2021 May 18th - Museum reopens after Pandemic closure
Stoke-on-Trent City Council announced on May 18th 2021 that the museum is all set to reopen.
"We've got big news about the country's small visitor attraction of the year. 🎉🥳😃 The award-winning Gladstone Pottery Museum is reopening from May 18 2021! Have you ever seen inside a bottle kiln? (sneak peek in the photos!) Visitors must book on 01782 237777. More info at https://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/gpm/ "
2021 1st September - Museum closes again, for 10 weeks, but not because of Covid19
In a surprise announcement (not even the museum staff were told about this) on 31st August the museum announced, via social media, that it was to close the following day and would remain closed until mid November. This was the text of the announcement:"Temporary Closure Gladstone Pottery Museum will be closed to the public from Wednesday 1st September until mid-November. During the temporary closure for a site project the museum, café and shop will not be able to accommodate visitors. We apologise for the inconvenience and look forward to welcoming visitors to the museum in person again later in the year."
The museum was actually closed to all tourists and school parties for the filming of the hit British TV Channel 4 programme "Great Pottery Throw Down". Unfortunately this enforced 'lack of footfall' would be the catalyst for a major reorganisation at the museum in 2022.
2021 September 22nd - "Installation of metal container for the sale of hot drinks, installation of gates and associated alterations to brick wall"
Stoke-on-Trent City Council Planning Department approve two controversial planning applications by the Stoke-on-Trent City Council Planning Department to install a redundant shipping container at the entrance to the museum. The plan is to use the container to serve hot drinks to visitors and passers by. The application was passed without it being discussed at the Planning Committee.
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| Gladstone Pottery Museum - proposed new teashop Photo: Phil Rowley Date: Sept 2021 |
2021 December 14th - Celebrations!
Three of the original 'engineering volunteers' celebrated a continuous run of 50 years of volunteering at the Gladstone site.
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| Gladstone Pottery Museum 1971-2021 Paul Niblett, Brian Colclough, and Fred Greasley Engineering Volunteers for 50 years |
2022 January 4th - Gladstone's job "deletions"
Stoke-on-Trent City Council announced major restructuring in its museum service. All the staff positions at Gladstone Pottery Museum were 'deleted', (the same happened for the only two staff members at the Potteries Museum Hanley). major upset and concerns raised throughout the museums world, both in the UK and internationally.
2022 January 8th morning - "Stoke turns its back on pottery heritage with curator redundancies"
This is the media piece which broke the news of major changes in Stoke's tourism offer. "Curators at the Gladstone Museum, with its famously recognisable brick bottle kilns, and the Potteries Museum have been told that all their posts are to be deleted as Stoke-on-Trent City Council seeks to cut £7.1m from its annual budget."
2022 January 8th afternoon - "city chiefs shut pottery museum"
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| Headline courtesy StokeonTrentLive |
2022 February 15th - "major backlash"
"Leaders at Stoke-on-Trent City Council had proposed to slash the funding for the authority's museums service by £560,000 next year, with job losses and reductions in opening hours at Gladstone Pottery Museum, in Longton, and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, in Hanley. But following a major backlash from the public and cultural organisations the council has partially amended the proposals included in the 2022/23 budget."
2022 February 24th
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| Headline courtesy Stoke Sentinel |
"Councillors have voted to approve £7 million of budget savings – including highly controversial cuts to Stoke-on-Trent's museums. The ruling Conservative group on Stoke-on-Trent City Council pushed through their spending plans for 2022/23 at Thursday's budget setting meeting, despite opposition from the Labour and City Independent groups.
The museum cutbacks will see Gladstone close between November and March, reopening during the Christmas and February school holidays and possible some weekends, while PMAG will close on Mondays.
There will also be job cuts as the staff running the two sites are merged into one team – although plans to axe curator posts have been put on hold to allow a revised staffing model to be drawn up.
The council received 274 comments relating to the museums cuts from the public during the budget consultation – far more than anything else. Groups such as the Heritage Network and the Friends of the Potteries Museum raised concerns that the proposals would cause serious damage to Stoke-on-Trent's reputation as a centre of ceramics expertise."
2022 March 31st - End of an Era
This was the day which the Stoke-on-Trent City Council (Leader, Councillor Abi Brown) had originally planned to start the 'modernisation' of the city museum service. This scan shows one of the regular columns by Dave Proudlove in The Sentinel (a local newspaper).
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| Scan courtesy Dave Proudlove from Twitter 30 March 2022 |
The actual timing of the changes was botched and delayed until the end of April 2022. All Gladstone's staff (apart from the four people employed in the teashop) had been told that their jobs would be redundant at the end of March 2022. They were then asked to hang on until new arrangements could be put place.
2022 April 22nd - Final day for some staff
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| Gladstone Pottery Museum 22 April 2022 'End of an Era' Photo: Nerys Williams, Audience Development Manager (Redundant) |
2022 December
City council quietly drops its proposal for the 'Coffee Container' teashop on the disabled persons carpark. Presumably this idea was dropped after spending many £1000s on the research, planning application, architects consultation, drainage and safety surveys.
2023 January 10th
Headline - 'Part-time worker wanted for two city museums - and they'll be kept VERY busy'
"Stoke-on-Trent City Council is looking for a part-time member of staff to work at Gladstone Pottery Museum and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery - in a wide-ranging role. The 'visitor experience assistant' post will see the successful candidate split their 18.5-hour working week across the two museum sites in Longton and Hanley. The employee will be expected to tackle tasks including security, cleaning, serving in the café, maintenance, sales and more for a salary of £10,592 to £11,180. The post will follow a rota which involves some weekend and occasional evening work. The recruitment comes after around a dozen jobs were axed at Gladstone last year as part of controversial council budget cuts." Courtesy: StokeonTrentLive
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| Gladstone Pottery Museum in the snow January 2023 Photo courtesy of Phil Crow ABIPP |
2023 February
Two special events held at the museum.
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| Queue for Gladstone Ceramic Makers Market Photo courtesy Gladstone Facebook Post Date: 25 Feb 2023 |