Exactly how many bottle ovens were there in The Potteries? And how many are there now?
Some say that at one time there were as many as 4,000 bottle ovens belching smoke throughout the Potteries. However, this is a grossly exaggerated figure. There were simply not that many actual bottle ovens and kilns. But there were lots of other factory chimneys - those which serviced boiler houses, steam engines, slip kilns, and more. There were also those chimneys associated with collieries, the Shelton Bar steel plant, and the Michelin tyre factory. These conventional chimneys added to the grand total which spewed their filth into the atmosphere of the Potteries.
It is safe to say, that in their heyday, just over 2,100 operable bottle ovens dominated the landscape of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent. So how can we be so sure? Check the evidence here> on the Potteries Bottle Oven website.
