Len Castle, New Zealand potter, died he was 86.

Leonard Ramsay "Len" Castle DCNZM CBE was a renowned New Zealand potter.

(23 December 1924 – 1 October 2011^[1])

Born in Auckland in 1924, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1946 from University of Auckland and trained as a secondary school teacher, eventually taking a lecturing position at the Auckland College of Education. Self-taught, Castle began making his first pottery in 1947. In 1956 he moved to St Ives, Cornwall for a year to work with Bernard Leach and became a full-time potter in 1963. The same year he helped establish the New Zealand Society of Potters.^{[citation needed]}
In the early 1960s he had an architecturally designed house built in the bush of the Waitakere Ranges at 20 Tawini Road, Titirangi, with a kiln and rail system out the back, and a low basement which allowed pottery to be exhibited. Turning room for tour buses was provided in the street outside. The Boyes family which bought the house demolished the kiln; however, the bricks from it form the paving round the lower part of the house, and shards from discarded pottery works can still be found amongst the clay soil of the bush behind.^{[citation needed]}
In the early 1950s Len Castle met Theo Schoon and Schoon decorated the surfaces of pots thrown and fired by Castle. In 1960's Schoon introduced him to the geothermal areas of the central North Island of New Zealand. Castle has continued to photograph this landscape area, and is reflected in his pottery.^[2]
Castle studied pottery in Japan, Korea and China in 1966–67. He names Shoji Hamada as one of his influences. He built a new house in South Titirangi with a larger kiln and even more extensive railway to serve it in 1972–73, which is still operating. In 1989, along with a number of other New Zealand ceramic and glass artists, he was commissioned to supply work for the New Zealand pavilion at the World Expo at Seville in 1991. This work is now in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.^[3] In 1986, he received a CBE for services to pottery. He was awarded the New Zealand Commemorative Medal in 1990 for services to the country. In 2004 he was awarded DCNZM. He was declared an Icon of New Zealand Art in 2003.^[4][5] "Len Castle: Potter" won a Montana Book Award for non fiction in 2003.


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