Gladstone Pottery Museum in Stoke-on-Trent

 

In Brief.

The Gladstone Pottery Museum occupies a site that was used for pottery production from the late 18th century until the early 1960s. It was saved from demolition as a good example of a pottery factory with its distinctive coal-fired bottle ovens. The museum itself preserves and provides access to this distinctive infrastructure, while also stepping through the manufacturing process and describing the working lives of the factory workers in a wide variety of roles. There was also one demonstration of pottery making on the day of my visit. It is an interesting complement to tours of the current day Wedgwood factory that is four miles away.

Bottle ovens and factory buildings.

What's Here?

A visit to the museum takes the form of a self-guided tour through the factory buildings.  The site is compact but densely packed, with four bottle ovens and a collection of buildings that include both pottery making paraphernalia and display boards that step through the manufacturing process.  On my weekday visit, there was one person demonstrating the use of moulds to produce pottery objects for display (think ducks or bottle over souvenirs).

There is quite a lot to see.  This includes the Engine House for the steam engine that drove the equipment in the factory, and spaces with associated exhibits that represent different steps in the process. For example, pottery was placed in saggars to be fired; the photograph of the contents of a bottle over show piles of saggars. These saggars were themselves made from clay within the factory, so there is a display about saggars and video of a saggar maker in action.

Saggars inside a bottle oven.

This is then followed by further spaces on different activities that took place in the factory, as diverse as the making of moulds, the decorating of pottery and the firing of the products. Overall, this is much more than a collection of exhibits, but more a story about a manufacturing process and the people who ran it. The child labour, variable rates of pay and unhealthy working conditions highlight that the community that supported the industry was not having an easy time.

Practicalities.

Distance from Manchester Town Hall: 56 miles

Drive Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Price: $

Parking: There is free onsite parking.

Food and Drink: There is an old fashioned but friendly museum cafe / canteen; an opportunity to sample some Staffordshire Oatcakes for lunch.

Retail Therapy: There is a shop with a variety of pottery-themed souvenirs, such as pottery bottle kilns.

Child Friendly: Not specifically targeted at kids, there is plenty to see and there are some horrible histories style things to find out about.

Toilets: Yes.

Do it justice in: 90 minutes.

Inside-Outside: 90:10

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