interior of the Burleigh Pottery site
also known as the Burleigh Pottery, still making Burleigh tissue glazed dishes.
an original ‘bottle kiln’. There were thousands of these in the area, now reduced to about 40, all not used because of the pollution they emit
We went through the Harecastle tunnel, the second one that was dug (3km) (the first succumbed to mining subsidence (partial cave-in because mining locally caused the land to sink). This passed us from Cheshire into Staffordshire and we noticed an immediate change in the basic historic industry. The mills and weaving industries of the Lancaster and Yorkshire counties are replaced by the potteries. We toured the Burleigh pottery, restored and still operating on the original site.
Today, we got up on a gorgeous fall day. I rang at Stoke Minster (Geoff Burton, tower captain) and was made to feel very welcome. They have 10 bells, but I was the 8th present , so we rang the heavy 8 of their bells. We then proceeded up the Caldon Canal, where we are moored for the night near Stockton Brook on a perfect warm fall evening. Tomorrow, looking to explore the rest of the Caldon.
two forlorn bottle kilns, with all of the remaining factory buildings gone, along the Caldon Canal
a beautiful fall(?) day on the Caldon: still shorts and t-shirt weather
