Kiln Floor in Production

You might be forgiven for thinking that it's National Boring Photograph Day but this pic does illustrate the fact that, while we are in the grips of winter here in Rothbury, work on the Roman kilns is going ahead.  These clay bars will form the floor of the firing chamber and will be laid, radiating out from a central support like the spokes of a wheel, allowing the flames to pass up from the firebox and combustion chamber, see Roman Sunken Kiln Under Construction below.

Kiln bars drying in the workshop

  I haven't been back to the Westhills kiln since my last blog on the subject and my work on the York kiln got rained off after three days.  In this time I did however get the sunken part of the kiln dug out and most of the raised chamber wall built and clay lined.  It's actually mixing the clay and soil that takes the time, if I was working on an actual Roman Pottery production site with a high clay content in the soil I would simply add water.  As it is the soil on site is mostly sand and builders rubble so needs careful sorting and clay adding to it.

York kiln - lining the chamber with clay

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