Barbados: Meet Master Potter Hamilton Wiltshire
“I thought clay must feel happy in the good potter’s hand.” — Janet Fitch, White Oleander
Hamilton Wiltshire working his magic in his St. Thomas shop.
On our third trip to Barbados, my wife decided that to celebrate her birthday she would like to meet the man behind the popular Hamilton’s Pottery brand. The trouble was, no one, including our cab driver (and his dispatcher), had any idea where to find the shop.
The glossy tourist brochures make no mention. All we knew was that it was somewhere in the St. Thomas parish, far removed from the commercial districts in Bridgetown or Holetown. A Google search advised that we were to ‘turn at Little Jerusalem junction.’
So, we headed inland toward Welchman Hall Gully and Misery Hill until a blue roundabout sign confirmed we were on the right track. Up we climbed, past rickety farm houses, past a lone foraging goat, past a tall sugar cane crop until a bumpy Allan View Road – more a pathway than a road – took us to a non-descript grey building with a sign confirming that we’d arrived.
“You’re a hard man to find,” said my wife as we entered the shaded workspace. “I’m the Shelley who sent you the email from Canada.”
“Oh yes, I remember,” said Mr. Hamilton Wiltshire, greeting us with a wide smile as he placed a handle on another clay mug being readied for the kiln. “Hello Ms. Shelley. Pleased to meet you and welcome to Barbados!”
Shelley told him how we had received gifts of his pottery in recent years. She began her shopping while I chatted with this amiable Bajan craftsman. Turns out he has been turning Barbadian clay into pottery now for more than four decades.
“I began when I was a teenager and heard a radio spot promoting government pottery training right out of high school,” he said. “From there I took further training, including study in Italy, and started my business selling Indigenous pottery.”
In fact, Wiltshire used Indigenous Potteries as a business name, until a customer wandered into the shop one day and asked if this was ‘Hamilton’s Pottery’. After another visitor asked the same question, he decided to personalize his brand. A wise decision.
Today, Hamilton runs the countryside business with the help of his wife, sister and cousin. Their son lives abroad in the UK.
“I hope that maybe someday he will come home and work with us,” he said. “I am hoping to find a younger person, someone with the right attitude, to be trained to work with me.”
Wiltshire produces a range of stunning ceramic products, many of which are sold through retail outlets such as the popular Cave Shepherd chain of eight stores and the Best of Barbados shops. He also sells from a tent during the popular Holetown Festival in mid- February each year.
“The festival keeps me up until 2 a.m., but I love it,” he adds, while setting the latest mug onto a shelf to dry before being baked in the kiln.
His pottery is made with red clay sourced in nearby St. Andrews. The end products include functional and traditional pots – monkey jars, table ware and vases – along with decorative candle shades, flying fish wall art, chimes and spoon ladles.
During our brief visit, his cousin was inserting individual plugs of clay onto a mould press, which produced a ready-to-bake spoon ladle. As each item was retrieved from the mould, he trimmed the excess clay by hand. All of the colourful glazes that are baked onto Wiltshire’s creations are environmentally safe.
Earlier in his career Wiltshire was encouraged to ship products to overseas markets, but the huge demand on his time took away from what he loved most – the craft itself.
“I had to ask myself the question: Am I a potter or a packer?” He eventually cut back from ten staff to three. He will, however, still produce some custom orders.
Hamilton rung up our purchases and helped wrap them, offering a generous discount on top of the already reasonable wholesale price. It was a huge saving over the retail markups found elsewhere.
On our return to Holetown, our cab driver Dwight tells us his real passion is cooking. He has studied in the US and UK and is considering taking a course in fine cuisine in Montreal, Canada. So, it was no surprise to me that my kind wife added something special as we paid our fare – one of Wiltshire’s specialty kitchen items – a ceramic spoon ladle glazed in beautiful Caribbean blues and greens.
“Something to remember our trip by,” she said. “And now you’ll always know where to bring your passengers if they’re looking for Hamilton’s shop.”
Weeks later back in Canada, it is a chilly winter’s morning, a far cry from the 28-degree Celsius climate in Barbados. We reach for our coffee mugs. Smiling, we remember our search for the happy Bajan potter who has pleased thousands of customers throughout the Caribbean and overseas.
Turning the mug over, we read the inscription on the bottom: Hamilton’s Pottery, Barbados. A pleasant reminder of the day we met this extraordinary craftsman and gentleman.
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To find Hamilton’s Pottery of Barbados:
By car: From Holetown, drive 9.7 km east for 13-15 minutes via Highways 1A and 1. Turn at Little Jerusalem Junction, following the blue arrow sign for Hamilton’s Pottery.
Address: Lot 4 (Allan View Road), Sturges, St. Thomas, Barbados.
Tel: +1 246-242-7176
Email: dale.wiltshire63@gmail.com
Hours: Mon to Fri – 9am to 5pm and Saturday – 9am to 1pm
Closed Sunday.
