Peter Saysell Paintings

The painting above (No 1) and No2 and No 3 below were bought from Mr Saysell’s studio in Bream around 1965.

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This photo of an oil painting produced by Peter Sayell shows the wooden headframe at Princess Royal (Park Gutter) colliery. Many people in the Bream, Parkend, Whitecroft and Yorkley areas will remember Mr Saysell as a teacher at Bream Secondary Modern School. Mr Saysell’s gallery was opposite the entrance to the school and the pottery workshop was behind it. He sometimes took pupils to dig up clay for pottery making on Sun Green. Others will recall him as the artist who created the ceramic sculptures on the side of the Shire Hall building in Gloucester.

Does anyone else know of more of Mr Saysell’s paintings?

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Mr Saysel himself l added (October 2021): “… I am so pleased that you have kept a record of my work. It may be of interest to you that I made a few sketches of the Princess Royal before it was demolished as well as some other pits in the area. I moved to Bream ( into the Williams and cotten haberdashery, Blue Rock house) in 1962 and developed the Forest of Dean Pottery. We moved away in 1985”.

Another Bream artist, Phylis Lewis later produced Forest figures from the same premises for a time.

Shire Hall Ceramics

The ceramics produced by Mr Saysell in his pottery in Bream in 1964 could be seen on the side of the building in Upper Quay St., Gloucester.

Each panel in symbolic form represents a department of the County Council, Justice, Engineering, Planning, Architecture, Education and Health

Gloucester Civic Trust 1981

(Photo from Google Street View Aug 2016 – does anyone have a better photo of the ceramics?)

The same wall with new cladding and no ceramics on show in May 2019.

An enquiry in May 2019 as to the fate of the ceramics was answered by Shire Hall staff: “… Further to your recent enquiry about the ceramics that were previously visible on the Westgate Street end of block 4, I can confirm that they were preserved within the construction when it was re-clad, as part of the approved scheme. When Shire Hall is next refurbished (in another 50 years?) they are there to be rediscovered”.