How many?

How many bottle ovens existed in the Potteries?  

How many are there now?


> At their peak, in the 1930s and just before the World War II, just over 2100 bottle ovens and kilns existed in the six towns of the Potteries.

> In 2021, just 47 structures stand complete with their bottle-shaped chimney.

Background

In a paper presented in 1964 to the West Midlands Division of the National Society for Clean Air, Mr G E Earnshaw, Senior Smoke Inspector of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, said that in the 1920s "there were at least 1,286 ovens, 829 kilns". (total 2115)

In a 1956 survey, H.M.Inspectorate estimated that "there were 572 coal-fired ovens or kilns still in use" and "over 1,500 bottle-ovens have been replaced by smokeless ovens and kilns". (total 2072)

In their report published in 1964, the British Pottery Manufacturers Federation (the pottery industry trade association) calculated that before the 1939-45 World War there were just over 2000 coal-fired operable bottle ovens and kilns in the Potteries. 


The number of bottle ovens or kilns used in each potbank (pottery factory) depended on the success and subsequent size of the company. 
  • Small factories with comparatively low output may have only had 1 or 2 ovens.
  • A medium-sized potbank, such as the Gladstone Works in Longton and typical of those once common in the Potteries, would support 4 ovens and one decorating kiln.
  • Somewhat bigger companies would have needed about 10 ovens.
  • Very successful and much larger factories, such as the Spode Works in Stoke, had 37 operable ovens/kilns in 1843. The Wedgwood factory in Etruria supported 21 bottle ovens in 1929. 
In the 1920s around 350 individual factories existed in the Potteries. According to H.M Factory Inspectorate there were 298 in 1959.

Some have incorrectly suggested that 4,000 bottle ovens may have existed. But this incorrect. It would appear to be exaggerated, even romanticised. The statistics just don't add up.  Details below.


Could this be the last bottle oven
to be fired commercially with coal in the Potteries?
British Anchor Pottery, Anchor Road, Longton
Photo: Bert Bentley  Date: October 1963 

Note: The firing of bottle ovens with coal was outlawed
by the Clean Air Act which came into force on 4th July 1963.
This oven may have been fired illegally.



Confirmation of the statistics

In their heyday, just before the start of the World War II in 1939, just over 2,000 operable coal-fired bottle ovens dominated the landscape of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent.

Two publications confirm the statistics quoted.

1) 1964 report from the British Pottery Manufacturers Federation (BPMF)

Click and expand the pic to make it readable



2) 1965 - source: possibly Ceramics, Volume 20, 1969


There were many other types conventional, 'tall', factory chimney in the Potteries and these contributed to the black smoke which spewed into the atmosphere. These chimneys serviced boiler houses, steam engines, slip kilns, heating appliances and more. There were also those chimneys associated with local collieries, the Shelton Bar steel manufacturing plant, and the Michelin tyre company.

Summary of the published statistics

Operable, coal fired, bottle ovens and kilns:
  • 1920s: 2115 approx
  • 1938: 2000 approx
  • 1939: 2000 approx
  • 1951: 600-700 
  • 1956: 572
  • 1958: 295
  • 1959: 222 
  • 1960: 157 
  • 1961: 95 
  • 1962: 70 
  • 1963: 30 
  • 1964: 20
  • 1965: 11
  • 1966: 3
  • 1967: 0
  • 1978: 1 - refurbished. The last bottle oven to be fired with coal more
  • 1979: 0
Figures do not include bottle ovens/kilns using alternative fuels, e.g oil or coke.
Figures do not include calcining kilns, brick and tile kilns, lime kilns.

Published Statistics
W H Holmes published statistics in Ceramics, Volume 20, 1969
British Pottery Manufacturers Federation (BPMF), 1964
H.M.Inspectorate (Factories) 1956
Mr G E Earnshaw, Senior Smoke Inspector of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, 1964


Additional Sources of Statistics 

1843

The Spode Factory in Stoke used 37 bottle ovens: 7 biscuit, 14 glost, 16 enamel.
Source: The Penny Magazine Of The Society For The Diffusion Of Useful Knowledge. May 1843

1929

A photograph of the Josiah Wedgwood and Sons factory in Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent shows 21 bottle ovens

1952

The Ordnance Survey  1:1250 Sheets clearly show the position of ovens on individual pottery factory sites. An proposed analysis of these will help indicate how many bottle ovens/kilns existed at that time. 

1959

Extract from 'Industrial Health - a survey of the pottery industry in Stoke-on-Trent (Ministry of Labour and National Service) Report by H.M. Inspectorate 1959.  "During the period of the survey (1956-1958) there were 572 coal-fired ovens or kilns still in use, but the industry estimates that at the present time it is burning at least half-a-million tons of raw coal a year less than it was before the war, and over 1,500 bottle-ovens have been replaced by smokeless ovens and kilns."  Possible total 2072.

It is interesting to see that the inspectorate gives a figure of 572 coal fired ovens in use in 1956-1958 whereas the industry's own trade association (British Pottery Manufacturers Federation - BPMF) gave a lower figure of 222. Perhaps the the Association wanted to show a more optimistic figure to demonstrate, perhaps, that they were proactive in ridding the district of the smoke-spewing bottle oven for good.

1964

Part of a paper read by Mr. G.E. Earnshaw MRSH FAPHI, Senior Smoke Inspector, City of Stoke-on-Trent, to the West Midlands Division of the National Society for Clean Air at Stoke-on-Trent on April 22, 1964  "... in the 1920s, grouped mostly in the confines of the six Potteries’ towns, there were at least 1,286 ovens, 829 kilns, 437 boiler chimneys and more than 1,987 chimneys serving other processes and heating appliances in connection with the 350 pottery factories. In addition there were 14 brickworks, 12 tileries and 15 collieries each with chimneys in connection with boilers and ovens on the respective works."

1975

60 ovens were recorded by The North Staffs Junior Chamber in 'Operation Bottle'.  All but one (at the Hudson and Middleton Factory in Normacot, Longton) were inoperable.

1978

 The last time a bottle oven was fired with coal in the Potteries.

The Last time a bottle oven was fired in The Potteries  -  1978
The last time a bottle oven was fired in the Potteries - August 1978
The event was organised by Gladstone Pottery Museum
The oven was at the factory of Hudson and Middleton (Sutherland Works),
Normacot Road, Longton

2020 - The remaining bottle ovens and kilns

47 bottle-shaped structures are still standing today, complete with their chimney. They can be found at 27 locations (29 separate sites) in the Potteries.

3 bottle ovens can also be found in a collapsed state. Two have hovel chimneys which have collapsed - only their firing chambers remain - Falcon Pottery, Hanley.  One bottle oven has collapsed completely - Spode Works, Stoke.
All 50 bottle ovens and kilns are inoperable. Some have been restored. Some are open to the public. No two are alike. All are Listed Buildings.

Only 30 potters' ovens (those used for the firing of biscuit or glost pottery) remain standing. The rest of the bottle shaped structures are either enamel/decorating kilns, or calcining kilns. No beehive brick or tile kilns are left.

18 of those 30 potters' ovens are all within a 5 minutes walk of Gladstone Pottery Museum in Longton. So, two thirds of all the biscuit and glost ovens which now exist are concentrated in a very small area of the southernmost town of Stoke-on-Trent.

15% of all the remaining standing ovens/kilns are preserved in Uttoxeter Road, Longton at Gladstone Pottery Museum (more here>) and the adjacent Roslyn Works.

25% of the remaining ovens are owned by Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

What's left? Click here>


REMEMBERING THE HEYDAY of the POTTERY INDUSTRY

John Abberley 1932-2010 (extract)
Courtesy of  "The Way We Were" published by The Sentinel, 5 April 2008

"At the peak there were more than 2,000 bottle ovens in the district, all in use at different times in a week. The pollution was appalling. The thick smoke sometimes made it impossible to see the other side of the street in Burslem or Longton.

It inspired the improbable story that a German bomber pilot saw the pall of smoke over the Potteries and flew on, thinking the place had been bombed already. This piece of self-mockery typical of Potteries humour, might well have been dreamed up. All the same, you can see why the national image of Smoky Stoke lingered so long. It all came to an end in the late 1950s when the Smoke Abatement Act forced firms to turn from bottle ovens to tunnel kilns fired by gas or electricity. This put a lot of small companies out of business.

But there was no denying this was a further step along the way to eradicating those aspects of the industry most harmful to health, something which long before had been the concern of medical men like Dr John Arlidge. Dr Arlidge was a pioneering figure in tackling ill-health among pottery workers exposed to dangerous materials and the ever-present dust, which caused thousands of deaths.

Yet soon after the disappearance of the bottle ovens, the pottery industry began to change in other ways. So our pottery industry today is a mere shadow of what it used to be. Sons and daughters no longer follow their parents into the potbanks which are left."

What's the difference between a bottle oven and a bottle kiln?  

The terms are often used interchangeably (and confusingly) to mean the same thing - a brick built, bottle shaped structure for the firing of pottery or associated materials.

In the pottery industry of the 1950s, an oven usually meant the potter's coal-fired biscuit or glost oven with open, unprotected flames which passed directly into the firing chamber itself, enveloping the pottery inside.

The word kiln was usually used when the flames were 'muffled'  by being passed through a system of flues and thus kept entirely separate from the firing chamber. Muffle kilns included decorating  enamel kilns and hardening-on kilns.

Kilns also included calcining kilns (used for roasting flint pebbles or ox bones, to make them friable and for use in some pottery recipes), frit kilns (for making glazes), beehive brick and tile kilns and lime kilns.

Usage of the words varied from factory to factory, so its complicated and difficult to be precise. (Source: Alfred Clough, Master Potter, Industrialist, Fireman of the Last Bottle Oven Firing 1978)


Locations and sites of the remaining bottle ovens and kilns in the Potteries  

The table below includes:
  • bottle ovens and bottle kilns still standing, complete with their chimneys
  • remains of bottle ovens or kilns which have collapsed
  • kilns which look like one structure but which have a divided chimney serving two firing chambers
All bottle ovens and kilns in the Potteries are listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, as amended, for its special architectural or historic interest. The 'List Entry Number' shown here against each location is the Historic England reference number.

In Longton there are 7 locations, two, of which havw 2 sites.


TUNSTALL - 0
No bottle ovens remain in Tunstall, the most northerly of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent.


BURSLEM - 14 in 8 locations

3 x Potter's downdraught ovens (Wilkinson type) with integral chimney
@ Bournes Bank, Burslem. Former Acme Marls Ltd. List Entry Number 1220118  Important downdraught ovens, the only ones of their type in the Potteries.

2 x Calcining kilns
@ Furlong Lane, Burslem. Furlong Mills Ltd. List Entry Number 1291014

1 x Muffle enamel decorating kiln
@ Moorland Road, Burslem. Moorland Pottery. Formerly Studio Szeizler Ltd. One kiln with four separate chambers, two up, two down. List Entry Number 1297965

1 x Potter's updraught oven
@ Sandbach Road, Cobridge, Burlsem. Moorcroft Ltd. A small updraught oven with 6 firemouths. List Entry Number 1297942

1 x Potter's updraught oven
@ Newcastle Street, Longport, Burslem. Formerly Price & Kensington (Prices Teapots) Teapot Works. List Entry Number 1290799

2 x Calcining kilns
When viewed from above, you can see a divided flue in the single square chimney.  @ Milvale Street, Middleport, Burslem. List Entry Number 1220736 'kiln, square in section, with two flues separated only at the apex.'

3 x Calcining kilns
When viewed from above, you can see a divided flue in the single square chimney. @ Newport Lane, Middleport, Burslem. List entry Number 1297928 'a pair of calcining kilns adjoin the workshop range: one a narrow cylindrical form, the other square in section, with heavily moulded cap, and chimney to rear.'

1 x Potter's updraught oven
@ Port Street, Middleport, Burslem. Burgess & Leigh Ltd. Middleport Pottery. Open to the public. List entry Number 1297939  'biscuit oven'


HANLEY - 10 in 7 locations

2 x Calcining kilns
@ Eastwood Road, Hanley. Former Johnson Brothers Trent Pottery for flint calcining. List entry Number 1291067 

1 x Hovel only - formerly potter's updraught oven
@ Hope Street, Hanley. Dudsons Ltd. Home to a museum. Open to the public. List entry Number 1195798 

1 x Potter's updraught oven
@ Lichfield Street, Hanley. Former Bullers Works, Allied Insulators Ltd. Imperial Court. List Entry Number 1290918

1 x Hovel only. Formerly potter's oven
@ Warner Street, (Mollart Street) Hanley. Former Smithfield Pottery. List entry Number 1210835

2 x Calcining kilns
@ Shelton New Road, Cliffe Vale, Hanley. Former Twyfords Sanitaryware Factory. Now flats. List entry Number 1195842

1 x Calcining kiln, with two chambers
@ Etruria Bone and Flint Mill. Former Shirleys Bone Mill. Now a museum. List Entry Number 1195818 

1 x Updraught, remains of a collapsed oven. Firing chamber only.
@ J H Weatherby Falcon Pottery, Town Road, Hanley: The hovel collapsed in February 2012. List entry Number 1297938  The entire firing chamber still exists

1 x Muffle, remains of a collapsed oven. Firing chamber only.
@ J H Weatherby Falcon Pottery, Town Road, Hanley: The remains of one of a muffle kiln is housed on this site, immediately adjacent to the collapsed updraught oven.


STOKE - 4 in 3 locations

1 x Calcining kiln, with two chambers
@ Lytton Street, Stoke. Former Dolby Pottery. List Entry Number 1220666

2 x Potter's updraught, hob-mouthed, oven
@ Sturgess Street, Stoke. Falcon Works. Formerly Goss. List entry Number 1210472 (may be incorrectly listed as 'downdraught')

1 x Potter's updraught oven, remains of a collapsed hovel and firing chamber. Firing chamber floor only.
@ Spode Works, Church Street, Stoke. Former Spode factory. The hovel collapsed in 1972. List Entry Number 1392359


FENTON - 4 in 2 locations

1 x  Potter's updraught oven 
@ Hines Street, (Chilton Street), Heron Cross, Fenton. Heron Cross Pottery. List Entry Number 1220240  "a wide hovel set in the main range and housing a reconstructed fritt kiln."

3 x Calcining kilns
@ Fountain Street, Fenton. James Kent (Ceramic Materials) Ltd. Bayer U.K. Ltd.  List Entry Number 1195832 . Excellent condition


LONGTON - 20 in 7 locations (9 separate sites)

4 x Potter's updraught ovens
@ Chelson Street, Normacot Road, Longton. Enson Works. Now known as Core. List Entry Number 1195827

2 x Potter's updraught ovens
@ Commerce Works, Commerce Street, Longton. Former Ashdale Pottery Products.  List Entry Number 1220277

2 x Potter's downdraught ovens (Clement Robey type) with accompanying separate chimney
@ King Street, Longton. Albion Works, King Street. Also known as Phoenix Works.  List Entry Number 1195804 

1 x Potter's updraught oven
@ Corner of Warren Street and Normacot Road, Normacot, Longton. Minkstone Pottery. List Entry Number 1220876

2 x Potter's updraught ovens
@ Normacot Road, Longton. Rear of Sutherland Works. Birchcroft China  List Entry Number 1195814

1 x Potter's updraught oven (originally a biscuit oven but used as a glost oven when fired for the lst time)
@ Normacot Road, Longton. Hudson and Middleton, Sutherland Works.
This was the last bottle oven to be fired in the Potteries, in August 1978.
Oven firing organised by Gladstone Pottery Museum >

1 x Calcining kiln
@ Rear of 120, Uttoxeter Road. Near Short Street, Longton. List Entry Number 1297907

4 x Potter's updraught ovens
@ Uttoxeter Road, Longton. Gladstone Pottery Museum. Open to the public.

1 x Muffle enamel decorating kiln
@ Uttoxeter Road, Longton. Gladstone Pottery Museum. Open to the public.

2 x Potter's updraught ovens
@ Uttoxeter Road, Longton. Former Gladstone and Park Place (Roslyn) Works, adjacent to Gladstone Pottery Museum. List entry Number 1195854 



SUMMARY: 
47 bottle-shaped structures still standing complete with their chimneys
50 bottle ovens/kilns including empty hovels and remnants of firing chambers
30 potters' bottle ovens for firing biscuit or glost pottery 
29 sites in 27 locations


DON'T GET CONFUSED

There are two factories in the Potteries which have the same name - FALCON
  • In Stoke, the Falcon Works were the works of W.H. Goss, Sturgess Street, off London Road. 
  • In Hanley the Falcon Pottery was the factory of  J.H. Weatherby, Town Road.