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Buildings

THE Bottle Kilns

The bottle kilns, in Corbridge, Northumberland, are amongst the remains of Walker’s Pottery. Walker’s Pottery was a nineteenth and early twentieth-century, family-run pottery works that took on the entire process of turning raw clay from nearby fields into finished goods like bricks, pipes and tiles to then be transported and sold. As rural bottle kilns surviving in such condition are so rare (there are only 3 in the North East), these examples are both Grade II* listed buildings and Scheduled Monuments.

At a glance

  • This rural pottery served the local community and industries within the North East from the early nineteenth century to twentieth century by producing bricks, pipes, tiles and agricultural wares like troughs.
  • The ‘bottle’ part refers to the shape of the structure, whilst a kiln is a type of oven used to harden the clay. The bottle shape would help to funnel the fumes and smoke up into the air.
  • The kilns are also known as ‘hovels’, which, today, means a small and dingy shack but the word comes from the Old English word ‘hof’ meaning house or enclosure.

1893 – 2015

History

The pottery was established in the early to mid-nineteenth century and, by 1841, it was described as a ‘firebrick and earthenware manufacturer’.

In the Ordnance Survey map of 1860, we can see that the pottery was well established and now had three bottle kilns, making and drying rooms, a puddling pit, and a tramway.

Then, in 1895, a downdraft kiln was built over the levelled remains of one of the bottle kilns. Several Newcastle, or horizontal, kilns, another drying room, a stables and walled yard were also added by this time.

The pottery continued to be used until the early twentieth century.

The kilns looking out over Northumberland
A stunning view from inside one of the kilns.
Dunston Staiths

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