The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is in Bethesda Street, Hanley, one of the six towns of

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

. Admission is free. One of the four local authority museums in the city, the other three being Gladstone Pottery Museum, Ford Green Hall and Etruria Industrial Museum, The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery houses collections that bring together the identities that went into forming the area known as the Potteries. The museum holds a collection of Staffordshire ceramics. All the collections at this museum are categorized as Designated Collections. Galleries display fine and decorative arts, costume, local history, archaeology and natural science collections. There is a

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

aircraft on permanent display, a

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced conti ...

whose earlier Marks were designed by R. J. Mitchell who came from nearby Butt Lane.

History

The museum opened on its current site in 1956 as the Stoke-on-Trent City Museum & Art Gallery. The building was designed by the city architect; J. R. Piggott. The museum's Spitfire, was received from the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

in 1972. Over the winter of 1985/86 the Spitfire was moved from its previous home in a glasshouse outside the museum to a specially constructed gallery within the museum. Since February 2010, The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery has been the home of a number of artefacts from the Staffordshire Hoard. 52,500 visitors viewed 118 items at the Potteries Museum during a 23-day exhibition in February 2010. Since Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and Stoke-on-Trent Museums have purchased the Hoard, items have been on permanent display at both venues. Over 80 pieces can be seen in The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery's archaeology gallery. Redevelopment of the Saxon part to this gallery in the latter half of 2010 has set the Hoard within a more tangible context, using existing pieces from the museum's collection of Staffordshire archaeology. In 2012 the museum ran an exhibition on the subject of connections between Stoke-on-Trent and the ''Titanic''. It included information on people from the area who died in the sinking and archive footage of Captain Edward Smith who was born in Hanley. On 28 February 2017, the Leekfrith torcs, believed to be the oldest Iron Age gold jewellery found in Britain, were unveiled to the public for the first time, at the museum. From the following day, they were placed on public display. In June 2017 a bronze statue of

Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaborati ...

was located on the pavement just next to the front entrance to the museum. In the 2010s the museum's Spitfire underwent a three-year restoration program before returning to a new gallery at the museum in September 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Potteries Museum and Art Gallery Art museums and galleries in Staffordshire Museums in Stoke-on-Trent Decorative arts museums in England Staffordshire pottery Natural history museums in England Ceramics museums in the United Kingdom

History

See also

References