery

Publishers of printed and real photographic cards of the Dicker Pottery, near Hellingly. John Manwaring Baines in his book Sussex Pottery (1980, Fisher Publications, Brighton) devotes many pages to the history of the pottery, which was established in 1774, and acquired by Uriah Clark in 1843. When Clark died in 1903, his nephew Abel Clark took over the business. After merging with the neighbouring Boship Green Pottery in 1912, it was renamed Uriah Clark & Nephew Ltd. The Ministry of Defence requisitioned the premises in 1941, but the pottery re-opened in 1948 under new owners. Trading conditions were difficult and it closed down in 1957.

Before and after the Great War the Dicker Pottery specialised in producing traditional hand-made pots and more adventurous "art-ware" for sale to passing motorists and visitors arriving by charabanc. Souvenir postcards were available showing the various stages of the production process. Printed cards supplied by Photochrom Co. Ltd. and the R. A. Publishing Company (Radermacher, Aldous & Co.) of London outsold the real photographic cards that were produced anonymously by an as yet unidentified but probably local supplier. Needless to say, times have changed and nowadays the real photographics are more eagerly collected than the mass-produced printed cards.