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Figure 64: Block Plan of Kiln from Cottage Street, Leeds.


This kiln now stands in the Abbey House Museum, Kirkstall, Leeds. It was removed from Cottage Street where it was used by Samson Strong who retired in 1950. There were three kilns on the site in the company's heyday c. 1900 (Hartley & Ingilby 1976, 140) but no details of their design survive. A single chimney c. 9.8m high is shown on a lantern slide of the boarded up works (Castle Museum York). There are no records or archive relating to the kiln in situ or its removal and re-erection on the present site. The three fire boxes appear to have been reconstructed according to cosmetic rather than functional principles. There are no fire bars. The fire boxes have a top loading aperture covered by a loose fire clay slab, an arched opening in one side, at ground level, with the flue connecting with the firing chamber just above this; four brick courses above the ground. The wicket or door threshold is three courses above the ground. The chamber contains a muffle built of fire brick with the flue openings discharging at its base. An account based on the testimony of Samson Strong's daughter and brother confirms that the kiln had three fire mouths burning best coal (ibid, 139-141). Three photographs recently discovered among the private papers of the former curator, the late C M Mitchell, which show the kiln before removal, confirm the accuracy of the reconstruction.