Jim Rees, Arklow, Co. Wicklow: The Arklow Pottery Heritage Project (Buried Treassue Account!)

Jim Rees is an historian and an author, and he currently works in the Arklow Maritime Museum. Jim also worked for both Arklow Pottery and Noritake with three years’ service in each.

In this little clip Jim tells me where the old pottery was buried around South Wicklow and North Wexford. In the decades and centuries to come - archeologists and historians may well be delighted to hear such accounts,.
...............................................

About the Project

In 2022 I was commissioned by The Arklow Pottery Heritage Project with the support of the Heritage Council to conduct interviews on film with past members of The Pottery. It was a amazing project and I met great people and uncovered great stories, memories and histories. The interviews are long, conversational, informative and inquisitive and their value only grows with time.

The Pottery is now gone and I hope my recordings of these memories and oral histories will survive for many years to come. There were a total of 14 films at the end and it was a great project to work on as Arklow is not a million miles from where I was born and reared and to be able to capture the Arklow accent alone was gold for me.

Thanks to The Arklow Pottery Heritage Project Arklow and the Arklow Town Team for the invite to conduct this project and the Heritage Council for their support and to Maritime Museum and the Arklow Bay Hotel for use of their venues.

Most importantly - thanks a million to everyone in these recordings who gave me their time.

Michael Fortune (folklore,ie), March 2023