Description:Pottery factory view including a man ferrying coal to a bottle oven in a wheelbarrow.
Note the teapot being kept warm by the oven. Workers would often make use of the heat from the process of firing to keep their lunches or hot drinks warm.
The photograph was possibly taken at Earnshaw Pottery.
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’.