History of the Bottle Kiln

 
 

 

From the 18th century until the 1960s, bottle ovens were the dominating feature of the Staffordshire Potteries. There were over two thousand of them standing at any one time and they could be seen everywhere one looked.
Some small factories had only one bottle oven, other large potbanks had as many as twenty-five.

Within a factory ovens were not situated according to any set plan. They might be grouped around a cobbled yard or placed in a row. Sometimes they were built into the workshops with the upper part of the chimney protruding through the roof.

No two bottle ovens were exactly alike. They were all built according to the whim of the builder or of the potbank owner.

 

  How the bottle kiln works
Kiln types
The sagger and the bottom knocker
the 47 kilns still standing today

 

1927 aerial photo centred on Spode's pottery factory, Stoke
1927 aerial photo centred on Spode's pottery factory, Stoke
 

"A Whiff from the Potteries"
"A Whiff from the Potteries"

The Bell Pottery, Bethesda Street, Hanley - 1953
The Bell Pottery, Bethesda Street, Hanley - 1953

 

The J&G Meakin - Eagle Pottery works, Hanley
The J&G Meakin - Eagle Pottery works, Hanley

 


 

 

questions/comments/contributions? email: Steve Birks

updated: March 2008