Gladstone Pottery Museum — Attraction in Stoke-on-Trent

This is my second glowing review of the museum. I'm a Potter who left in 1973 to work and live in Sheffield. About 10 years ago my wife and I visited the museum with my elderly mum: Ethel who lived in The Potteries all of her life. She had a memorable visit, the highlight was meeting the ladies in the fettling room. She suffered with dementia but on seeing the ladies at their trade she started to reminisce about her time as a fettler, the next minute she picked up a tool and started fettling! The ladies found us as we were leaving and presented mum with her fettled piece. A day not to forget. Sadly mum passed away during Covid. We had taken dear friends to the museum to the Craft Day on Saturday, they are huge fans of pottery and The Great Pottery Throw Down. We entered the same room and memories of mum flooded back. I couldn't help sharing the memory with a couple of lovely visitors who were really moved by the story only to be further amazed when one of the fettlers Pauline came forward and said she was one of the ladies who helped mum all those years ago! She remembered the fine detail of our visit. We brushed away a few tears but she wouldn't let us go until she found a Rose and a Forget Me Not. Both are in a vase and here is a photo of the lovely lady with us both. This Museum is a jewel with a wonderful history and staff who are the salt of the earth. Thank you once...

Visited on a Sunday. Fantastic place to frequent, was a bit wary at first when my wife suggested it but it was really interesting and the kids (12 and 15) really liked it to my suprise!

Note the car park is at the side of the building so you walk around to the front (there is disabled parking right out front).

Staff were very welcoming and friendly on arrival. Chatting away and answering questions we had straight out the block. You get a map and navigate by number to each part of the museum. It was larger than I thought and each section provided information about pottery as well as the local area and people throughout history. Have some Royal Doulton and now know the area it came from!

Toilet exhibit was very informative and the some reason the kids favourite exhibit 😂

Only negative for me was we never got to do any hands on activities but we did go on a Sunday. Cafe was nice, great selection of cakes.

In reference to another review the museum is in a run down area but it's no different to other city's which once had thriving industry's from the past which ended but I never...

The Gladstone Pottery Museum provides a window into a lost world - the production of bottle kiln fired ceramics with its arcane industrial processes, demarcated jobs with strange titles ('jiggers', 'saggers'), hard, dangerous, disease ridden working lives and lack of clean air.

My tour today took time to start, as I was made to wait ('the Great Pottery Slow Down'?) to see a rather old fashioned introductory 4 minute video before making my way round. The museum itself has a non interactive 'feel' to it. The explanatory information is nearly all provided via signage (no headphone sets or modern tech available). The Tile Gallery, which is well worth a visit, is an illustration of what a more modern Gladstone Museum could look like.

This is not a museum that anyone who is not able bodied would feel comfortable visiting. Uneven floors abound, there are steep stairs to climb, and the walkways inside the bottle kilns are narrow and poorly lit.

Overall, I enjoyed my visit. If I take nothing else from the experience, I will remember that Armitage introduced the avocado bathroom...