New Salem Pottery
New Salem Pottery, established in 1972, is owned and operated by Hal Pugh and
Eleanor Minnock-Pugh. Hal and Eleanor produce a variety of original redware and The Pughs also replicate redware and stoneware pottery from the sixteenth through the twentieth century. Their expertise facilitates a specialization in the reproduction of eighteenth and nineteenth century slip decorated and plain redware. Working as consultants to archaeologists, historians, and set decorators concerning historic ceramic techniques and processes, their pottery has been displayed and used by universities, historic sites, the movie industry, and living history museums throughout the United States and abroad. New Salem Pottery is situated on a historical tract of land in north central Randolph County, North Carolina. The tract was settled in 1766 by the Thomas Dennis Family, who along with other Quakers had relocated from Chester County, Pennsylvania. The property sat astride the Trading Road (formerly the Indian Trading Path) which extended from Petersburg, Virginia into South Carolina. The location and the existence of large beds of earthenware clay made it ideally suited for a pottery. William Dennis (b.1769) and his son Thomas (b.1791) were the earliest documented potters working at the property. William, a Quaker opposed to slavery, apprenticed George Newby, a twelve year old African American youth, to learn the pottery trade in 1813. The Dennis Pottery not only made simple, utilitarian redware, but a variety of decorative slipware and thinly turned tableware. William moved to Indiana in 1832, selling the land where the house and pottery stood to Peter Dicks, a Quaker businessman and potter who lived in the nearby community of New Salem. James Madison Hays, a potter purchased the property for utilization of the clay beds in 1874. The Pugh family purchased the land in 1939 and New Salem Pottery was established in 1972 by Hal and Eleanor.
The William Dennis pottery site was located by Hal Pugh in 1974. He researched
and wrote an article In November of 1997 Tom Hargrove of Archaeological Research Consultants, Inc. was contacted by archaeologist Linda Carnes-McNaughton concerning the running of a fluxgate gradiometer (magnetometer) survey of the William Dennis Pottery Site. Mr. Hargrove donated his time to survey both the William Dennis pottery and house site. Collaborating with the Pughs, Dr. Carnes-McNaughton, and Tom Beaman layed off and surveyed a 20 square meter area with the magnetometer. The results of the 3200 magnetic readings were remarkable. The intense heat from the pottery kiln caused the surrounding soil and rock to become strongly magnetic. The magnetometer detected this anomaly against the normal background magnetic field, thus making the exact location of the kiln known prior to excavation. New Salem Pottery is open from 10am to 5 pm Wednesday through Saturday, while being closed entirely for the week of Thanksgiving. New Salem Pottery, 789 New Salem Road, Randleman, NC 27317 336-498-2178 Back to Seagrove Area Potteries New Salem Pottery Online
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stoneware pottery. Years of work at the wheel and the subtle evolutionary
convergence of originality with past traditions make their pottery recognizable
by its own style. The slip decorated redware pitcher shown here is illustrative
of their art.
entitled, "The Quaker Ceramic Tradition in the NC Piedmont:
Documentation and Preliminary Survey of the Dennis Family Pottery" published in
The Southern Friend: Journal of the Friends Historical Society in 1988. Since
that time a number of dedicated professional archaeologists, students, and
volunteers have devoted countless hours in study and ongoing excavations at the
site.
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