Gladstone Pottery Museum, in Longton, together with the Roslyn Works next door, are home to the most important group of bottle ovens still standing in the UK and indeed the world.
Gladstone Pottery Museum, 2* Listed, is a fully restored potbank from the days when coal-burning bottle ovens made the world's finest pottery. There are five magnificent, towering bottle ovens in a unique setting, at this stunning multi-award wining industrial museum of the pottery industry.
2016 - repointing the ovens
August: Restoration and renovation continues at Gladstone Pottery Museum to preserve the most important group of bottle ovens remaining in the Potteries.
Gladstone's Bottle Oven No.1 is steadily being encased in a large amount of scaffolding as part of an essential maintenance project. The work is necessary to ensure the safety of museum visitors, and the long-term preservation of the bottle ovens. Failed mortar and spalled bricks will be replaced. More here> Words and pictures by Nerys Williams, member of the Gladstone Museum Staff.
2018 The Festival of Bottle Ovens
In 1978, staff at Gladstone Pottery Museum in Stoke-on-Trent had the inspired and audacious idea of firing a potters' bottle oven, with coal, just one more time. The final firing broke the rules and was to be the last time. Ever.
Before all the knowledge and skills of firing a bottle oven were consigned to history, the museum embarked on a project which proved to be an enormous undertaking, massively complex and tremendously daunting.
40 years later the final firing was commemorated with The Festival of Bottle Ovens. And, for the Festival, Terry and Pam Woolliscroft co-authored the book about it all.
The book is the only complete account of exactly how the firing was organised, and what happened before, during and after the event.
Bottle Ovens and the Story of the Final Firing
by Terry Woolliscroft and Pam Woolliscroft |
The book was commissioned and published in the 40th anniversary year. It tells the story of The Last Bottle Oven Firing. |
The book, Bottle Ovens and the Story of the Final Firing, tells its full story. The details are drawn from contemporary film and audio recordings, photos taken by Gladstone volunteers and visiting professionals, committee meeting minutes, surviving notebooks, the event log book, media reports, management reports and remarkable recollections of some of the 72 volunteers involved.
Ultimately, the book serves as a comprehensive archive of a defining industrial era, celebrating a monumental achievement that successfully captured a vital piece of ceramic history for future generations.
The book was planned, researched, written, designed, published and distributed entirely in the Potteries. Printed in the UK.
Designed by Caroline Dadd of Stoke-on-Trent, and produced with the generous financial support of the Friends of the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery.
Second Edition
Published October 2026
A4 Size - 297x210 mm
60 pages - 29,000 words
131 illustrations
£15
Available from:
Gladstone Pottery Museum shop
Mail Order by phone with credit card +44 (0) 1782 237777
