Great Yarmouth Pottery

Information gleaned from

Marc Childs, Lee Childs, Karen Childs, Ernie himself and many others.

Every so often in life, an artist appears and despite many years of hard work and talented production, never really gains the public plaudits they deserve until after their passing. Such an artist was Ernie Childs; potter, sculptor, painter, historian and family man.

In 1977, Ernie and his wife Karen opened Great Yarmouth Pottery, starting in a shed, then within two years, the South East Tower of the Gt Yarmouth town wall as their workspace.

In 1979 the foundations for the Limited Edition Tankard were laid, with the ordering of 25 mugs for use on the Stirling Imp rig supply vessel, of a design that would not fall over in rough seas, with a wide bottom and narrow neck. A year later, they produced the ‘rope’ tankard with a poem; this became the ‘go to’ base for a lot of commercial and special order ware. Ernie then moved on to engraving a picture of a galleon on one side, just to see how it looked.

The oil and gas industry gave them a good boost, with an order of 100 mugs for the Wimpy Seahorse vessel, followed by Halliburton also ordering mugs. Ernie had to design and build his own lithograph machine to print these, each one printed by hand, aligned by eye!

By 1982 they’d outgrown the tower and moved into the redundant fish smoking works next door; their final home for the Pottery and their Museum. In 1982, they produced their first actual Limited Edition Tankard, raising funds for the Fisherman’s Hospital Restoration Fund, sold for the princely sum of £2! In 1983, they produced a Tankard for the Acle to Gt Yarmouth Railway opening along with many others, usually engraved one side and printed using Ernie’s own lithographs on the other. Colours were limited to brown, green and blue glazes with oxidised engravings for detail.

In 1987 came another major step when Ernie started making Tankards with greater detail or recessed inclusions; the first being St Nicholas’ Minster in Gt Yarmouth with a small sculpture of the effigy above the main door, in it’s own recess. The back of the Tankard has a lithograph/engraving of Ernie’s father reading a paper.

The next step was the feature handle in 1994; the first being a fish on a set of fishing boat Tankards, but over the years expanding to a key, ship’s wheel, knots, clock, yardarm, pub sign, soldiers, sailors, doors, windows and even a Bosun’s whistle (working!). His designs became ever more intricate and complicated, with many having separate parts fitted; glass windows, metallic finishes, see-through arches and windows, opening doors, metal components, clays including beach sand or natural clays and an increase in decoration. 

Every single Tankard, whether a simple commercial design or commemorative, was designed, carved, moulded, fettled and finished by hand; no production line facilities were employed, so each and every one is individual and different from every other. Some designs were fired up to five times; with of course, the risk of failure running at some 10% per firing.

In 2013, to mark 34 years in production at the Smoke House site, Ernie produced his last ever Limited Edition Tankard. From then on, he taught painting and ceramics with Karen, sold off his remaining stocks of Pottery products, but ill health started to overtake him and shortly after the 2019 Gt Yarmouth Maritime Festival, which he attended, he passed away. Karen and the family carried on, but lockdowns curtailed business and in 2022, Gt Yarmouth Pottery closed its doors for the last time.

Ernie had regular visits from other potters, including from the home of pottery, Stoke-On-Trent. One of his favourite comments was “Them lot say I can’t do that. I’ll show ‘em….”And He Did.