The Story of Gladstone Pottery Museum
The need to preserve intact at least one Victorian Pottery factory was identified back in 1966, by Robert Copeland and other trustees of The Cheddleton Flint Mill. Together with officers from Stoke-on-Trent City Council they considered several sites. The Gladstone China Works was selected as being the most suitable.
Supported by a report from the City Planning Department, an application for financial support was presented to the City Council in April 1970. This was turned down, as was a second appeal in March 1971.
Saved at the eleventh hour
At the eleventh hour, the site was saved by a gift of £15,000 from Derek Johnson of H. & R. Johnson Tiles. This was followed by donations from other pottery companies and private individuals. In September 1971, The Staffordshire Pottery Industry Preservation Trust was formed. It was joined later by The Gladstone Pottery Development Trust, which was set up for fund-raising purposes.
Consultants were engaged to raise further funds; they were given the target of £300,000. By 1972 total capital raised stood at £119,000. From the outset it was agreed that the venture would have to be self-sufficient. The earliest plans aspired to a break-even position of 100,000 visitors at 2/- per head yielding £10,000 per annum by year five.
In January 1973 Stoke-on-Trent City Council agreed to fund the posts of Project Manager and General Secretary, and to carry out minor emergency repair work when requested. From this point, the council provided modest amounts of revenue support each year. Although much valuable work had been done by volunteers, clearing up the site and carrying out maintenance, it was agreed that the pace of progress was not sufficient.
So, in September 1973 The Trust agreed to the appointment of its first Director. David Sekers was subsequently appointed in January 1974.
By 1975 capital raised amounted to £248,379 (comprising £204,341 from industry, £28,000 from individuals and £16,038 from local government), plus further help ‘in kind’ from local government with an estimated value of £40,000.
1975 to 1978
Phase 1 of the project was officially opened by HRH the Duke of Gloucester on 24 April 1975. Under new director David Sekers (1974 - 1978), the museum established new exhibition galleries and production of ware became a major feature with up to four firings a week. Temporary exhibitions and special events were another hallmark.
The museum won several awards during this period:
Come to Britain Trophy, 1975;
Business and Industry Award, 1976, and;
Museum of the Year, 1976.
1978 was the year of the last bottle oven firing. Gladstone achieved its highest ever visitor figures, with 80,000 passing through its doors.
During this period, staffing levels were higher than at any point since. Despite these successes, Gladstone in 1978 had not achieved revenue self-sufficiency and was eating into its capital to support running costs.
At this time the Trust was made up of senior captains of local industry, commerce and the community. While able to provide some cash and wisdom, they had never been required to, and were unable to provide any direct management input to the project. This was a satisfactory arrangement during David Sekers tenure.
1978 to 1986
Francis Celoria was appointed to succeed David Sekers as Director and held the position from 1978 to 1986. He inherited much goodwill, visitor figures that had just peaked, the laurels of many achievements, no money and a museum that still needed annual revenue support.
The main focus during his time was on the care of the collection, development of the academic aspects of Gladstone’s work and surviving from year to year in an atmosphere of make-do-and-mend.
1977 saw the start of various government job creation schemes, all of which placed large numbers of extra workers on the site. In 1982-83 there were 50 extra people on site involved in restoration work and in some cases replacing what could have been described as core, operational positions.
These schemes also provided a direct contribution to the running costs. From 1987 onwards the schemes ceased to provide staff to do any meaningful on-site work. Gladstone not only lost a large portion of the revenue support that it had come to depend upon, but also found itself distracted from its core objectives.
In 1984 David Malkin, one of the founding trustees was appointed as consultant, advising on commercial matters. Production activities were increased, and in 1985 the neighbouring Roslyn Pottery was bought. Although intended as income contributors both actions resulted in a worsening of the annual revenue deficit. Indeed, there is no evidence that production ever truly made an independent profit.
1986 to 1988
Francis Celoria left in 1986 and was replaced by David Malkin in the capacity of part-time Acting Director. Fund-raising consultants were employed and an appeal was launched to raise £250,000 for the development of the Roslyn Works, and to put Gladstone on a sound financial footing.
Four extra members of staff were employed at this time. Had the fund-raising been successful most of the £250,000 was earmarked for wiping out existing debts. In the event the appeal failed. Only £23,000 was raised against appeal costs of £15,500.
1988 to 1994
In 1988 Morris Rushton was brought in by the Trust as Commercial Director. He initiated a scheme to turn the site into a hotel with the residue of the museum providing a unique feature.
A company, Theme Hotels Ltd., was set up by the trust and it was intended that the development costs would be met by a group of local pottery manufacturers. Had this scheme moved forward it is likely that the trust would have lost control of the site to a private development. In fact, informal discussions with the planning department revealed that the proposed changes to the listed buildings would not be allowed, and the Trust dropped the scheme.
In January 1989, Gladstone found itself with insurmountable money problems. The books showed fixed assets of £363,000 (the buildings and land) and current liabilities of £183,000. Although this showed net assets on paper of £180,000, a valuation revealed the true worth of the buildings and land. A large part of the trading assets of £83,000 were thought to be overvalued. So the Trust was insolvent, with creditors totalling £276,000, not allowing for potential wind-up and redundancy costs.
At this point the museum's bank account was frozen and the trust turned to Stoke-on-Trent City Council for help. The freehold of the site was bought by the city council for £279,567 which included a grant of £83,000 from English Heritage. This allowed the original trusts to wind up their affairs.
A feasibility study was commissioned from Grant Thornton, chartered accountants, and Derek Latham Associates, architects. The city council assessed various management models, including direct management by the local authority.
It was ultimately decided that a new trust, Gladstone Pottery Museum Trust, should be formed. This would involve a mixture of council members and private individuals and would be supported by officers from various departments of the city council.
Cameron Hawke-Smith was initially seconded from the City Museum (now The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery) as acting Director, and eventually left the council to become Director of Gladstone Pottery Museum for the new Trust.
The city council continued to provide annual revenue support, as it had done each year since the museum began. The new organisation then embarked on the task of reversing several decades of neglect of the buildings, re-interpreting the site, and improving visitor services. The Trust hoped that the museum could finally become self-supporting.
The largest outside grant of £277,800 came from the European Development Fund as a result of Gladstone’s inclusion in The Gladstone St James Design Quarter submission made by the city council. This was the first ‘Euro-money’ ever received by The City of Stoke-on-Trent.
Sadly, improvements took at lot longer than first thought, so there was no instant improvement to the visitor experience. The building was in better condition than at any time in 20 years, and modern visitor facilities of shop, café, lifts and toilets were installed. These improvements did not attract visitors in themselves but without them the museum risked further decline.
The city council were now keen to hasten the museum’s quest for self-sufficiency, but were also mindful of the demise of the mining museum at Chatterley Whitfield. As a result, in 1993, the city council commissioned a business plan from The Centre for Small Business Management, part of Staffordshire University. The plan, published in December 1993, provided a frame work of operation and list of changes needed in order to drive the museum towards self sufficiency within three years.
During its first five years, The Gladstone Pottery Museum Trust had not been able to generate any funds of its own. It was clear that further revenue and capital support would be needed from the city council and that every effort should be made to maximise the use of the resources within the council if only to make sure the museum remained on the fastest track towards self sufficiency.
1994 onwards
In May 1994, the Trust accepted an offer from Stoke-on-Trent City Council for the museum to come under its direct management. Gladstone became part of its Department of Museums, Arts & Heritage under Director Peter Vigurs. Gladstone’s own Director became redundant.
From 1994, Gladstone Pottery Museum reviewed all aspects of its operation, and became part of the Museums Service of the City of Stoke-on-Trent. Today's museum has the following Mission Statement:
To Preserve and Present the Way of Life of the North Staffordshire Pottery Worker
While addressing the aims and priorities of the City of Stoke-on-Trent, Gladstone also has aims, objectives and policies of its own, such as:
Annual Service Plans;
Collection Management Policy:
Visitor Services, Retailing, and Catering:
Interpretation Policy (hands on activities and role-play now play a major part);
Marketing Policy and Plan.
For the visitor the most obvious change has been use of skilled pottery workers to demonstrate and communicate their skills, rather than simply to produce wares.
There have been many recent developments at Gladstone Pottery Museum. All capital work has been possible due to getting external funding.
In 1997 a series of videos were introduced:
An introductory video (in six languages);
Processes and Bottle Ovens,
Saggarmaking and audio in a bottle oven.
These provided another layer of information to interpret this complex environment. They answer visitors' most frequently asked questions. The work was funded by the European Regional Objective Fund, Objective 2.
The grant was £45,000, and went a long way to helping the museum provide all text, and images ourselves.
Major New Development - Flushed With Pride
In 1998 began the long process of project managing what was then called the Gladstone 2000 Project. Resulting in 'Flushed With Pride - The Story of the Toilet,' a new tile gallery and the doctor's house - three brand new display areas for museum visitors.
The museum today
Continuous work is needed to the fabric of the buildings particularly the bottle ovens to ensure the safety of museum visitors, and the long-term preservation of the bottle ovens for the benefit of future generations.
Why is this work needed?
Regular firing of the kilns kept the bricks, kiln and hovel (chimney) dry. When firing ended, frost, rain and vegetation began to erode and decay the bricks and mortar. This decay in brick is known as 'spalling.'
The degree of spalling is also related to the quality of each brick. An underfired brick is more susceptible to spalling. The oldest oven at Gladstone, the base of which dates from 1770s, is built of the poorest-quality brick and so has the most problems.
Owing to the damp conditions in the unfired bottle ovens, the metal bands ('bonts') have rusted. The bonts hold the bricks of the oven together, which was important during firing when the bricks expanded and contracted in the heat, and still helps to stabilise the structure today. The bonts need to be conserved or replaced. When the ovens were operating these bands often broke and were replaced as needed.
Old and new bonts are secured with traditional clips. If a bont should break these clips are there to stop the metal springing away from the kiln, lessening the risk to visitors and preventing damage to the brickwork.
All work is carried out to exacting standards approved by English Heritage.
Additionally, to provide better access for all visitors the cobbles have been lifted to create natural ramping into some rooms, and removable wooden platforms installed to provide a continuous flat surface.
