The Etruria Industrial Museum is located in Etruria, Staffordshire, in England. The museum is a typical and well-preserved example of a nineteenth century British steam-powered potter's mill. It is situated between the

Trent and Mersey Canal The Trent and Mersey Canal is a canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities to the east of Burton upon Trent and north of M ...

and the Etruria staircase locks of the

Caldon Canal Caldon Canal is a branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal which opened in 1779. It runs from Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, to Froghall, Staffordshire. The canal has 17 locks and the Froghall Tunnel. History The first plans by the proprietors of the ...

. The museum has a modern entrance building, leading into a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

which was formerly the Etruscan bone and flint mill. The mill is also a scheduled monument.

History

The

bone A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, ...

and

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start ...

mill was built in 1857 to grind materials for the local

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...

industry. It was operated as a family business until 1975. The location of such a facility next to a canal is not unusual; the

Cheddleton Flint Mill Cheddleton Flint Mill is a water mill situated in the village of Cheddleton in the English county of Staffordshire. The mill race takes water from the river Churnet. The site is believed to have been used for milling since the Middle Ages. How ...

on the

is another example.

Restoration

The site was given an official heritage listing in the 1970s (initially as an

ancient monument In British law, an ancient monument is an early historical structure or monument (e.g. an archaeological site) worthy of preservation and study due to archaeological or heritage interest. The ''Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 ...

). The site appears to be one of the small number of buildings that, for historical reasons, are both scheduled and listed. After a period of restoration, started in 1978, the museum was opened by

Fred Dibnah Frederick Travis Dibnah, (29 April 1938 – 6 November 2004) was an English steeplejack and television personality, with a keen interest in mechanical engineering, who described himself as a "backstreet mechanic". When Dibnah ...

in 1991. Inside the restored site visitors see displays on the history of the mill and its site, and its machinery. There is a working

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be ...

called "Princess" dating from the 1820s, which was second-hand at the time the mill was built. There is a working historic blacksmith's forge flanking the museum's modern entrance building. Much further restoration work was completed on the wider landscape setting of the mill in the mid-1980s, as part of the preparations for the national Stoke-on-Trent Garden Festival.

Current status

At 2015 the museum is operated by volunteers through Shirley's Bone and Flint Mill Volunteer group, although it is part of Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s Museum Service, and as such it is open to the public only occasionally throughout the year. The museum website advertises the days when the 1903 coal-fired boiler provides steam to operate "''Princess''", which then turns the

grinding machine A grinding machine, often shortened to grinder, is a power tool (or machine tool) used for grinding. It is a type of machining using an abrasive wheel as the cutting tool. Each grain of abrasive on the wheel's surface cuts a small chip from th ...

ry. As of September 2015 the mill was purchased from

St Modwen Modwenna, or Modwen, was a nun and saint in England, who founded Burton Abbey in Staffordshire in the 7th century. According to the medieval ''Life of St Modwenna'' she was an Irish noblewoman by birth and founded the abbey on an island in the ...

by the members of Shirley's Bone and Flint Mill Volunteers CIO and will continue to be leased to Stoke-on-Trent City Council as the heart of the Etruria Industrial Museum.

Immediate setting

The

´s course through the city is a linear

Conservation Area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

. Along with the Middleport section of the canal, the Etruria section is particularly important in terms of urban heritage, and the Mill site is immediately abutted by several other important historic sites: *the

staircase locks A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water lev ...

of the

(up which thousands of

narrowboat A narrowboat is a particular type of canal boat, built to fit the narrow locks of the United Kingdom. The UK's canal system provided a nationwide transport network during the Industrial Revolution, but with the advent of the railways, commer ...

ing holiday makers labour each year in order to visit the Moorlands town of

Leek The leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of '' Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek ( syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a stem or stalk. The genus '' Al ...

) *a wide grassy glade surrounded by a circle of trees, marking the site of the British Gas Light Company gas-holder – the first to supply heat and light to the city *the site of the Old Dispensary and House of Recovery, which was the city's first hospital. Access to vehicles is partly restricted due to weight restrictions on the canal bridges, and there is no through-traffic, making the large park-like area centred on the mill an attractive one for the residents of an increasingly gentrified Etruria. The Etruria Canals Festival generally takes place annually at and around the Etruria Industrial Museum on the first weekend in June , although in some years the large outdoor market of stalls is not staged by the committee.

References

External links