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30-542: Middleport Pottery has been described as a “model pottery" of the Staffordshire pottery industry at the time of its construction. Its scale and linear organisation contrast with the constricted sites and haphazard layout of traditional potteries such as the Gladstone Pottery Museum . It was designed to make all production processes more efficient and to improve conditions for the workforce. The passageways between

60-468: A Heritage Open Days ’ Community Champions Award. It was the location for four series of The Great Pottery Throw Down , and was featured in an episode of Peaky Blinders . Gladstone Pottery Museum The Gladstone Pottery Museum is a working museum of a medium-sized coal-fired pottery , typical of those once common in the North Staffordshire area of England from the time of

90-422: A National Award in 2008: The following buildings won a National Award in 2013: The following buildings won a National Award in 2014: The following buildings won a National Award in 2015: The following buildings won a National Award in 2016: The following buildings won a National Award in 2017: The following buildings won a National Award in 2018: The following buildings won

120-714: A Time Lord were shot at the museum. In the early 1990s it was featured on Noel's House Party with a live 'gunging' outside of the bottle kilns. Gladstone pottery museum was featured on Living TV's popular series, "Most Haunted". The museum featured in the third episode of the BBC One programme 24 Hours in the Past featuring six celebrities working in the Victorian era. The episode aired on 12 May 2015. Since 2020, latter series of The Great Pottery Throwdown have been filmed there (having moved from Middleport Pottery ) In 2021, it

150-475: A number of businesses are based at the site. Burleigh Pottery is still produced at the site using traditional craftsmanship. The Old Packing House was refurbished and became the new Prince of Wales Studios that is open as a business home for craftspeople to work and exhibit their products. The Prince's Regeneration Trust granted £200,000 to the Pottery towards the conversion. Prince Charles, who had previously visited

180-608: A visitor destination in July 2014 following the three-year regeneration. In 2010 the pottery manufacturing areas were rationalised and acquired by Denby Holdings Limited, the parent company of the well-known UK ceramics and consumer goods manufacturer Denby Pottery . Denby Pottery continues to operate in the factory as a tenant, and as a result the production of Burleigh Pottery has continued uninterrupted at this site since it opened in 1889. The restoration enabled Burleigh Pottery to remain on-site, saving local jobs and craftsmanship. In total

210-639: Is a figure of St. George, supported on one side by William Wallace and on the other by Brian Boru. There are figures of Ireland with bowed heads and Poland with mournful look and hair unbound. There are also figures of saucy children and a maiden bringing offerings of flowers. The figures are executed in white on a blackish or bottle green ground, and the general ground of the vase is of heliotrope tint, with quiet ornamentation". 52°59′12″N 2°07′54″W  /  52.9866°N 2.1317°W  / 52.9866; -2.1317 RIBA National Award RIBA National Awards are part of an awards program operated by

240-582: Is also a gallery charting the history of sanitary ware , privies, earth closets and water closets . Gladstone has seen its share of celebrity interest, from Tony Robinson filming for a BBC documentary 'The Worst Jobs in Britain' and from Alan Titchmarsh . It also has regular visits from the Blue Peter crew, and numerous children's TV programmes. In 1986, parts 13 and 14 of the Doctor Who serial The Trial of

270-458: Is centred on the Roslyn pottery. It contains two biscuit ovens and two larger glost ovens. In addition are two enamel kilns. A tandem compound steam engine by Marshall & Sons, of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire is in place but it is turned by an electric motor. The two muffle kilns came from elsewhere. The museum allows the visitor to explore the bottle kilns and exhibits the principal ancillary rooms:

300-642: The Industrial Revolution in the 18th century to the mid 20th century. It is a grade II* listed building . The museum is located in Longton , Stoke-on-Trent , Staffordshire . It is also included in one of the regional routes of the European Route of Industrial Heritage . Despite the name of the museum, it is a complex of buildings from two works, the Gladstone and the Roslyn. The protected features include

330-741: The Royal Institute of British Architects , also encompassing the Stirling Prize , the European Award and the International Award . The National Awards are given to buildings in the UK which are "recognised as significant contributions to architecture" which are chosen from the buildings to receive an RIBA Regional award. The shortlist for each year's Stirling Prize is picked from recipients of that year's National Awards. The following buildings won

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360-544: The 1990s ownership passed to Stoke-on-Trent City Council . The museum has shown its commitment to industrial heritage by functioning as a working pottery. However, production has had to be curtailed for financial reasons and the museum is therefore less of a "living" museum than it was. As at 2014 the Middleport Pottery in Burslem, which is used for commercial production, is arguably the only working Victorian pottery in

390-455: The canal conservation area on the "Conservation Areas at Risk" register in 2010, in large part because of urban decay caused by the decline of traditional industries. A 2011 review of the conservation area noted that Middleport Pottery was a building at risk. By 2010 Middleport Pottery was at serious risk of permanent closure because of the very poor state of repair of the buildings and an inefficient layout of manufacturing. This would have seen

420-399: The centre is a symbolic figure of Liberty seated on a dais, and holding in one hand the scales of justice and in the other a broken chain. On the right is Homer and on the left Dante offering a poet’s tribute. Next to the central figure on the left are figures of a vestal in a pleading attitude and a historian recording the deeds done in the name of freedom. On the back of the vase in the centre

450-437: The city of Stoke-on-Trent. The clay and ground bone were mixed in the sliphouse . Bowls, plates and saucers were pressed , jiggered and jolleyed or moulded from the slip . The green (un-fired) china was left to dry in the greenhouse . At the same time the saggars that would hold them in the kiln were made. The bottle oven kiln is protected by an outer hovel, which helps to create an updraught. The biscuit kiln

480-440: The crown. The temperature was gauged by watching the contraction of bullers rings (a pyrometric device placed in the kiln). A kiln would be fired to 1250C. The biscuitwares are glazed. They fired again in the bigger glost kiln s- again they are placed in sealed saggars, items separated by kiln furniture such as stints , saddles and thimbles . The table-ware would then be decorated by transfers or by painting and placed in

510-403: The engine house, the slip room, saggar making workshop. It shows aspects of working with clay- including hands on displays of throwing, moulding and decorating. Colour and gilding is presented as interpretive panels. There is a gallery explaining the history of the tile: how it was pressed glazed and decorated. In one tableau the "Gladstone Vase" by Frederick Alfred Rhead is displayed. There

540-670: The kilns. As there are fewer than 50 surviving bottle ovens in Stoke-on-Trent (and only a scattering elsewhere in the UK), the museum's kilns along with others in the Longton conservation area represent a significant proportion of the national stock of the structures. In 1976, the Gladstone Pottery Museum was awarded National Heritage Museum of the Year . A pottery factory first opened on

570-508: The loss of jobs and substantial buildings of historic significance would have been left to further degenerate. In the same year The Prince's Regeneration Trust stepped in to buy and save the buildings with a back-to-back deal with Denby Holdings Ltd. and began a £9 million project to restore the structures, partly funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England . When the work of The Prince's Regeneration Trust

600-412: The machinery for mixing clay and continued to be in use until the coal strike of the 1970s. It was fed by a large boiler that also provided steam for heating and drying pottery. The steam engine has now been restored to working order. Middleport Pottery had many pre-eminent designers over the years. Charlotte Rhead worked there from 1926-1931 producing her tube-lined designs, and David Copeland worked at

630-454: The muffle kiln. The enamel kiln (or muffle kiln) is of different construction- it fired at 700C. The pots were stacked on 7 or 8 levels of clay bats (shelves). The door was iron lined with brick. When the kiln cooled the product was transported in basket and exported to different parts of the country and empire using the canal network and the ports on the River Mersey . The museum

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660-499: The pottery in the 1960s, bringing modern designs while still using traditional copperplate engraving technique. The pottery was given listed building status in the 1970s. By this time six of the seven bottle ovens on the site had been demolished. The surviving bottle oven was given its own listing. In 1988 the course of the Trent and Mersey Canal through Stoke-on-Trent was designated a linear conservation area . English Heritage put

690-535: The pottery, made a return visit to help open the Studios in January 2016, including unveiling some signs. He also visited in 2017. Since it opened as a visitor destination, the pottery has won eight awards: a RIBA National Award for architectural excellence; three RIBA West Midlands Awards; a Europa Nostra Award for heritage; a Civic Trust AABC Conservation Award for building conservation; a Placemaking Award for heritage; and

720-455: The ranges were just wide enough for a cart to get through, and for the easy movement of workers and pottery. Finished pottery was placed, using the crane next to the packing house, directly onto barges on the Trent and Mersey Canal waiting to take the ceramics out to the coast for international export. Alternatively they were sent out by horse and cart via the road. The Boulton steam engine powered

750-474: The restoration has saved 50 local jobs and created 70 more. The unused buildings have been developed to provide accommodation for workshops, enterprise space, craft and community areas, a café, a gallery and a heritage visitor centre. Areas of the site no longer in use for pottery manufacture provide visitor facilities and workspaces for rent. Following renovations, Middleport Pottery was opened to visitors in 2014. The pottery has enjoyed rising visitor numbers, and

780-615: The site in 1787. It was run by the Shelley family who produced earthenware and decorated plates and dishes produced by Josiah Wedgwood in Etruria . The site was purchased in 1789 by William Ward who split it into two pot banks: the Park Place Works subsequently named the Roslyn works, and the Wards Pot Bank which was sold to John Hendley Sheridan in 1818. In the 1850s Sheridan had rented out

810-489: The site to Thomas Cooper who employed 41 adults and 26 children to produce china and parian figures. By 1876 the Wards site had passed into the hands of R. Hobson and Co. and had been renamed Gladstone, after the politician William Ewart Gladstone . The factory opened as a museum in 1974, the buildings having been saved from demolition in 1970 when the pottery closed (some ten years after its bottle ovens were last fired). In

840-468: Was divested to several other non-profits its interest in Middleport Pottery was transferred to Re-Form Heritage. The restoration work was led by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and included a varied and extensive programme of training and educational activities to support the local community in skills provision with an emphasis on traditional British craftsmanship. The pottery opened to the public as

870-401: Was filled with clay sealed saggars of green (un-fired) flatwares (bedded in flint) by placers . The doors ( clammins ) were bricked up and the firing began. Each firing took 14 tons of coal. Fires were lit in the firemouth s and baited every four hours, flames rose up inside the kilns, heat passed between the bung s of saggars. They controlled the temperature of the firing using damper s in

900-509: Was used as a regular location for both Netflix TV Series The Irregulars based on the characters from the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes novels and The Colour Room about the local Pottery designer Clarice Cliff . The museum holds annual events from Halloween ghosts walks and tours, to Christmas Carol Concerts and seasonal festivals. It also caters for children with Egg Easter Hunts and Summer Pottery workshops. "In

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