Potted History

Several authorities on Architectural History agree that Chimney Pots were first introduced into this country some time during the 13th Century, but there are very few examples of such pots still standing.

Another early device for making the Chimney more efficient was to build up the four corners of the stack and lay a flat stone on top, thereby creating four apertures through which the smoke could escape. The stone prevented rain from going down the flue, this simple type of Chimney Stack is likely to have been used in the 13th Century and is still employed today in some areas. From 1200 onwards we see that builders understood the value of an additional super-structure on top of the stack. While this structure cannot be called a Chimney Pot it does show that 13th Century builders understood the advantage of gaining height to create maximum draught. It is difficult to find outstanding examples of individual Chimney Pots introduced during the 14th Century, but 100 years later pots as we know them had arrived, although in small numbers.

The Tudor period of the 16th Century was a golden age for English brickwork rather than Chimney Pots. The Stacks were often very ornate and decorative and possibly exerted influence on later Chimney Pot design. Even so, the separate Chimney Pot remained rare until the end of the 18th Century when the Industrial Revolution paved the way for the profusion of pot designs which became characteristic of the Victorian period. The Victorians were solid and hard working and they valued anything that they considered would enhance their property, so the market for Chimney Pots soared. Coal was the main fuel used and down draughts that would have caused these fires to smoke but for the extra height added to the Chimney Stack were commonplace, a result of the close crowding of the thousands of houses of all shapes, sizes and heights which were being erected. Very many of the variations in design of Chimney Pot were due to the desire to cure down-draught.

In the catalogue of the National Clayware Federation there are nearly 500 varieties of Chimney Pot, of these the majority are varieties which have been in use for a century or more. There are still a number of factories making Chimney Pots, principally in the Midlands and North of England. In the South of England extensive Chimney Pot manufacture was carried on at Reading, London, Fareham, Parkstone and Bridgewater. There is little manufacture of Chimney Pots in the South of England today, but their legacy is evident to anyone visiting London, Brighton, Reading, Chichester, Bath and parts of Norfolk.

Many and varied are the names identifying Chimney Pots, here are but a few: