Remembering Grattan Frayer of Mayo's Terrybaun Pottery

By Tom Gillespie

THIS week (August 25) marked the 39th anniversary of the death of academic and renowned potter Grattan Freyer, who operated Ireland’s oldest rural pottery at Pontoon for 33 years with his wife Madeleine.

With the use of Mayo’s local distinctive red clay, the pottery venture has become popular worldwide and many pieces are in private collections.

Noelene Beckett Crowe of the Mayo Genealogy Group has undertaken detailed research on Grattan Freyer who was great-great-grandson of Samuel Freyer from Cleggan, Co. Galway.

Grattan was the second son of the writer and art collector Major Dermott Freyer (1883 - 1970) and Lorna Doone McLean, New Zealand. Grattan was born on July 25, 1915, in England, where he grew up. He had two brothers, was a lifelong daily swimmer, a good step-dancer and also bred horses and rode throughout the hills of Pontoon.

Grattan Freyer married Madeleine Giraudeau, whom he had met in 1935, in Dublin on August 16, 1939, and again in Ballina on July 10, 1958, when he converted to Catholicism.

They had travelled extensively throughout France, Poland and Russia while Madeleine had been to Turkey and Norway. She had the use of a small flat in Paris where they stayed as they both went on foreign holidays throughout their time in Ireland. Later in life Freyer travelled to Europe and America for his academic lectures.

Between 1946 and 1947 Grattan Freyer entered an apprenticeship at the Leach Pottery at St. Ives. Madeleine became the salesperson and Leach’s private secretary.

By 1948 Grattan Freyer was experienced enough to manage the Wenford Bridge Pottery in Cornwall for a year. He researched the use of turf as a fuel for firing kilns. Grattan tested the clay deposits at Wenford Bridge from both Youghal in Co. Cork and in Co. Mayo.

He made the decision to opt for Mayo and Terrybaun because he would have the desired distinctive clay deposits he required available in the area.

Consideration also of the Mayo area was given to the fact that his father Dermott had returned to live in Achill, where Dermott maintained an eccentric establishment at his home, Corrymore House, at the back of which he built a Greek theatre where he held folk-dancing displays.

The cottage at Pontoon, with land and bog (approximately 12 acres, just north of Pontoon on the west side of Lough Conn), was purchased in 1948. Madeleine and Grattan began the task of renovation with the planting of trees, adding a drive and courtyard, and planting a vegetable garden.

Both became expert bricklayers in the process.

During their preparation of the pottery they were visited by Muriel Gahan of The Country Shop in Dublin who became one of their first customers.

Muriel Gahan, who was instrumental in the development of the Irish Countrywoman’s Association, was born in 1897 in Magherabeg, just outside Donegal town, to an English mother and a Church of Ireland, Unionist and Freemason father. Her father, Frederick George Townsend Gahan, worked for the Congested District Board - a body set up to improve the conditions of people in the poorest areas of the west of Ireland.

In the autumn of 1900 he moved to Castlebar and took up residence at Creagh Villa, which was later the home of my grandparents, Thomas H. and Katherine Gillespie, and my father, Dick, and his brothers and sisters.

In September 1919, my grandfather Thomas H., proprietor of The Connaught Telegraph, purchased the property for £900.

It consisted of a two-storey house with stables, coach house, motor house, sheds, etcetera, and about 14 acres of land.

The clay for Terrybaun Pottery was purchased from the Clarke family who lived in Ardagh, near Ballina. Freyer produced the first pots of Terryduff Clay on July 4, 1950, which he worked on a kick wheel that he had built.

He used turf for his kilns until 1958 when he installed an electric kiln. It became a custom of the Freyers to hold an annual pre-Christmas exhibition at the Painter’s Gallery in St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, and an occasional one at The Country Shop.

Grattan and Madeleine became skilful at the ‘marbling' effect. She won an award at an exhibition in Munich. Madeleine concentrated on marine and equine animals. She produced ashtrays for hotels and restaurants with customised Celtic patterns plus a variety of items for tourists.

It was Grattan’s department when lettering was required on wine beakers decorated with mottos or commemorative plates or tea-sets.

During the 1950s the painter Turloe Connolly spent a day decorating tiles and vases while Liam de Paor, the archaeologist, produced a location map for the pottery. Françoise Henry, the art historian, drew Celtic patters on pottery pieces.

During 1959 the Japanese professor Kuni Imaeld decorated plates with Japanese texts. In 1964, when Pauline Bewick stayed, she decorated many plates.

During 1974 another Japanese artist, Tacao Ono, drew birds and figures on Terrybaun Pottery. The arrival to the area of the Irish sculptor Oisin Kelly led to much collaboration that lasted for six to seven years. A local friend, Desmond Mac Avock of Ballina, made slip pictures on woodcuts based on Henri Lauren's designs.

During the '60s Grattan Freyer returned to academic work in the field of Anglo-Irish Literature.

He died on July 25, 1983, and is buried at the nearby Addergoole Cemetery.

Later Madeleine sold the pottery business to her nephew Henri. She returned to live in Dublin. Madeleine died on August 6, 1999, and is buried with her husband.