Going potty for pottery…

So after living in Stoke for all of my 36 years, I have never been to the Middleport Pottery near Burslem, the home of Burleigh Pottery. That is until today. The old bottle kiln, offices and steam engine have been preserved; the steam engine is believe to be the only surviving William Boulton designed engine, and comes with a very nice Lancashire boiler.

Stoke used to be the centre of the pottery industry with many other famous names based here: Wedgwood, Royal Doulton, Spode and Minton amongst others based in Stoke.

So here are the pictures…

It’s always wonderful the way that signs are preserved
The old Victorian offices have been restored complete with accounts ledgers
The hand writing was so neat in the ledgers – I could never get my own handwriting that neat!
The inside of a the sole remaining bottle kiln. The inner kiln is where the Saggs containing the pots for firing were placed. It was said that most of the coal used in a bottle kiln was used to actually heat the kilns up as opposed to firing the pots.
Inside the inner kiln, with Saggs stacked ready for firing…or at least they would be if the kiln was still in use
The outside of the bottle kiln – the sky line of stoke was littered with these at one time
There were once a further two bottle kilns towards the camera in this view that haves since gone.
One of the big attractions at the museum is the fully working William Boulton steam engine, powered by a Lancashire boiler.
The lubrication pot on the main eccentric crank
The whole engine in view
The engine retains its original chimney stack – Fred Dinah would be proud!
One part of the museum that is interesting from a social history point of view is the wash house. It’s a reminder that it wasn’t until the middle of last century that all families had adequate washing facilities in their own homes, and wash houses, like this one, were a common sight at industrial workplaces

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