Stoke-on-Trent 1980s

Spot the bottle kilns, with photographer James Baker at Cafe Royal Books:

There were many factories, known as pot banks, spread across the city and the industry was the areas largest employer with many thousands being employed. Sadly, the industry like many others in Britain went into decline leaving behind the scars of industrial decay.

One of the iconic features of this industrialised area was the large number of bottle kilns which could be seen on the skyline across the city. The bottle shape is actually the chimney which takes away smoke and creates airflow and can be up to seventy feet in height. The kiln for firing the pottery is inside the bottle. At it’s peak, there were over two thousand bottle kilns in use.

There are now fewer than 50 left standing and almost all are neglected and needing attention. It was against this backdrop of a declining industry and the small number of remaining bottle kilns that in the early 1980s I decided to record these iconic structures.