Tunstall

TUNSTALL AREA

Tunstall is one of the six towns that federated to form the city of Stoke-on-Trent. It is the most northern, and fourth largest, town of the Potteries. It stands on a ridge surrounded by old tile making and brick making sites, some of which date back to the Middle Ages. Tunstall was a village until the 18th century when it was transformed by industrialisation made possible by the building of the Trent and Mersey Canal. By 1818 there were 18 potteries.

But today, no bottle ovens or bottle kilns used in the potbanks remain in Tunstall. 

BOTTLE OVENS LONG SINCE GONE


http://bottleoven.blogspot.co.uk/
Richardson's Potbank, Pinnox Street c1960
Photo: source unknown


Richardson's Potbank, Pinnox Street
Photo: source unknown  Date: unknown


Richardson's Potbank, Pinnox Street
Before July 1970  |  After March 1971
Photos: Terry Woolliscroft Collection


Tunstall Richardsons Pinnox St TW July 1970
Richardsons, Pinnox Street
Photo: Terry Woolliscroft Collection   Date: July 1970
Camera: Kodak Instamatic 233

Richardsons, Pinnox Street.
Demolition in progress
Photo: Terry Woolliscroft Collection   
Date: Dull day in March 1971
Camera: Kodak Instamatic 233


http://bottleoven.blogspot.co.uk/
Greenfield Pottery and Bottle Ovens
Photo: source unknown  Date: c1900

Enamel muffle kilns at Alfred Meakin’s Eastwood Tile Works
The image was first published in a souvenir booklet
to mark the visit of King George V and Queen Mary on 23 April 1913 
Many thanks to Ben Miller, Assistant Curator of Ceramics,
Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, for help in identifying this photo. March 2019




"Alfred Meakin, Ltd., [also at] Highgate Tile Works, Tunstall : general earthenware, Royal Albert & Victoria Potteries, manufacturers of every description of plain & embossed tiles, glazed & richly enamelled for dados, walls, hearths, fireplaces, etc., also encaustic and plain floor tiles, and mosaics for pavements of churches, entrance halls, corridors, vestibules, &c."



Gordon Pottery, 1969
Watercolour painting by Reginald Haggar, 1905–1988
Photo: Source unknown


Henry Richard's Ceramic Tile works
Williamson Street
Photo: source unknown  Date: unknown

Daniel Platt & Sons, Tunstall
Daniel Platt & Sons, brick & tile manufacturers, Brownhills works on Canal Lane. A factory making bricks and tiles had existed on the site since the 1820s and Platt's acquired the site in 1896 in order to expand from their cramped Harpfields Tileries, Hartshill Road works. The photo below shows one of the downdraught beehive brick kilns used by Platts.

I am very grateful to Don Perry who sent me the following information about the people in the photo, all members of one family, the Perry family. "The one firing the kiln [in the middle] is Thomas (Tom) Perry, born 1896, died 1971. The one holding a shovel is William (Bill) Perry, born 1899, died 1964. The one with the wheel barrow is Arthur Edward Perry, born 1901, died 1935. Picture dated some time before April 1935"

Downdraught beehive kiln. Note separate chimney on right
Daniel Platt & Sons, brick & tile manufacturers
The Perry Family firing the kiln
Source: unknown Date: some time before 1935



Keele Street Pottery. Excavation May 2019   
At the end of May 2019 officials from the Stoke-on-Trent City Archaeology Service excavated the site of a bottle oven in Keele Street, Tunstall. The Keele Street Pottery.

The site was soon to be developed for housing.

Keele Street Pottery Excavation
Photo: Terry Woolliscroft Collection  Date: May 2019








Sooty eggcup
Keele Street Pottery, Tunstall
Photo: Terry Woolliscroft Collection  Date: May 2019


Sooty eggcup
Keele Street Pottery, Tunstall
Photo: Terry Woolliscroft Collection  Date: May 2019


Keele Street Pottery Excavation
Photo: Courtesy Aitch Tee @notavocation  Date: May 2019


Keele Street Pottery Excavation
Photo shows one of the firemouths


BOTTLE OVENS STILL STANDING?

No bottle ovens or kilns remain in Tunstall. All have been demolished.