Description:Pottery factory interior with a view of a loaded kiln stacked with saggars prior to firing. The man is ‘building the clammins’, a temporary seal in the wall of the oven with an access point through which tests could be made. Taken at Hudson and Middleton Ltd, Sutherland Works, Normacot Road, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. This was the last firing of a bottle oven in Stoke-on-Trent and was organised by Gladstone Pottery Museum.
Saggars are containers made from fireclay which protected pottery in the kiln from the intense heat and smoke during bottle oven firing.
Formed ware is made hard by exposing it to very high temperatures, which was commonly achieved by firing it in a bottle oven.
The bottle oven consisted of the kiln, which was the inner active firing part, and the hovel, which was the structure around it.
The hovel protected the kiln and acted as a chimney. Local ovens were characterised by their bottle shaped hovels, hence the term ‘bottle oven’.
Taken from the Gladstone Pottery Museum Photographic Collection.
This photograph is part of the collections at Stoke-on-Trent Museums.