Description:W J Dolby were potter's millers and merchants who supplied prepared clay, flint and bones to pottery works. The mill was located alongside the Trent & Mersey Canal (to import raw materials) on Lytton Street in Stoke.
Before flint or animal bones can be used with clay, they have to be calcined or burnt, which makes them easier to crush to a usable powder. The roasting is done in a calcining kiln. The photograph shows several chimneys and the 1937 flint calcining kiln on the canalside (obscured by the buildings) is a listed building.
The photograph is taken from close to the aqueduct which carries the River Trent under the Trent & Mersey canal and the A500(Queensway).
Dolby Ltd went into liquidation in 1969 and the site and buildings are now in other uses, although the painted name is still visible on the gables.