St Ives Craft Center....Accommodation
Residential five day Courses are run thorough out the year offering students the opportunity to explore different crafts in a friendly informal atmosphere where beginners are especially welcome . The Venue - a converted Mission Chapel offers accommodation on the first floor known as 'Ambler' the ramblers rest, featuring open beamed ceiling's, feature stone walls, pine floors and log burner with central heating. There is ample free parking and a shared garden should you wish to relax in the sunshine, The building is situated on the B3311 St Ives - Penzance holiday route and there is a regular Bus service stopping at the Center, Arrangements can be made to meet students arriving by public transport. Students are welcome to bring a non participating friend that may share the 'Ambler' budget accommodation. Some of our Courses may be run from 'Riverside' our holiday chalet at Gwithian with steps leading to the beach, set on a nature reserve in an area of outstanding natural beauty overlooking St Ives Bay famous for its golden sand.
Tariff
All Courses will be charged at £295 for the five day Course to include Accommodation and Breakfast on a Help your self basis there will be toast, cereals, tea, coffee, and soft drinks) at both Riverside & Craft Center, as well as light refreshments during morning and afternoon sessions. Students may use the kitchen facilities at other times to prepare their own food. Non participating guests can share the accommodation at £15 per night including self catering breakfast ( food provided ) and use the kitchen facilities at other times to prepare their own food. There will be charges for the firing of and forwarding of pots, for timber, watercolor paper, paints, ect. The terms will be 1/2 the course fee payable when booking and the balance payable four clear weeks before arrival.
Riverside
'RIVERSIDE' ( formally Smith Villa ) was bought by my late Mother in 1951 for £450, The property had been trading as 'Tea Rooms' as well as being our family home. We continued selling trays of tea, Tuckers Pop' Smiths crisps, and cigarettes ect throughout the summer. Each evening my young Sister Mary and I would walk among the dunes collecting sandy tea trays and litter, while Mother fetched water for the next day from a tap behind ... or on some occasions the power station and it would take her two hours carrying heavy metal water cans to collect enough, by which time she was exhausted, In the same year we accommodated the 'York's' a family of four staying in one room for their two week holiday and shortly afterwards the Smiths, a family of four who stayed for a week. We got on well and have fond memories of long summer holidays, sand between my toes, exploring rock pools and caves, They have holidayed with us ever since, It was about this time I started my boating escapades first with a raft made of drift wood and oil drum's painted in tar. In 1961 I started my apprenticeship as a Potter at St Ives and in 1966 returned to Hayle where I founded 'Anchor Pottery' using an existing out building at 'Riverside' as my studio, and registered office. I rebuilt the kitchen in my late teens using drift wood including piranha pine and marine ply from a deck cargo that came adrift from a ship berthing along side Hayle's north quay. I improved the interior configuration of Riverside to offer three bedrooms a spacious lounge. A shower replaced the outside 'bucket and chuck it' and electricity replaced the 'paraffin central heating'. The Chalet built in the thirties now complies with the NIC EIC electrical installations regulations and 21st century legislation. The chalet is part of the 'Cornish Rivera' in the tradition of the canal long boats, and I have endeavoured to retain its quaint picturesque qualities.
