SOME LANDMARKS in HISTORY
1964
“Visionary Thoughts” - In 1964 Reginald G. Haggar, the watercolour artist, ceramic designer, historian, lecturer and writer, wrote to the Pottery Gazette and Glass Trade Review with his visionary thoughts about preserving a traditional old potbank for the benefit of future generations. This was the germ of the idea for Gladstone Working Pottery Museum.1970 May
The derelict Gladstone Works, which was owned at the time by the local pottery manufacturer Hostess Tableware Ltd., was put up for sale. £12,500 (now £175k)
1971 March 6th
Urgent local campaign started headed by Robert Copeland, to save the works as a museum.
1971 March 24th - Morning
Local newspaper (Evening Sentinel) headlines - morning edition: 'Trust abandons fight to save kilns.'
1971 March 24th - Evening
Local newspaper (Evening Sentinel) headlines - evening edition: Gladstone Works saved at the 11th hour from the wrecking ball and bulldozers.
1971 May
Deeds to the site were handed over to the Museum Trust.
Staffordshire Pottery Industry Trust (SPIT) Established.
Name changed to Staffordshire Pottery Industry Preservation Trust. (SPIPT)
1971 December
The first 'Engineering Volunteers' started work on site.
1972
Building restoration - professional builders moved in.
The first teams of daytime vols and evening vols started work behind the scenes.
1973
David Sekers appointed first Museum Director. Sekers was born in 1943, the son of the Hungarian industrialist, Sir Nicholas Sekers, and his wife, Agota. He attended Eton College, where he was a pupil in the house run by Nigel Wykes, and then Worcester College, Oxford.
1973 Autumn
An advert was placed on Radio Stoke and in the Evening Sentinel newspaper, asking for more volunteers.
1974 August
The 'pre-opening' - a trial run was created to see how it would work with visitors.
1974 November
A volunteer evening was laid on by Gladstone Staff – it was a full house!
1975
The 'Gladstone Centre' was opened on the top floor.
1975 March 15th
1st Phase opened – 50p admission. 20p for pensioners.
1975 April 24th
The Duke of Gloucester officially opened museum.
1975/1976
'Operation Bottle' - the Bottle Oven Survey. A team of volunteers from 'North Staffs Junior Chamber' and Gladstone set about surveying the last remaining bottle ovens in The Potteries.
1978 August - Last Bottle Oven Firing
A major fundraising event was organised by staff and volunteers of the museum to create an historic record, on film and audio, of how a traditional Potteries bottle oven was fired with coal. It also raised nuch-needed cash to help preserve the museum's buildings - £250,000 (£2.5 million in today's money)
1979
The museum's second director, Dr Francis Celoria, took over from David Sekers. Well known as a ceramic historian and archaeologist, Dr. Celoria had previously worked in the London Museum, in publishing and as a lecturer in archaeology at Keele University. His special field of study was the history of ceramic technology, a field in which he was considered to be the leading authority. Although a Londoner born and bred, Francis Celoria worked in North Staffordshire from 1965.
1986
The National Garden Festival opened in Stoke-on-Trent bringing thousands of visitors to the Potteries, and to Gladstone.
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| Kevin Millward Gladstone Pottery Museum Mid 1980s |
1988
Gladstone £5m plan to save site - feature in the Evening Sentinel
1989
The museum was on brink of closure due to poor management.
1989
The city of Stoke-on-Trent took ownership of the museum site in 1989, and took over the management of the museum in 1992/94. Following this, the manufacturing section was closed and John Gould (Works Manufacturing Manager) was redundant.
The Assistant Director of the city museum service, Ian Lawley, was involved in the negotiations with the museum trust and the transfer of Gladstone to the local authority. He had input into the day to day management and staffing appointments, as was the line manager for the Gladstone Manager, Malcolm Hawksworth, then Hamish Wood. Ian Lawley’s own line manager at Stoke-on-Trent city council was Peter Vigurs who was Director of Museums, Arts & Heritage, then later, Director of Leisure & Cultural Services.
1994 May
Stoke-on-Trent City Council took over management of the museum.
2002 March
A new Sanitaryware Gallery opened. The major new 'Flushed with Pride' gallery opened in March 2002. New galleries opened.
2006
Potteries' Finest Served On A Plate! Gladstone takes part in Stoke-on-Trent's second Ceramics Festival. More details here https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/potteries-finest-served-on-a-plate-5330688.html
2015
Gladstone's 40th Anniversary - major celebrations laid on with the tag 'Forty-Fied'.
2018
The Festival of Bottle Ovens and POTTERIES BOTTLE OVEN DAY established. Every August 29th - the date in 1978 when a Potteries bottle oven was kindled for the very last time.
2021 December 14th
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
Stoke-on-Trent City Council announced major restructuring in its museum service. All the staff positions at Gladstone Pottery Museum were 'deleted'.
2022 April
No full-time staff remain at Gladstone.
2022 November
Residents' 'disgust' as Gladstone Pottery Museum shuts down for winter. Closed till April 2023. From August to October this 2022 the museum closed sporadically to allow filming for The Great Pottery Throw Down to take place - meaning that some weeks it was only open on one day.
Pottery Throw Down judge Keith Brymer Jones hits out at Gladstone closure
The Great Pottery Throw Down judge says the decision to shut while the TV show airs is 'strange and perplexing'.
2023 January
Headline - "Part-time worker wanted for two city museums. "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 recruitment comes after around a dozen jobs were axed at Gladstone last year as part of controversial council budget cuts."
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| Gladstone Pottery Museum from the air Photo: Courtesy The Sentinel, SOTLIVE |
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| Less than 12 months after the city council deleted all of the roles at Gladstone Pottery Museum they started recruiting. |
2023 February
Gladstone puts on two special events - a Wedding Fair and a Ceramic Makers market.
