Tag: North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape

Stoke-on-Trent’s Remaining Bottle Ovens

About half of Stoke-on-Trent’s remaining bottle ovens are featured in this short video.

A bottle oven or bottle kiln was a type of kiln used in the ceramic industry. For many years, Stoke-on-Trent’s bottle ovens and kilns symbolised our industrial heritage.

Some were built in the late 18th century. Many were built in the 19th century and a few in the 20th. They remind us that Stoke-on-Trent was once the centre of the world’s pottery industry.

Only 47 bottle ovens are left. They are all listed buildings. Longton has more than any town in the Potteries. Stoke-on-Trent’s remaining bottle ovens will help to make North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape a World Heritage Site.

Biddulph Grange

One of the wonders of Victorian England, Biddulph Grange Garden is unique. The garden, created by James Bateman, is a major tourist attraction. It will help to make North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape a World Heritage Site.

North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape Merits World Heritage Site Status

The Harecastle Tunnels on the Trent & Mersey Canal at Kidsgrove

There are no historical reasons to prevent North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape from becoming a World Heritage Site.

In the 18th century, North Staffordshire helped to make England “the workshop of the world.” Local entrepreneurs, like Wedgwood and Adams, transformed a group of small towns into an industrial area of international importance.

James Brindley’s Trent & Mersey Canal “kick-started” the Industrial Revolution, which made Britain “the Workshop of the World. The canal and railway tunnels between Kidsgrove and Chatterley are significant feats of civil engineering. They merit World Heritage Site status in their own right.

The Primitive Methodist Church was founded in North Staffordshire by Hugh Bourne and William Clowes. It gave the Potteries its unique culture and a way of life that Arnold Bennett vividly portrayed in his novels.

Burslem’s “old town hall” is one of the finest examples of Victorian civic architecture. The Wedgwood Institute’s terracotta facade is an inspiring tribute to the men, women and children who worked in local industries.

The former colliery at Chatterley Whitfield should have been made a World Heritage Site many years ago.

Making North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape a World Heritage Site would encourage economic regeneration and create new employment opportunities.