Definitions of Potteries words, phrases and dialect

Introduction - Strange and Colourful
Here are those strange, colourful and very special terms, such as saggar makers bottom knocker, wedging, and ginneter that were, at one time, very common in the Potteries potbanks. There's also the special dialect of the district. The dictionary is aimed at demystifying the language of the industry for future generations. 

The dictionary also contains some technical words found on a potbank and they are included to help understanding of the complexities of industrial pottery manufacture. 

For a 90 second audio introduction to the dictionary click this SoundCloud link >


A wedger doing his job
Wedging in the sliphouse

The potbank dictionary was created in a simple note book way back in 1968 and parts of it were first published in print form by Gladstone Pottery Museum in its Friends Broadsheet Newsletter in January 1976. 


Today, the dictionary is digitised and published online, still going strong, still being added to and still being tweaked.


Two tips on how to use it! 
Scroll down each alphabetical page to find your particular word  or 
Search each page by using CTRL together with F 


The peculiar language of the industry
With almost nearly, but not quite 1,800 definitions, the dictionary explains the peculiar language of the industry collected during a lifetime in potbanks. Some are specific to a particular factory, others are quite common in the district and some are technical. Much of this language is disappearing as potbanks are closed, as skills are lost and as manufacturing methods change.

The 10 minute film below, on YouTube, is a wonderful introduction to the area and how the language of the Potteries evolved. Worth a look.

https://youtu.be/N6DJu1Ti5Kg


This is more than a list of words
The dictionary is more than a list of words: it preserves a unique 'Stokie' dialect forged in the heat, dust, sweat and tears of the pottery factories - a guide to the gritty industrial world of Stoke-on-Trent's potbanks, with its own dangers and a language heard nowhere else.

In the potteries, almost everyone is called 'duck', a term of endearment. But if you're being a 'mard arse' you might need lobby - a hearty, cheap, thin but lumpy soup that kept potters going.

You might hear 'bottle oven' and 'bottle kiln' and think they're the same, but they're not. You can learn the differences here. You can also learn about the names given to the particular quality of finished ware. 

The dictionary really shows that making pottery was both a delicate art and a tough industrial process with a language and strict rules all its own.


Compiled by Terry Woolliscroft
Launched in May 2012, the site is archived for preservation by the British Library.

What is a POTBANK?

Answer - a place where pottery is made

It is the entire pottery factory including all the buildings and the yards involved in the potting process, from sliphouse to warehouse. According to the late Robert Copeland: 'The term Potbank has been used for generations ... I believe that it derives from the days when Josiah Wedgwood was unable to meet the demand for his creamwares so he sub-contracted to other potters to make his shapes in the body of his specification, and to hold these stocks in their own warehouses for him to call upon as he required them. These warehouses were called banks. The term does not imply that the pottery was on a hillside nor by a canal or river.'  More here>

'Five Towns' 

An introduction to the glorious heritage of the Staffordshire Potteries

Britain on Film. Directed by Terry Bishop. 26 mins. The five towns of the Staffordshire Potteries region are passionately described in the film. As well as lovingly detailing the area’s famed production techniques, the documentary also looks at the challenges of post-war reconstruction in the region.

Fabulous film - click on the link for direct access to it - free




What are BOTTLE OVENS and KILNS?

Huge and imposing, towering and daunting, brick-built, bottle-shaped structures, up to 70 feet high, essential in the making of pottery. The red-hot heart of the Potteries of Stoke-on-Trent.

In 1939 there were about 2100 bottle ovens and kilns, or, strictly speaking, bottle-shaped structures of various types used for firing pottery ware or its components. They dominated the landscape of the Potteries of Stoke-on-Trent. In 2025 there are fewer than 50 still standing complete with their chimneys. None will be ever be fired again. The Clean Air Act of 1956, and their delicate condition have put paid to that.

At the multi-award-winning Gladstone Pottery Museum, in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, there are 4 bottle ovens and one bottle kiln. There are also two bottle ovens, next door, at the Roslyn Works. This is the most important and precious group of buildings in the Potteries.

What are bottle ovens and kilns?

Here is a really good and succinct description of the bottle oven and bottle kiln. Courtesy of  Gladstone Pottery Museum, Longton (and tweaked a bit)

Don't get confused! 

Bottle ovens or bottle kilns are the terms applied to a variety of brick-built, coal-fired ovens and kilns used in the north Staffordshire pottery industry. They are often used interchangeably and confusingly. The names derive from the characteristic shape of the brick-built hovel or chimney stack utilised by such structures.  But they cover a range of different types and uses. 

Some were used to fire pottery to a biscuit or glost state - these were known locally as ovens. Others which were referred to as kilns were used specifically in the decorating process (muffle kilns), or the preparation of raw materials for ceramic bodies (calcining kilns) or glazes and colours (frit kilns). 

There was also variation in the means of construction. For example, not all types had independent hovels, many were enclosed within buildings and had the chimney stack (the ‘neck’ of the bottle) constructed directly on top of the firing chamber or supported on an outer ‘skeleton’ structure. 

In addition, by the late 1800s, both updraught and downdraught (in which heat was re-circulated around the firing chamber) types were in use within the industry.

Take a look at The Potteries Bottle Oven website here>


What is BONE CHINA?

Bone china pottery

A smooth textured and extremely white firing pottery body. It's translucent and extremely strong. It is a unique pottery body recipe since it contains a high proportion of calcined cattle bone and is biscuit fired to about 1220C. It's a particular type of 'porcelain.'

Around fifty percent of the body recipe contains calcined cattle bones. Invented at the Spode factory in Stoke-on-Trent around 1800. 

A typical recipe contains about:
  • 50% calcined cattle bone 
  • 25% china clay
  • 25% china stone 
- but recipes do vary.

The bone used at Spode was specifically the shins and knuckle bones of oxen. (Lower grades of bone china, not from Spode, may have used all or some bones from sheep or goats.  But definitely not horses.)  The bones are calcined at temperatures up to 1000 C before being ground to a fine powder and used in the bone china recipe. Bone china is extremely hard and intensely white.


Bone China: a Particularly English Porcelain
The Invention of Bone China:  The Spode company, under Spode I and Spode II, is credited by potters, collectors, researchers and other experts with having perfected the bone china formula before 1800.