Ethel was Born in 1910, and left school in 1927. Her first work was hand-painting at Hancock’s of Hanley before she moved to A.J. Wilkinson’s in 1928. She studied art at night school, and during the day worked for Dolly Cliff, in a shop over the Wilkinson’s lodge, shown on the left in the 1928 photograph.

Ethel was painting freehand floral patterns that Dolly had designed, and working with Nellie Harrison, Florrie Winkle, Cissy Rhodes, and Clara Thomas who were later to become Bizarre ‘girls’ with her!

 Ethel remembers that shortly after she joined, Clarice came across from Newport. She showed Ethel a pattern of Crocus flowers on a piece of paper, and asked her to paint it on a cup and plate. Clarice was pleased with the way Ethel did it, and she was moved to Newport Pottery to work there. Original Bizarre was still being produced in large quantities, and it was shortly before the paintresses were joined by the four boys, Harold Walker, John Shaw, Fred Salmon and Tom Stringer. 

Originally Ethel was doing all the Crocus flowers, Cissy Rhodes did the leaves, and Clara Thomas the banding. Suddenly though, they were incredibly busy, and a special ‘Crocus shop’ was made on the floor below the Bizarre shop. The team was enlarged and each girl given a specific colour to apply, to speed up the painting to cope with demand. Ethel did the orange flowers, two girls did blue flowers, two purple, there were two ‘leafers’ and two finishers.

 At this time the Crocus name was written on the ware above the backstamp by the ‘leafers’ which is why it is in green. The girls at this time were Nellie Webb, Doris Thirlwall, Clara Thomas, Ivy Stringer, and Winnie Pound. They were all on pieces work so the faster they painted the more they earned!

In 1930 Ethel managed to get her sister Lily a job in the Bizarre shop, and she was soon enamelling Crocus and Nasturtium, as well as working on Delecia with Elsie Nixon. Unlike Ethel, Lily was chosen by Clarice to go on hand-painting demonstrations and these included Spooner’s of Plymouth, Barker’s of Kensington, the Uxbridge Fair of 1932, and James Colmer’s store in Bath in 1936, pictured below.

Ethel and Lily now had enough spare money to have a good social life; Ethel remembers going to the Theatre Royal in Hanley with Nellie Webb. They also saw Dolly Cliff do exhibition dancing at the King’s Hall in Stoke. 

By 1933 the Crocus shop was very busy, and Crocus was being produced in two main colourways, the original Crocus, and Spring Crocus, in about equal proportions. At the peak time there were 20 girls in the Crocus shop, although occasionally if a larger order came in for another design, all the Crocus girls would temporarily be moved to other patterns. By this time they were all so skilled that they could do this without any difficulty.

Ethel continued to paint Crocus until 1938 when she left to have a baby. Lily left the same year, and later worked at Friar’s and Wood’s, hand-painting, until she too had a family.

In May 1948 Ethel had a telephone call from Clarice’s assistant Hilda Lovatt asking her to return to work, but she said she was not interested. This resulted in Clarice arriving at her house, and asking her personally to go back. Ethel realised she was in a strong position, so made conditions. She negotiated a good wage and returned to work just 9 am to 4 pm She worked alongside the post-war girls, who included at various times Marjory Higginson, Clara Thomas, Florrie Winkle, Rosa Rigby, Doris Johnson, Mary Moses, Cissy Rhodes and Mary Brown. Decorating mainly Crocus, Ethel also helped paint other enamelled designs. Ethel worked throughout the 1950’s, and was even pictured in the Trade press in 1961 still painting Crocus!

When Midwinter's took over in 1964 Clarice negotiated that they continue to employ Ethel and Cissy as long as both of them wanted to work. Shortly after this Susie Watkins the new ‘missus’ in the decorating shop, insisted that Ethel go on to piece-work. Ethel said that she was too old to work on that basis and refused. Clarice tried to stop them getting rid of her but she no longer owned the factory, and there was nothing she could do.

Ethel remembers that in 1966 when taking a holiday in Canada she saw some Crocus ware she had painted a few years previously still for sale at a gift shop near Niagra Falls! Her next encounter with the Bizarre years was when we ‘discovered’ her in 1983. She spent hours looking through scrap books, gave us a long interview and said she would love to help the C.C.C.C. We next met at Midwinter's in 1985: Ethel was there to show them how to paint Crocus on the reproduction ware, and I got some pictures of her doing this.

Ethel appeared very prominently in the group sequences in the Channel 4  Television ‘Pottery Ladies’, where she was seen decorating a Midwinter Conical dredger in Delecia and explaining piece-work rates. When we launched ‘Bizarre Affair’ in April 1988 Ethel came along with Cissy Rhodes and Phyllis Woodhead to open the Warrington Exhibition, and did a hand-painting demonstration, naturally she did Crocus. Sadly her sister Lily died in 1990.

Ethel has in the last decade become a close friend of club members Terry and Sylvia Abbotts. Terry was fascinated by her hand-painting skills, although he himself was a renowned decorator at Doulton for over 20 years. As she celebrates her 90th Birthday, Ethel is still keen to get involved in club events and will be joining us for the C.C.C.C. Convention on June 24th in Stoke.

Leonard Griffin