A potted history of Stoke-on-Trent's museums - continued.
When the new City Museum and Art Gallery was built in the 1950s, the collections of the other museums in the city, which had been mothballed since the start of World War Two, were transferred there.
When the new City Museum and Art Gallery was built in the 1950s, the collections of the other museums in the city, which had been mothballed since the start of World War Two, were transferred there.
Many of the best pieces from these founding collections are now on display in the ceramics gallery @PotteriesMuseum under the care of @PMAGCollections
Two more museums opened in the Potteries. Ford Green Hall, a yeoman farmer’s house & the oldest surviving domestic building in the city, opened in 1952 under the influence of the Folk Life museum movement. The Arnold Bennett Birthplace Museum opened in Waterloo Road in 1960.
In 1974 @GladstoneMuseum opened on the site of the city’s most complete Victorian potbank. The buildings had been saved from demolition by volunteers in 1970 when the pottery closed & a trust was set up to run the museum.
In the 1990s the trust experienced difficulties and ownership passed to the local authority. Gladstone became a part of the city's museum service.
The Chatterley Whitfield Mining Museum opened in 1979 on the site of the largest mine in the North Staffordshire coalfield. Run by a charitable trust, the museum initially offered underground tours and attracted more than 70,000 visitors a year
After the closure of the nearby Wolstanton pit in 1986 it became too risky to operate the tours. In an attempt to maintain visitor levels a simulated ‘underground experience’ was created and the museum became the temporary home of the National Coal Collection.
The museum closed in 1993 and passed into the hands of liquidators. The site returned to the owner of the freehold – Stoke-on-Trent City Council. In the same year, the site was designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument & various buildings listed as Grade II & Grade II*.
Etruria Industrial Museum opened as part of the museum service in 1991 after a lengthy period of restoration undertaken by volunteers. Housed in Jesse Shirley’s Etruscan Bone & Flint Mill, Britain’s only surviving steam-powered potters’ mill, it features a working beam engine.
By the turn of the century, Stoke-on-Trent Museum Service boasted four museums, a field archaeology unit and a cultural development team. The award-winning service was regarded as one of the sector's big-hitters.
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