IT WAS the chipped fragments of stone which ceramicist Freddie Crossley found scattered across the fields at his family’s Hampshire farm that inspired his recent exhibition at The North Wall, writes Tim Hughes.

But it was his experience as a young artist at St Edward’s School which made it possible.

The show of Freddie’s gorgeously-textured domestic ware was called Flint, and saw his lustrous pots displayed alongside knapped hand axes created millennia ago and picked up on the Downs by the 23-year-old potter.

“These ancient tools were made by people at least 10,000 years ago,” he says, as we meet in the venue’s gallery space. “I love the idea of people living and working in the same place as me, reaching across some unfathomable amount of time. I fire my work at such a high temperature that it is going to be in the world for an uncountable amount of time too – either in one piece or broken. Nothing can degrade it.”

His reduction-fired stoneware is baked at 1,280C, with the oxygen cut off, forcing the flame to draw oxygen from the clay, intensifying its colours.

His homeware, fired at home in Hambledon (“the home of cricket, he smiles,”) has found a ready audience among collectors. But he learned his craft from Teddies technician Richard Siddons, with Freddie – a music scholar – experimenting with techniques after school.

“Teddies was an amazing place to be and I’m very grateful, “ he says. “I learned how to do it here, and wouldn’t have done it had I not come here.

“I was finding my way as a person and an artist at the time, and Richard taught me how to ‘throw’ and [head of art] Peter Lloyd-Jones taught me about painting. The school also taught me to be ambitious.”

He went on to Cambridge, reading English Literature at Clare.

He says: “It was hard work but good work, and I was lucky in my choice of college, which had quite a liberal atmosphere. I did lots of painting and in the summer I made pots.”

His work paid dividends, seeing him pick up the college’s Duncan Robinson Prize for Art in 2011 and 2014.

He has also trained as a puppeteer.

He says coming back to exhibit at The North Wall had been a joy.

“It’s a really interesting space,” he says. “People circulate here during the intervals of theatre productions at a time their imaginations have been captured and their creative juices are flowing.

“I came here to watch plays and constantly changing art exhibitions and found that really exciting. It’s an extraordinary building and it’s great that new and emerging artists like me can show here, beside a brilliant theatre.

“It’s tucked away, so it does require you to know it’s here, but I would encourage everyone to come and see what’s here.”

For details of Freddie’s work see freddiecrossley.com