The name 'Rye Pottery' can be applied to ceramics produced in
the small Sussex town of Rye and the surrounding area. Pottery
has been produced in Rye since mediaeval times, but what is now
known as Rye pottery was started at Cadborough near the end of
the eighteenth century. Cadborough established the design that
is now recognized as traditional for Rye pottery - applied
sprigs of hops and hop leaves on pots made from local clay with
a lead glaze. In the second half of the nineteenth century the
Bellevue Pottery opened In Rye, and by 1890 the Cadborough
Pottery had run out of family members to keep it going, and was
swallowed by the thriving Bellvue Pottery. Bellvue was run by
Frederick Mitchell until his death in 1875 and by his wife,
Caroline, until Frederick Thomas Mitchell, their son, took over
in the last decade of the nineteenth century. After the turn of
the nineteenth century the company ventured into more ambitious
styles, including lustre glazes. By the 20's and 30s they were
producing the Jazz and