My haven, Emma Bridgewater, 58, in the kitchen of her home on the Norfolk coast

1. Industrious family    

My great-grandparents owned coal mines in Ashington, Northumberland. I love this painting that my great-grandmother bought by one of the Ashington Group, known as the Pitmen Painters. They were mine workers with no formal art training who painted everyday life as they saw it around them. My father’s side owned a boiler-making factory in Wakefield. Maybe starting a pottery works was in my genes. 

2. Sister act  

My mother Charlotte (left) and her younger sister Theresa adored each other’s company. They were generous, hospitable and great entertainers

It fills me with happiness thinking of my mother Charlotte and her younger sister Theresa shrieking with laughter. That’s Mum on the left in the photo. Two wonderful women who adored each other’s company, they were generous, hospitable and great entertainers. Mum was severely brain-damaged after falling from her horse in 1991, when she was 52; she never recovered but lived on for 22 years. I’m one of eight children – from my parents’ several marriages – and we all adore each other.  

3. Lords of the ring    

My sister Nell Gifford started a circus in the same spirit that I started a pottery; something lovely was disappearing and she wanted to save it. She started at the bottom, selling popcorn, then was part of a horse act, then met her husband and they started a circus together. Nell died of cancer in 2019. She took to painting in her last few years and painted this. My eldest daughter Lil is filling Nell’s spangly boots; she’s an acrobat and a singer and she is now producer of Giffords Circus. 

4. Coming up roses      

If I were to choose one thing that influenced my decision to make pottery, it would be this Welsh plate with roses from my mum’s kitchen dresser

If I were to choose one thing that influenced my decision to make pottery, it would be this Welsh plate with roses from my mum’s kitchen dresser. It’s hand-painted in a very dashing way and that’s what I seek to emulate. Mum’s kitchen was a huge influence on me. Her cooking was always delicious, but she was more interested in people, conversation and laughter. The company is a homage to that feeling.

5. Something sacred      

The Shell Guide to Norfolk is by one of my heroines, Wilhelmine Harrod, who started the Norfolk Churches Trust to save our incredible medieval houses of worship

The Shell Guide to Norfolk is by one of my heroines, Wilhelmine Harrod, who started the Norfolk Churches Trust to save our incredible medieval houses of worship. It’s a very good manual for church-crawling. Billa Harrod was friends with John Betjeman whose daughter Candida was one of my mum’s best friends. So my siblings and I did a lot of church-crawling in our childhood, moaning and groaning.

6. The daily grind      

This pestle and mortar that I use for making pesto belonged to my mum. I like manual labour in the kitchen, gadgets just end up wandering off to the charity shop. I don’t cook a lot for myself, but my ex-husband Matthew Rice was a great cook, even though it was a huge performance! I was married for 32 years: we had four kids and lots of dogs. It was a tumult. The pace of life is easier now. 

As told to Mary Greene. All Emma Bridgewater pottery is made from cream-coloured earthenware in her factory in Stoke-on-Trent. Visit emmabridgewater.co.uk.