FORTYSEVEN:

The last bottle ovens and kilns of The Potteries

Phil Crow ABIPP based in Lincoln has documented and created an exhibition on the lost age of British ceramic production in Stoke On Trent. The display shows Phil’s photographs of now derelict factories and brick kilns, along with archive images from the heyday of the industry supplied by Keele University’s Warrillow Collection.

Phil’s connection with the bottle ovens goes deeper than just photography: his grandfather and subsequently his father owned a pottery called Coronation Pottery Co Ltd based in Newcastle. Their pottery was slightly smaller than Gladstone and originally had two bottle ovens and two smaller bottle kilns. Once the Clean Air Act came into force, these were replaced with electric kilns. Stories from The Pottery were part of his childhood, and as a matter of course, he learned how to throw at school. This was almost his career choice though photography won out in the end.

Fortyseven The Potteries

Phil comments, “I wanted to show the beauty in their shape and how they interact with the buildings that now surround them. Is there a place for them in modern society? The answer has to be yes! This photographic record will provide a historic visual journey of the remaining sites through a contemporary lens, an archive of their current state and a reminder to all of the importance of the industry to the area in the same way that photographers before me- such as Warrillow- have documented them as working buildings.”

At the height of the pottery industry, the skyline of Stoke-on-Trent was dominated by thousands of bottle ovens. Before the outbreak of war in 1939, more than 2000 had been documented. The Clean Air Act of 1956 was the beginning of the end for these iconic buildings, and by 1964 only 20 were still in use. Currently, 47 bottle-shaped structures remain in 27 locations.

Fortyseven

Bottle Ovens And Kilns

“The difference in condition is astounding. Some are loved, most are not, but they are all beautiful in their own way”, Phil says.

Celebrating the heritage of The Potteries, this photographic exhibition shows the dark beauty of a bygone industry in a modern world and, thanks to the Warrillow Collection, also depicts a thriving industry back in its heyday.

Ernest Warrillow MBE (1909-2000) joined the Stoke-on-Trent-based newspaper, The Sentinel, as a junior photographer in 1927 where he worked until his retirement in 1974. Having published a number of books, Warrillow saw and documented the pottery industry for decades. In 1964 he was awarded the MBE for services to the city of Stoke-onTrent and later received an honorary MA from Keele University, where his collection of images now resides.

Phil comments, “Having always known Warrillow’s work, the opportunity to have my images stand alongside his was always the dream. I knew the two eras would gel and provide an exhibition of real interest of the past and present.”

After the exhibition was first shown at Keele University Chancellors Building, the display is now on tour at Gladstone Pottery from 27th May to 30th July and then Middleport Pottery from 18th August to 17th September.