Harry and May Davis ran Crowan Pottery at the Manor Mill from after the Second World War until 1962. 

Harry was born in Cardiff in 1914. Although he wanted to study pottery, the course he wanted to take at Bournemouth Art School was full, so he studied painting instead. However in his spare time he leaned how to throw pots and, with the help of the head of the ceramics department, he got a job as a thrower with Carter, Stabler and Adams. In 1933 he applied for a job at the new pottery Bernard Leach was trying to set up in Dartington, but instead went to work at the Leach Pottery in St Ives. 

Crowan pottery display - Cury 2005

Harry took on more responsibility and ran the pottery while Bernard Leach was running the studio in Dartington and teaching at Foxhole School. He taught May Scott how to throw pots in 1936 when she was an apprentice there. They got married in 1937 and set up their own pottery in South Kensington in London.  Then Harry was invited to become the head of the Art School at Achimota College, in what is now Ghana. He used local clays and glazes during his time here. May went to Paraguay and joined the Bruderhof community, where she was later joined by Harry, but it seems a stifling communal life didn’t suit them and they returned to Britain in 1942. 

After the war they came to Crowan and converted the mill into a pottery. They used local materials where possible and made well-designed useful tableware in the Leach tradition. Although Harry and May disliked mass-produced pottery and were believers in a craft tradition they recognised that technology could save time and effort and they used the mill wheel to power machinery. Their pottery was high-quality, durable stoneware and was usually brush or wax-resist decorated and sometimes incised. Harry used a mix of 75% ball clay and 25% kaolin, to which he added 1% of Cornish stone.  

Crowan pottery display - Cury 2005

In 1962, apparently because of fears of nuclear war, the Davis family moved to New Zealand where they set up the Crewenna Pottery at Nelson on South Island, continuing to make pottery in the Leach tradition using local materials. They ran this pottery for ten years and during this time Harry developed his technique of incised designs.

In 1972 they left New Zealand to work on an aid project to develop pottery in the Peruvian Andes. They spent some time at a pottery at Izcuchaco working with local people to develop new rural industries. This experience weakened Harry who seems to have become disillusioned and after seven years they returned to New Zealand where Harry died in 1986 and May in 1995.

Crowan pottery is now highly regarded and collectible.