The Medieval Pottery Research Group at Twenty-Five: Past, Present and Future

This is not a conventional paper of the kind that forms the mainstay of Medieval Ceramics. In order to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the MPRG, we invited several stalwarts of the medieval pottery fraternity to contribute their thoughts on the Group, their involvement with its genesis and growth, and their views on the present state of the profession and their hopes, or otherwise, for years to come. The following assemblage of personal reminiscence, historical narrative, learned comment, penetrating nalysis of current trends and challenges for the future is offered as a tribute to the those members of the Group, past and present, who have done so much over the past 25 years to put medieval pottery studies on the map. Not everyone we asked to contribute was able to do so, and those who responded are presented here in strict alphabetical order; any omissions from the pantheon are not intentional. A group of presidents, past and present, is shown in Colour Plate 1.