SUBJECTS of INTEREST
BILL EASTER
Stoke-on-Trent
An Introduction
Stoke used to be the centre of the ceramics industry in England and was known simply as The Potteries. Famous brands such as Wedgewood and Royal Doulton originate from here together with much everyday earthenware for every household as well as the bricks to build them. In early times large deposits of clay suitable for all kinds of ceramic products were discovered here and the industry developed around the so-called 'six towns’ of Stoke, Hanley, Burslem, Tunstall, Longton and Fenton which merged in 1910 to form Stoke-on-Trent. Not only the ceramics industry thrived here but also all the support systems that grew up to keep the ovens running day and night. In the early 1950s there were 2000 of the characteristic, coal-fired bottle kilns here, belching so much smoke that it was sometimes difficult to see the other side of the street. The passing of the Clean Air Act in 1956 signalled the beginning of the end for bottle kilns and contributed to the decline of The Potteries as a whole. Some ceramics are still produced in Stoke today using modern methods but nothing like the quantities of the past. Of the many bottle kilns only 47 remain, all of them Listed Buildings in an attempt to preserve what is left of this once so flourishing industry.
Walking around Stoke it is difficult to avoid the feeling of a city trying to re-invent itself after such a long period of unbounded success and prosperity. It is a somewhat cheerless activity. There are certainly pockets of new, modern architecture and invigorating re-development but you don't have to walk far before coming across one of the many sites of former pottery works littered across the city. The Trent & Mersey Canal, so busy and bustling in the past, now serves as a kind of silent path, guiding us from one tragically derelict site to the next. Some have been cleared for development yet often with the crumbling remains of Listed buildings still standing at their heart. Incongruous contrasts appear: new housing estates butt up against forlorn calcining mills of the past; renovated bottle kilns are sprouting weed growth and surrounded by decay; busy roads roar past deserted, half-demolished factory sites. Almost without exception they are in a poor state, if not derelict. Designating heritage sites as Listed is obviously the easy bit, restoring and looking after them is another matter and is clearly not being allocated the necessary resources. A sad and unworthy monument to a rich and vigorous past...
We sometimes like to romantically imagine that because so many old buildings are still standing around us, places will probably have looked pretty much the same in the past as they do now. But you'd be deceiving yourself. Whilst researching Stoke I came across many archive photos including this one of a so-called marl pit near Longton. Clay (marl) was extracted directly alongside the pottery works to feed the numerous, hungry kilns in the vicinity. At the same time it was also used for waste from the factories to fill some of the enormous hole back up again. Close by we see simple housing for the workers and in the distance the local church. An industrial landscape...
1 the former Price & Kensington Teapots factory on the banks of the Trent & Mersey Canal established here in the early 19th C • 2 the bottle kiln was designated as Listed in 1979 and restored in 2004 but seems to have enjoyed little attention since then • 3 the site was officially closed down in 2003 • 4 the roadside buildings of the complex were demolished in 2019 because it was in immediate danger of collapsing • 5 a former factory looms over wasteground at Bradwell Street • 6 the Middleport factory now caters mostly to the tourist trade and has added a small café terrace on the canalside • 7 the tall chimney sometimes seems to be almost omnipresent • 8 meanwhile, on the other side of the canal the locals quietly get on with tending their vegetables
1 at Millvale Street former workshops quietly fade away alongside a playground • 2 whilst further along a former calcining mill awaits the same fate • 3 in the former courtyard nature is slowly reclaiming lost ground • 4 the pedestrian footbridge leads from the new estate over the canal alongside a former works • 5 in the boundary walls an attempt to strike a reminder of a glorious ceramic past • 6 at Burslem three bottle kilns standing in the wasteland of ground cleared for redevelopment are all that remain of the once prosperous Acme Marls factory • 7 on the other side of the street a bleak row of derelict factory buildings that are also on the heritage list • 8 the former Oliver & Son calcining works, now preserved, close to a new housing estate on quiet Newport Lane
9 now forming the Gladstone Museum four well-preserved bottle kilns have undoubtedly been saved from what would otherwise have been a sad fate • 10 a reminder of how much smaller everything was in the past with this row of tiny workers cottages fronting on to the equally narrow Short Street • 11 the decaying Commercial Works building struggling to get a look in alongside a local supermarket • 12 the grounds have become a local dumping spot, including for unwanted shopping trollies... • 13 the Bencroft Ltd bottle kiln at Chilton Street in Fenton protrudes through the roof of the surrounding factory buildings; as with many kilns it also features the characteristic shrubbery sprouting from its sides from no longer being in regular use • 14 one of the two Falcon Pottery sites in Stoke, this one has two bottle kilns opposite an extensive block of workshops; as with most of these sites, it is gated and locked and not accessible for the public • 15 the calcining kiln and adjacent works buildings of the former Dolby Pottery factory rise above the quiet waters of the canal; out of shot to the right the busy A500 road roars by • 16 a rare sight - a bottle kiln apparently under renovation in Longton
1 amidst the prevailing cheerlessness I stumbled across this unexpected green oasis of peace and quiet on the slopes behind the Falcon Works • 2 with in one corner what appear to be the old gates to the site, clearly now no longer a 'Private' estate • 3 close to the city centre a flourishing garden is overlooked by a large factory • 4 close by the Middleport Works a haven of quiet and patient industry in these local allotments • 5 another faded monument to a glorious past: what appears to be a kind of shopping hall-cum-indoor market in Longton • 6 another typical Stoke phenomenon I came across: small, former factory buildings or workshops integrated with regular housing • 7 a charming hive of activity on the canalside in Middleport, this boat repair yard seems to be doing well • 8 the Potteries required fuel to stoke the kilns and this is partly responsible for the development of the nearby Chatterley Whitfield Colliery; a gaunt memory of a busy past now in a quiet and peaceful landscape
Perhaps this shot sums up many of my feelings about Stoke: the proud logo of Royal Doulton fading away on a rather dilapidated container parked in a backyard at the rear of a former pottery works, perhaps awaiting a bright new future…?