Dr. Plot's description of an early 17th C Staffordshire pottery kiln

Dr. Plot's description of an early 17th C Staffordshire pottery kiln

illustration of an early 17th C pottery - based on the descriptions in Dr. Plot's Natural History of Staffordshire (1686)

A reconstruction of a late seventeenth-century Staffordshire pottery

This illustration depicts a typical Staffordshire pottery as it may have appeared around the time Robert Plot published The Natural History of Staffordshire in 1686. The pottery is a simple rural complex rather than the large industrial factories that later came to dominate the Potteries.

The principal workshop is a low, timber-framed building with whitewashed walls and a thick thatched roof. The modest construction reflects the small-scale, family-run nature of the early potteries.
Attached to the workshop is a tall bottle-shaped kiln built of brick or stone. Unlike the later bottle ovens of the Industrial Revolution, this early kiln is squat and heavily built, with a broad firing chamber and a series of small draw holes or vents around its upper section. The kiln doorway is protected by a timber gate, allowing wares to be stacked inside before firing. At the base of the wall appears to be some saggars.
To the right stands another building, probably used for storing clay, fuel, or finished pottery. Such outbuildings were an essential part of the pottery yard, providing dry storage for raw materials and protecting finished wares from the weather.
In the foreground a simple wooden bench displays recently thrown pottery, including bowls, dishes and other domestic wares left to dry before firing. Nearby lie working tools and what appears to be a wheelbarrow, illustrating the manual nature of production.
The yard is unpaved and crossed by well-worn tracks, with piles of stones and clay scattered around.
The worker on the right hand side is 'blunging' the liquid clay in a pit to remove the course grit and make the clay more workable.
The surrounding countryside reminds us that the early pottery industry was still closely tied to agriculture, with many potters supplementing their income through farming.

About this illustration: This highly circulated illustration is frequently cited online as a page from Dr. Robert Plot's 1686 book. However, it is actually a modern historical reconstruction drawing taken from the 1991 book "Potworks: The Industrial Architecture of the Staffordshire Potteries" by Diane Baker (Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England).

In that volume, the drawing appears as Plate 1 with a caption reading "An illustration from Robert Plot's..." — meaning it visually represents the 1686 text.

Dr. Plot's original 1686 work contained detailed text about the Burslem potters but featured no physical illustrations of kilns or pottery.



Clay/Product Mentioned	Found Location	Characteristics & Industrial Use

Brick Clays	Between Newcastle and Keele	"Burns all over blue" — the foundation of the famous Staffordshire Blue Brick.

Tobacco-Pipe Clays	All over the county (Shelton, Hanley Green, Grubbers Ash)	White and blue variations; mixed by makers like Charles Riggs to control shrinkage and color.

Potting Clays	Around Burslem (within half a mile)	Dr. Plot notes Burslem as the "seat of the greatest Pottery" due to its rich, accessible local clay varieties.

About Dr Robert Plot (1640-1696) was a highly distinguished English naturalist, antiquarian, and academic who served as the first Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford and the inaugural keeper of the Ashmolean Museum.

When he published his monumental work, The Natural History of Staffordshire (1686), his primary intent was to blend scientific enquiry with local folklore and geography. However, by dedicating a portion of his survey to the " earths, stones, and human artifacts" around Burslem, Plot inadvertently provided history with the earliest and most complete written account of pre-industrial English pottery-making.

His meticulous textual records of 17th-century clay blending, slip decoration, "shragers" (saggars), and copped updraft ovens remain the ultimate foundation for modern ceramic historians.

See Wikipedia article on Dr. Plot

Plot's map of North Staffordshire - 1686
many of the Potteries towns and villages are recorded on the map

Dr. Plot in his natural History of the county (published in 1686) mentions Burslem as being the seat of the greatest Pottery then carried on in the county; but he does not say, whether other neighbouring Potteries then existed, though he speaks of tobacco-pipes being manufactured at Newcastle, and that three sorts of clay were procured from between Shelton and Hanley Green"

Dr Plot gives the earliest account of the clays of the area starting with the brick clays between Newcastle and Keele ‘which when burnt became all over blue...

’the famous Staffordshire Blue Brick. 'As for tobacco pipe clays they are found all over the county..... And Charles Riggs of Newcastle makes very good pipes of three forts of Clay, a white and a blew, which He has from between Shelton and Hanley green, whereof the blew clay burns the whitest, but not fo full as the White ie it fhrinks more; but the beft fort He has from Grubbers Afh, being whitifh mixt with yellow, it is a fhort britle fort of Clay, but burnes full and white, yet He fometimes mixes it with the blew beforementioned.

But the greatest Pottery they have in this County is carryed on at Burflem near Newcastle under Lyme, where for making their feverall forts of Pots, they have as many different forts of Clay, which they dig round about the Towne, all within half a miles diftance, the beft being found neareft the coale, and are diftinguifh’t by their colours and ufes as followeth.....

1)	Bottle clay, of a bright whitifh ftreaked yellow colour.
2)	Hard-fire clay of a duller whitifh colour , and fuller interfperft with a dark yellow, which they ufe for their blackwares, being mixt with the
3)	Red blending clay, which is of a dirty red colour.
4)	White-clay, so called it feems though of a blewifh colour and ufed for making yellow-colour’d ware, becaufe yellow is the lighteft colour they make any Ware of all of which they call throwing clays, becaufe they are of a clofer texture, & will work on the wheel;"

Geological Overview of the North Staffordshire Clay Seams

(Note: The following summary combines historical data on the regional strata with descriptions of early potting techniques.)

In Cobridge, between Burslem and Hanley, yellow clay two feet thick lay only seven feet below the surface with six feet of red marl immediately below that. (This in the vertical shaft of a coal mine). Stoneware clays and fireclays were also found within easy reach.
The geological strata of North Staffordshire are unusual and, with vertical faulting and extensive outcropping, a very great variety of clays and coals were available on the surface to anyone who dug a little deeper than usual. Red marls were the basic clays used for most early pottery. They were glazed with lead, applied to the dry clay ware as powdered galena (lead sulphide) or ‘Smithum’. Lead provided the gloss, and iron or manganese provided the colour.
The ‘pipe-clays’, or white burning clays, were not so abundant and were used more sparingly either to coat the face of an article before decoration - as in slip-trailed ware - or in small amounts as the decoration itself. Later, mugs and jugs had a thin coating of white slip over the dark clay to render them more attractive.

» explore further

Read how later historians interpreted Dr. Plot's visit in our digital archive of Simeon Shaw's 1829 History of the Staffordshire Potteries

contents: 2010 photos