Windback Wednesday - Bennett's Magill Pottery

Charles Bennett, the founder of Bennett’s Magill Pottery, emigrated to South Australia from Somerset with his family in 1849, when he was just 7-years-old. The Bennett family settled in Magill which, due to an abundance of high-quality clay combined with a high demand for ceramic goods in the growing colony, was home to a high number of potteries.

In 1854 at the age of 12, Charles Bennett became the first apprentice potter in South Australia. He worked as an apprentice, and then a full employee, of John Henry Trewenack, a third generation potter from Cornwall. Together with his son William, Charles later worked at Piercy Brothers Pottery, where William met his future wife, Abigail Piercy. In 1855, the Bennett family established their own pottery on their family property in Magill. Originally the Magill Pottery Works, the business grew gradually over the following decades until Bennett’s Magill Pottery was established at its current location in 1887.

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the Bennett's, with the pottery burning to the ground in 1940, and again in 1956. However, the Bennett family have persisted through these disasters, with the present pottery continuing to thrive under the management of its fifth generation of Bennetts.

Photograph: Magill Pottery, date unknown. Courtesy of the History Trust of South Australia GN14877