Tributes to Phyllis who painted flowers for Clarice Cliff

ONE of the last surviving members of Clarice Cliff’s ‘Bizarre Girls’ has died.

Talented pottery painter Phyllis Woodhead passed away at Brindley Court Nursing Home in Longport. She was 94.

She specialised in painting flowers on pottery and her work for Clarice Cliffis now much sought after by collectors worldwide.

Some is exhibited at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Hanley and the Wedgwood Museum in Barlaston.

Phyllis, the eldest of five children, was born in Middleport, on January 8, 1914.

She left school at 14 and went to art school part-time as well as working for Clarice Cliff at the Newport Pottery in Longport.

She was one of the first Bizarre Girls – the name given to Cliff’s small team of female painters who decorated the bright, colourful Bizarre Ware, which helped the designer become a household name in the 1930s.

When the war started in 1939, Phyllis volunteered for the Red Cross and in 1942 she was called up to work in an aluminium works at Milton. She stayed there until 1947.

She then worked for Charlotte Rhead at Woods & Sons in Middleport before retiring at the age of 59.

She moved in to Courtway Drive, Sneyd Green, with her family in the 1950s.

She never married and lived with her youngest brother, Frank, until she suffered a stroke last October.

After receiving care at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, she saw out her days at the nursing home, not far from where she plied her trade decades ago.

She died on April 14.

Frank Woodhead, aged 75, of Courtway Drive, Sneyd Green, said: “As far as I know, she was one of the last, if not the last, Bizarre Girl. There certainly can’t be many left.

“Phyllis was very talented and she was highly regarded by people in the pottery industry.

“The Bizarre Girls were elite in the workplace. One day Mr Colley Shorter, the boss at Newport Pottery, took the girls on a trip to Llangollen. Phyllis had never been to Wales before. They had a picnic in a field. Bosses would not treat you like that today,” said the former wireman at GEC.

He remembered with fondness an occasion in the late 1980s when a Sotheby’s valuer visited a Hanley hotel.

“He wanted to know chapter and verse about pieces of pottery Phyllis had in her bag. The line stopped for about 20 minutes,” said Frank.

He said his sister went on to travel the country demonstrating her pottery painting skills for the Clarice Cliff Collectors Club, which was established a decade after the designer’s death in 1972.

Away from pottery, Phyllis enjoyed travelling and had a passion for dogs.

She used to show her Labradors which won a number of rosettes.

Neighbour Norman Beardmore, aged 67, who lives in Carlyon Place, Sneyd Green, added: “Phyllis was very talented. She was the last remaining Bizarre Girl, as far as we know.”

Ms Woodhead’s funeral was due to take place at Carmountside Crematorium at 1.30pm today.

Do you know a Clarice Cliff Bizarre Girl?

RIGHTLY PROUD: Frank Woodhead, the brother of the last known Bizarre Girl Phyllis Woodhead, with a piece of Clarice Cliff pottery that she painted. Inset, Phyllis, second left, on the Daily Sketch. Below, Phyllis Woodhead in 2006. Picture: Gwen Woods