Autumn Meeting.... our 53rd Gathering
Dartford, Kent

Our 53rd meeting was held at the Thistle Brands Hatch Hotel, Dartford,Kent on Sunday 15th October 2006 and was hosted by Colin Strong who put together a varied and interesting weekend of activities.

Members came from all over the UK including international members, David and Margaret Montgomery who having already visited several UK group members at home joined us for the weekend.  David told us about their 'world tour'  and collecting Belleek in New Zealand in general.

Several members took the opportunity to visit Neville Maguire and look at his amazing collection of Belleek.  Neville laid on an excellent afternoon tea which was really welcome after long journies to London. Our special thanks to Neville's son Kieran and his friend Bridget for the continual flow of tea during the afternoon. Later we all had a great time at 'The George' a traditional Kent Country pub.

On Sunday, we all gathered at the hotel. Laid out for all to see were many pieces from Colin's diverse Belleek collection. Later, we all enjoyed a wine tasting session presnted by Bernie Cole which was really interesting.  It was also good to see Patricia McCauley, who made the journey over from the pottery. Patricia, who is the manager of the Vistor Centre at Belleek, told us of all the latest developments at the pottery and also presented our annual 'Devotee' award. This year, the recipient was Bev Marvell, who, over the years, has been a great contributor to the group and still acts in a caretaker role as Administrator. Well done Bev.After lunch, Neville Maguire presented a talk entitled 'Belleek and Irish Painted Ceramics' which was very informative and interesting. Neville was able to use many pieces from Colin's collection to illustrate certain features including this highly decorated wall plaque.

   Our meeting concluded with our 'show and tell' session, the theme was 'something old, something blue...but not borrowed' The winner was Georgina Rees, who was our youngest member at the meeting.

A full report is now available in our newsletter

Summer meeting and AGM.... 2006
Penn Street, Amersham

Our AGM was held at the Hit or Miss 17th Century Coaching House, Penn Street, near Amersham Buckinghamshire on Sunday 16 July. Our hosts for the weekend were Jackie and Jim Howden, Anne and Ray Parsons and Gina Kelland.

On Saturday, members visited Ray and Anne Parson's home for lunch and a good amount of chat then later, Dinner which was held at the Upper Thames Sailing Club at Bourne End. As usual, the food was to an exceptional standard and everyone agreed it was a great end to the day.

As well as the Annual General Meeting on Sunday, we held our  annual Belleek Silent Auction which has become a firm favourite with UK Group members over the years. As our venue was quite compact, our silent auction was held in the morning prior to lunch.  There was a great selection of items for sale and this month's gallery shows a few of the wares that were for sale. Over 30 items sold, raising over £3000 in total.

After lunch, the tables were cleared ready  for our 2006 Annual General Meeting. After much talk, the important element of any formal meeting was voting for election and re-election of officers. So, for 2006/7, we saw David Reynolds return for a third year in office as Chairman and welcomed Amanda Hilliard to the role of Treasurer. A warm round of applause and thanks was given to Francis Kiddle who has very ably moved the groups' finances forward for the past two years.

A full report is now available in our newsletter

United Kingdom Group 50th Anniversary Meeting
Royal Worcester Porcelain Works, Worcester 15th and 16th October 2005

Born out of an idea many years ago by Joanna Urbanek for a Worcester meeting and considered more than a year ago by Melanie and Simon Whitlock as a potential venue for our 50th Meeting, Our chairman, David Reynolds put together an unforgettable weekend of activities based in and around the historic cathedral city. For everyone, it was one of the best meetings that we have ever had.

Arriving in Worcester from all four corners of the United Kingdom, members took advantage of private tours of the Royal Worcester Visitor Centre, The Cathedral, Kings School and of course, the thriving City Centre shops.  Taking me back to when I visited my Grand Mother for Summer Holidays, Melanie and I visited 'Pratleys' china shop, which opened in 1880 and is still going strong today.  It is an old fashioned shop, virtually unchanged, with ceramics stacked up high on tables, wall units and even the floor.  As an eight year old I can remember being told to walk carefully, not to touch anything and risk losing my pocket money if I broke anything! It is good to see business is still booming at Pratleys after 130 years.  Having told Brian and Pat Russell about the shop, they too called in and were privileged to meet the Mayor of Worcester who was visiting the shop.  Later, we gathered in the King Charles II restaurant which is one of Worcester's most historic houses. It was from this house that King Charles made his escape through the back door closely pursued by Cromwell's forces after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. That evening, there was no one wanting to escape....the surroundings were superb and the food was amazing.

Sunday activities began at 10.00am with audio tours of the spacious and interesting museum taking visitors on a tour of Worcester history from the early Dr Wall days, right through to modern Royal Worcester pieces. Of particular note was their display of rare Shakespeare 'Midsummer Night's Dream' parian pieces from a set produced for the great Dublin Exhibition of 1853. Returning to the museum collection, it was truly amazing to find such a collection housed in one building.  Henry Sandon and his wife, Barbara, who were our guests arrived and soon our 50th meeting was underway.  Henry Sandon gave an interesting and enjoyable talk about his life, including time as a teacher at Worcester's Kings School, then how his interest in archaeology brought his career to Royal Worcester as curator of the museum. Henry also entertained us with stories of his early television appearances with his good friend Arthur Negus and also good finds including Belleek on the BBC television programme Antiques Roadshow in which, Henry appears to appraise and enthuse about his favourite subject, Ceramics, especially Royal Worcester. At the meeting, each member household of the UK Group received their exclusive specially commissioned plate designed and created by Linda and Eddie Murphy with Chris Marvell. Production has been limited to a run of only 75 pieces and carries the new Green Mark. This is an exclusive piece of Belleek solely for the UK Group and will not be available for general sale. Our special thanks were expressed at the meeting to Chris Marvell for his assistance and  Eddie and Linda Murphy for initiating the idea and then working with Belleek through design, pre production issues, to finalise production of the plate.

Patricia McCauley, Visitor Centre Manager at Belleek Pottery together with husband Brendan and son Benjamin flew over from County Fermanagh to join us for our meeting. Patricia brought news from Belleek and confirmed that the 2007 convention will be held in and around Belleek between 18 and 21 April 2007. Patricia then announced that the winner of the 2005 Belleek UK Group honoree award was our web master, Simon Whitlock!.  David Reynolds then talked about how in the last twelve months our revised website has grown and become a focal point for the UK Group worldwide. The award this year is a specially inscribed Eros Pitcher.

To allow staff to prepare our buffet lunch, we all made our way to the Royal Worcester Visitor Centre to preview a special DVD which is being produced by MGTV of Northern Ireland and commissioned by RTE from the Republic of Ireland for transmission during 2007 as part of the Belleek 150th celebrations. The DVD features so far, the Pottery, the Mc Elroy sale in County Fermanagh, interviews and now footage which will be added from the 2005 convention. Above is the UK Group pausing for their photo call standing outside one of the buildings at Royal Worcester designed by R W Armstrong, who also designed the main Belleek pottery building. Pictured bottom row centre are our guests, Barbara and Henry Sandon.

 Later, our bring and tell theme was Worcester Porcelain, so it was a great opportunity to find out about pieces of Royal Worcester in our own collections. There were two pieces, a tureen and a painted 'Neptune' style tea service which caught Henry's eye.  Henry was also asked for assistance to identify a covered sugar brought in by Jackie Howden.  Henry was astounded to learn that the piece had been restored with totally new handles, recreated without any reference books. This was a piece he had not seen before and he remarked that the repair was excellent and so in keeping with the design and style of the piece. With time pressing on, Chris Marvell presented his talk on the early years before Belleek started production, linking Dublin and Worcester porcelain together with Kerr and Binns and David McBirney.  Our final presentation for the day was given By Neville Maguire who talked about the similarities in design and style between Belleek and Worcester pieces together with a lap top projector presentation on his findings.

More information on our 50th Meeting now available in our March newsletter

updated 1 May 2008

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