Now into September and still hoping to get a holiday ! The stress of my dad’s dementia is completely exhausting and sadly will only get worse. But we try to focus on the positives and snatch a few hours of distraction here and there…
Today We planned to go to Dudson old factory works in Hanley. Now a museum and rental units for various organisations created from the rooms inside the old original building it also has a café.
An exhibition from local groups with an interest in bottle ovens was displayed in one of the units and a talk on ‘The Last Firing’ [of a bottle oven] was given in another by Paul Niblett. Along with images of the event in 1978 the talk gave a fascinating insight into the amount of work it took to carry out this amazing task.
The Dudson museum inside the original bottle oven on site
The ground floor and suspended upper floors are full of the of the Dudson factory history with thousands of pieces of ware on display.
Look for the light, the (now) sealed top of the chimney of the oven
The café now open, provided us with a quick lunch before we set off for the second pottery experience of the day at Middleport. Phil Crow, originally from the Potteries was visiting with his exhibition of ‘Forty Seven The Last Bottle Ovens and Kilns of the Potteries’. Listening to Phil tell the tale of how he embarked on this project included a thoughtful refection of his childhood. This took place in and around his family ‘potbank’ he reflects that he probably did not appreciate how special these structures were at the time. Phil has long since moved away from the area and now has his own Photographic practice in Lincoln, but came back to visit his mother who was in hospital during the covid pandemic. To relieve some of the stress of the hospital visits and his mother’s illness he took to wandering through the city to find the remaining forty-seven bottle ovens taking photographs as he went. Collaborating with Keele University he was given access to the Warrilow archived collection of Pottery and bottle oven photographs, some taken when they were still in working condition and thought it would be interesting to put some of his own images with Warrilows to produce a new exhibition.
The result was a showing at Keele University, Gladstone Pottery Museum and Middleport Pottery Museum which along with his book has delighted many “Potters” past and present this summer.
I was lucky enough to speak to Phil afterwards to explain coincidentally (as mentioned in my previous blog) I had carried out my own photographic record of our city’s bottle ovens for the final project in my Foundation Year [Art & Design] 2020/21.
Entitled ’47’ I produced three wall mounted images for the exhibition, a photobook and copper/metallic jewellery based on the ‘bont’ which forms part of a bottle oven. I wanted to concentrate on the photographic element of the project, but my tutor felt it wasn’t ‘meaty’ enough.
Luckily in spite of the voiced indifference towards the photography, I was undeterred and went ahead with my quest and will be ever thankful that I did. Although only four further copies of my photobook were reproduced for close family members, which means one is sitting on a bookshelf on the other side of the world, I am immensely proud of it.
Phil seemed to like it too!
