At their peak, in the 1930s, about 2100 of these towering and complex buildings dominated the skyline of Stoke-on-Trent. Today (Sept 2025) only 47 remain complete with their bottle-shaped chimney. There are 2 more which have collapsed. A third one, a muffle oven without its chimney, was demolished in September 2025.
In 1963 it became illegal to fire bottle ovens and kilns them with coal - the Clean Air Act of July 1956 made a 'provision for abating the pollution of the air.' Pottery manufacturers were given 7 years to completely change their firing methods to use smokeless fuels.
 |
| Bottle Oven at Gladstone Pottery Museum, Longton |
These huge, towering and complex brick-built structures were once the dominant feature of the Potteries landscape. They were an integral part of a potbank and an essential tool in pottery manufacture.
 |
| Bottle ovens in art 'Seven Sisters' J & G Meakin Ltd., Eastwood Works, Lichfield Street, Hanley. Terry Woolliscroft Collection |
At their peak, in the 1930s, around 2,150 existed in the city of Stoke-on-Trent. Most of the potters' bottle ovens were fired once a week, some twice. At each firing a minimum of 10 tons of coal was burnt in each oven. Some very large ovens, with up to 14 firemouths, used over 30 tons per firing. Each firing could last over 72 hours, sometimes longer in difficult conditions.
Bottle Ovens 1954
46 seconds from the film called 'The Peak District'
Thick, black, choking smoke always filled the air.
Sooty smuts clung to everything.
The Clean Air Act of 1956 finally put a stop to their use and sealed the fate of the traditional coal-fired oven. Pottery manufacturers were forced to change but were allowed seven years to fully adapt to the alternative methods and fuels.
By 1960 there were fewer than 200 operable coal-fired bottle ovens.
Interestingly, throughout the whole of the UK, fewer than 100 pottery oven and kiln structures remain. More details here>
By 1960 there were fewer than 200 operable coal-fired bottle ovens.
By July 1963 all bottle ovens and kilns were redundant, although just a few were used (illegally) after the deadline. The skills of the people who used them were redundant too. Their skills faded away. The rush to demolish, encouraged by the local council, began in earnest.
47 precious examples remain standing complete with their bottle-shaped chimney. An additional 2 examples are mere remnants and have lost their chimney. UPDATE: September 2025. The small decorator's muffle kiln which stood on the site of the Falcon Pottery in Town Road Hanley, was demolished on 16th September 2025.
47 precious examples remain standing complete with their bottle-shaped chimney. An additional 2 examples are mere remnants and have lost their chimney. UPDATE: September 2025. The small decorator's muffle kiln which stood on the site of the Falcon Pottery in Town Road Hanley, was demolished on 16th September 2025.
Of these 47 only 30 are potters' ovens, used for biscuit or glost firing. 18 of these are within a very short walk of Gladstone Pottery Museum in Longton, the southernmost of Stoke-on-Trent's six towns.
Interestingly, throughout the whole of the UK, fewer than 100 pottery oven and kiln structures remain. More details here>
DON'T GET CONFUSED
OVEN OR KILN?
The terms, bottle oven and bottle kiln, are often used interchangeably. To most of us they mean the same thing - a complex brick-built, bottle-shaped structure for the firing of pottery or associated materials. Most of us assume them to be the same and to do the same job. And although both ovens and bottle kilns have that curious bottle-shaped chimney, and both were fired with coal, there is an important technical difference between the two.
As with all Potteries terms the usage of the words kiln and oven varied from factory to factory and from town to town but over time the terms became interchangeable.
BOTTLE OVEN
In the Potteries, the term bottle oven meant the potter's biscuit or glost oven which was fired with coal to produce long flames that passed from the firemouths directly into the firing chamber. Heat then passed up through the setting and out through the bottle-shaped chimney. The heat was used once. Pottery inside the chamber needed to be protected from the flames, smoke, sulphur fumes, ashes and dust in fireclay boxes called saggars.
There were other types of bottle ovens which included downdraught, two-tier structures and salt glaze ovens. Temperatures of around 1000°C to 1400°C were reached in bottle ovens.
BOTTLE KILN
A bottle kiln was constructed differently from an oven. There were several types.
A muffle kiln was constructed in such a way that the flames and products of combustion were prevented from entering the firing chamber by being circulated through enclosed flues which surrounded it. The products placed inside the chamber were thus kept away from the filth of fire and did not need to be protected in saggars. Muffle kilns were used for the firing of onglaze enamel decoration and for 'hardening-on' underglaze transferware. Temperatures typically around 700°C to 850°C were reached in muffle kilns.
A calcining kiln was used by potters' materials suppliers. For example flint stones or animal bones were calcined in kilns to make them friable and able to be crushed and ground ready for use in pottery recipes.
There were also frit kilns and lime kilns.
OTHER TYPES OF KILN
Kilns for the firing of bricks and tiles were not bottle shaped at all - they were described as beehive kilns. They generally operated by downdraught and had a separate tall chimney and no hovel.
NO TWO ALIKE
No two bottle ovens or bottle kilns were the same. They were all built differently; the vast majority without architect drawings. Many were built 'by eye' and based only on the experience of the oven builder and the requirements of the factory owner.
An old bottle oven builder, Tom Clewes of Longton, told me
at the Last Bottle Oven Firing in 1978
"They just went up. You won't find any of these ovens drawn on paper
since you just built them.
We did it on a day-work basis and got on with it."
The decorative brickwork at the top of the hovel chimney was created on the whim of the builder and owner.
In their heyday, the different types of bottle oven and bottle kiln were not specifically listed or classified. People in the pottery industry knew exactly what they were, so why bother listing them!
Of the 2000 or so coal-fired bottle ovens and kilns which once littered the skyline of the Potteries only 47 remain standing complete today (2025). Firing them is no longer permitted, the Clean Air Act of 1956 signalled their decline. They were replaced with kilns using the alternative fuels of electricity, gas and oil.
Sources:
1) Alfred Clough, the 'fireman' responsible for the Last Bottle Oven Firing in The Potteries in 1978. He was a local pottery manufacturer and at one time owned over 30 pottery factories.
2) In 1921 Ernest Sandeman described the various types of oven and kiln in his book 'Notes on the Manufacture of Earthenware'
