Post-medieval pottery kiln 360m NNE of the Castle

Heritage listing

Details The monument includes a partly restored, standing, stone-built pottery kiln of mid-18th century date. The kiln is located in the north east quarter of Dunster just behind the High Street and within the Castle grounds. The circular kiln, which is of a type known in Somerset as a `pinnacle kiln' after the shape of its roof, once formed part of a pottery established by the local family, the Luttrells of Dunster Castle. It is of the simple updraft type and is rubble-built of local stone, comprising a substructure, ware chamber, and straight-sided conical chimney; it was fired from two opposing coal-fired fire-boxes. The kiln is 4.3m in diameter and about 4.5m in total height, the upper 1.5m being the height of the conical corbelled roof. This roof is much restored with matched hand made bricks and with an opening at the apex for the venting of smoke but capped with lead in modern times. Evenly spaced around the circumference of the building and just below the level of the corbelled roof, are four brick-lined apertures each about 0.6m wide and 0.7m high which could be blocked or opened dependant upon the temperature required for the controlled firing of the kiln. Entrance into the kiln was by way of an arched brick-framed doorway, about 0.7m wide, on its south side with the sill cut away to create a full height of 1.7m. The kiln was loaded through this doorway at ground level and the doorway bricked up before firing. The heat from two opposing arched fire-boxes entered the kiln through brick-lined apertures which have subsequently been blocked. The original floor of the kiln has been removed but a substructure of three roughly circular and concentric flues of brick survive; these served to distribute the heat under the floor of the ware chamber where the pottery was

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.