Hanley : High wood, clearing or meadow.
In 1775, Yates' map recorded the townships of "Handley Green and Shelton." The pottery industry expanded with the Trent and Mersey Canal in 1777, Wedgwood's potteries at nearby Etruria, and the opening of the Caldon Canal. Local businessmen formed a corporate charter for Hanley in 1783; it became a market town under an 1813 Act, and by 1830 was one of the largest towns in the area.
By 1910, the borough of Hanley spanned 1,957 acres, encompassing Hanley, Shelton, Birches Head and part of Sneyd Green. It was one of the six towns—alongside Tunstall, Burslem, Stoke, Longton and Fenton—that federated to form the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910, which was granted city status by King George V in 1925.
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| Hanley before 1930 Photo: source unknown |
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| A postcard from Hanley |
Bottle ovens still standing? Page down or click here>
BOTTLE OVENS LONG SINCE GONE
| J & G Meakin Ltd. Eastwood Works from Lichfield Street The Eastwood Works supported 7 bottle ovens, (3 biscuit, 4 glost) The Seven Sisters Source: from their Centenary Booklet Date: 1951 |
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| J & G Meakin Ltd. Eastwood Works, from the canal The Seven Sisters (but you can only see 6 in this view) |
| J & G Meakin Ltd. Eagle Pottery from the air Source: from their Centenary Booklet Date: May 1950 |
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| Meakins. Gate No1 Photo: Terry Woolliscroft Collection Date: October 1970 |
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| George L. Ashworth Bros Ltd Photo: source unknown Date: c1950 |
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| Masons Ironstone, Clough Street Photo: Terry Woolliscroft Collection Date: c1970 |
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| Masons Ironstone, Clough Street Photo: Courtesy Evening Sentinel Date: Unknown |
Trinity Street Behind the newly built Vale Telephone Exchange. Near Hanley loop line railway station. Possibly the original works of Charles Ford who was a specialist in making kiln furniture, stilts and spurs. Photo: courtesy BT Digital Archives Date: 7 June 1953 |
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| Trinity Street The new Vale Telephone Exchange being built |
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| Broad Street Photo: source unknown Date: unknown |
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| Swinnertons College Road, Shelton Photo: source unknown Date: 1950s |
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| Swinnertons Victoria Pottery, College Road, Shelton Photo: source unknown Date: unknown |
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| Brown Westhead and Moor, later Cauldon Potteries Hanley Park, Shelton Photo: postcard? Date: unknown |
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| Ridgway Factory, Shelton Photo: unknown source Date: unknown |
To confirm this, some years ago I printed out the photo and then used a travelling microscope to count the number of courses. I then used the average course spacing from the bottle-ovens at Gladstone museum to calculate that they were approximately 80 feet tall. It might have been a case of 'our bottle-ovens are taller than yours' with the other local factories.
The inner firing chamber would be no taller than 20 feet and there's a local story that they were used as air-raid shelters during WWII, when the factory was not producing." April 2020
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| Wedgwood factory, Etruria Photo: source unknown Date: 1960? |
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| Wedgwood factory, Etruria Photo: Keele Warrilow Collection Date: 1946 |
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| Wedgwood factory, Etruria Photo: source unknown Date: unknown |
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| Wedgwood factory, Etruria Photo: source unknown Date: unknown |
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| Wedgwood factory, Etruria Photo: unknown source Date: unknown |
| Wedgwood factory, Etruria Updraught stack type bottle ovens being demolished. Photo: Source unknown Date: Unknown |
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| Wedgwood factory, Etruria Bottle ovens prior being demolished Photo: source unknown Date: 1960s |
| Twyfords Ltd. Etruria Works, Garner Street Earthenware sanitaryware, updraught ovens Photo: screenshot taken from the Twyford Film Date: 1929 |
| Twyfords Ltd. Sanitaryware bottle ovens under construction Date: February 1921 |
back to top>
BOTTLE OVEN and KILN with COLLAPSED HOVEL & CHIMNEY
Falcon Pottery, J. K. Weatherby, Old Town Road, ST1 2LB
[9a,b] Location: what3words.com/feed.index.lush
Updraught bottle oven, hovel type. With adjacent decorator's muffle kiln.
The updraught hovel oven - its hovel collapsed in late February 2012.
The decorator's muffle kiln - its chimney collapsed sometime in the early 1970s; probably blown down in a gale. No-one knows for sure how and when it happened. The firing chamber, together with its three firemouths was demolished on 16th September 2025.
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| Falcon Pottery, J. K. Weatherby, Town Road From the air Photo: Source unknown Date: unknown, probably 1950s |
The small muffle kiln was probably used as both a 'hardening-on kiln' and an enamel kiln. The muffle firing chamber was approached from the yard via a small workshop which would have served as a placing room. Two stable-type cast iron doors, backed with firebrick blocks, were in position at the entrance to the chamber in 1975. Both were badly rusted and immovable.
| J. K. Weatherby & Sons Ltd. Falcon Pottery, Town Road Photo: Courtesy of Staffordshire Past Track 1976 more here> The updraught bottle oven. The hovel collapsed in February 2012 |
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| Falcon Pottery, J. K. Weatherby, Town Road, Hanley Photo: unknown source Date: probably late 1990s |
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| Falcon Pottery, J. K. Weatherby, Town Road Photo: Courtesy of Steve Shaw Date: February 2012, two weeks before the collapse @shawsteve5 Artisan potter, painter, musician |
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| Falcon Pottery, J. K. Weatherby, Town Road Collapsed hovel Photo: unknown source Date: 2012 |
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| Falcon Pottery, J. K. Weatherby, Town Road Photo: Andy Perkin, Potteries Heritage Society Date: Nov 2019 |
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| Falcon Pottery, J. K. Weatherby, Town Road Firemouths of the muffle kiln (Demolished September 2025) Photo: Andy Perkin, Potteries Heritage Society Date: Nov 2019 |
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| Falcon Pottery, J. K. Weatherby, Town Road Entrance to the muffle kiln with stable-type hinged doors (Demolished September 2025) Photo: Andy Perkin, Potteries Heritage Society Date: Nov 2019 |
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| Falcon Pottery, J. K. Weatherby, Town Road View inside the muffle rare kiln firing chamber (Demolished September 2025) Photo: Andy Perkin, Potteries Heritage Society |
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| Falcon Pottery fire Pic: Courtesy Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service Date: 06 August 2024 |
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| Falcon Pottery Arson? Photo: Courtesy StokeonTrentLive Date: 06 August 2024 |
22nd February 2025
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| Falcon Pottery, J. K. Weatherby, Town Road Demolition begins Photo: Courtesy of Jason Adams Date: 22 February 2025 |
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| Falcon Pottery, J. K. Weatherby, Town Road Demolition begins Photo: Courtesy of Phil Crow ABIPP ARPS Date: 24 February 2025 |
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| Falcon Pottery, J. K. Weatherby, Town Road Demolition Photo: Courtesy of Phil Crow ABIPP ARPS Date: 24 February 2025 |
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| Falcon Pottery, J. K. Weatherby, Town Road Demolition of the factory but the bottle oven and kiln are fenced off and were not demolished Photo: Courtesy of Phil Crow ABIPP ARPS Date: 24 February 2025 |
Concerns have been raised over the fate of a muffle kiln
BOTTLE OVENS and KILNS STILL STANDING, COMPLETE WITH THEIR BOTTLE-SHAPED CHIMNEYS
Johnson Bros, Trent Sanitaryware Pottery, ST1 3LN
[12a,b] Location: what3words.com/rental.drill.angel
Two calcining kilns.
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| Johnson Bros. Trent Pottery Flint Calcining Kiln. Open doorway for charging the kiln. Photo: Terry Woolliscroft Collection Date: July 1975 |
| Johnson Bros. Trent Pottery Three flint calcining kilns with one in the process of demolition Photo: Terry Woolliscroft Collection Date: 20 March 1976 |
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| Johnson Bros. Trent Pottery Between Botteslow Street and Eastwood Road From the air. On the left of the kilns is the Caldon Canal Date approx: 2015 |
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| Johnson Bros. Trent Pottery Flint calcining kilns Photo: Julian Read Collection Date: April 2017 |
| Johnson Bros. Trent Pottery Flint calcining kilns Photo: Courtesy of Philip Shallcross Collection Date: March 2019 |
Smithfield Pottery, Warner Street, ST1 3DH
[11a] Location: what3words.com/closes.ozone.faded
Only the bottle shaped hovel chimney survives. No firing chamber.
Updraught potter's bottle oven. Former Smithfield Pottery, Warner Street, Hanley. Established as a decorating works in 1880 and first operated by Charles Barlow.
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| Smithfield Pottery Warner Street/Potteries Way ringroad. Photo: Courtesy of 'Potteries Bottle Kilns' page on Facebook Date: 2015 |
| Smithfield Pottery Warner Street/Potteries Way ringroad. Photo: Courtesy of Philip Shallcross Collection Date: April 2019 |
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| Robert Sherwin Ltd., brush manufacturer, Smithfield Pottery Photo: Terry Woolliscroft Collection Date: October 1975 |
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| Robert Sherwin Ltd., brush manufacturer, Smithfield Pottery Photo: source unknown Date: unknown |
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| Smithfield Pottery No firing chamber. Looking up, inside the empty hovel. Photo: Andy Perkin, Potteries Heritage Society Date: June 2019 |
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| Clipping from the Evening Sentinel November 1977 Fortunately, a success! |
Dudson's, Hope Street, ST1 5BS
[10a] Location: what3words.com/silly.wells.melt
The Dudson Company was established by Richard Dudson in 1800, but went out of business in Summer 2019. One bottle oven remains standing but only the hovel only remains - the firing chamber has gone.
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| Dudson's, Hope Street Photo: courtesy Dudson Date: c2010 |
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| Dudson's, Hope Street Photo: Terry Woolliscroft Collection Date: Dec 2018 |
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| Dudson's, Hope Street Date: July 2022 |
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| Dudsons, Hope Street Looking up inside Dudson Hovel, now a museum Photo: Andy Perkin Potteries Heritage Society Date: Sept 2019 |
| Dudson's Hope Street Photo by Sid Meir, courtesy Ian Mood Date: 1970 |
Etruscan Mill, Jesse Shirley's Bone and Flint Mill, Lower Bedford Street, Etruria, ST4 7AF
Opened in 1857, Jesse Shirley's bone and flint mill is the only remaining operational steam driven potters' mill in the world. It operated until 1972 producing ground bone, flint and Cornish Stone used by the pottery industry. It also produced bone meal used by the agricultural industry to improve soil. Fully restored between 1978 and 1990 the mill is driven by an 1820s Bolton and Watt rotative beam engine.
It is one of the oldest still working and may be the oldest still driving machinery for which it was installed. Steam is raised by a hand-stoked Cornish boiler built at nearby Cliffe Vale in 1903.
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| https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=17LkFEdrnuz |
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| Jesse Shirley's bone and flint mill, Etruria Locks http://www.etruriamuseum.org.uk/ Photo: courtesy Glyn Baker, Geograph |
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| Shirley's Bone and Flint Mill, Etruria Gas works and Twyfords sanitaryware factory in distance Source: unknown Date: unknown |
| Cross section through a flint kiln Photo: courtesy Shirley's Bone and Flint Mill |
Joiner's Square Works, (aka Allied Insulators), Lichfield Street, ST1 3EQ
[13a] Location: what3words.com/drama.bared.vital
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| Imperial Court, Joiners Square Photo: Courtesy of Philip Shallcross Collection Date: August 2019 |
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| Imperial Court, Joiners Square Photo: Courtesy Andy Perkin, Potteries Heritage Society Date: July 2019 |
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| Imperial Court, Joiners Square Photo: Courtesy Aitch Tee @notavocation Date: June 2022 |
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| Imperial Court, Joiners Square Photo: By courtesy of Phil Crow ABIPP ARPS Date: March 2023 |
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| Imperial Court, Joiners Square Photo: courtesy Ceramic Heritage Action Zone, City of Stoke on Trent Date: July 2022 |
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| Imperial Court, Joiners Square Photo: courtesy Ceramic Heritage Action Zone, City of Stoke on Trent Date: July 2022 |
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| The mural - '100 Years 100 Faces' TW in real life bottom right Photo: Pam Woolliscroft Collection Date: 18 Sept 2025 |
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| Terry Woolliscroft with the artists Rob Fenton and Alastair Barnett Photo: Pam Woolliscroft Collection Date: 18 Sept 2025 |




























































