About Tim

Tim Farmer joined the Royal Navy at the age of 15. On leaving twelve years later, he worked for a publishing company in Bond Street, London, W1 (and was one of the small team to publish the very first Mr. Men books). At the time he was living in a bedsit in Putney, so to pass away the evenings he enrolled in a pottery class at Putney Art College and found he loved it.

After two years he decided to leave the ‘big city’ and became a trainee production thrower at Greyshott Pottery in Surrey. In 1974 he set up his own pottery business trading as ‘The Wren Pottery’ in Alton, Hampshire. As most of his work was sold to craft shops in Devon and Cornwall, it seemed a natural progression to move to the West Country. So in May of 1980 he opened a shop at the far end of ‘The Village Craft Arcade’ at 10 Brook Street, Tavistock (now the Edinburgh Woollen Mill), where he worked on his potters wheel in view of the public. In 2002 the Arcade was sold for development and he transferred to a rented barn on a farm on Dartmoor and reverted to wholesale supply only.

At the age of 70 he decided to scale down the business and now works from his own shed supplying only Boscastle Pottery in Cornwall and South West Crafts of Tavistock. He also has a stall in Tavistock Pannier Market, run by his wife Trudy, each Wednesday throughout the year, and on the first and third Saturday of each month is out on the Town Hall Square (weather permitting), where his extensive range of domestic stoneware pottery can be purchased. All items are suitable for use in the oven or microwave and may be put in a dishwasher.

His intention is to produce functional items that people will enjoy using. He does not hand paint designs on any of his pottery, relying on the inner depth of his own developed, highly fired stoneware glazes to express themselves.