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Potteries Museum & Art Gallery facts for kids
Museum entrance
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| Location | Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom |
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| Type | Art museum & local museum |
| Visitors | over 100k per annum |
The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is an exciting place to visit in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. Hanley is one of the six towns that make up the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. The best part is, admission to the museum is free!
This museum is one of four main museums in the city. It has amazing collections that tell the story of the "Potteries" area. This region is famous for making pottery and ceramics. The museum has a huge collection of Staffordshire ceramics.
All the items in the museum are part of special "Designated Collections." You can explore galleries filled with beautiful art, old costumes, and local history. There are also sections on archaeology (studying ancient things) and natural science. A real Supermarine Spitfire airplane from the Second World War is on permanent display. This famous plane was designed by R. J. Mitchell, who came from nearby Butt Lane.
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Museum History
The museum first opened in its current building in 1956. It was originally called the Stoke-on-Trent City Museum & Art Gallery. The building itself was designed by the city's architect, J. R. Piggott.
The Spitfire's Journey
The museum's famous Spitfire airplane was given to them by the Royal Air Force in 1972. For many years, it was displayed outside the museum in a glass building. Then, in the winter of 1985 and 1986, the Spitfire was carefully moved. It found a new home in a special gallery built just for it inside the museum.
The Spitfire underwent a big restoration project that lasted three years. It returned to a brand new gallery at the museum in September 2021.
Discovering the Staffordshire Hoard
Since February 2010, The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery has been home to some incredible items from the Staffordshire Hoard. This hoard is a huge collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver. In February 2010, over 52,500 visitors came to see 118 pieces of the hoard during a 23-day exhibition.
The Staffordshire Hoard was bought by both Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and Stoke-on-Trent Museums. This means that parts of the hoard are always on display at both places. You can see over 80 pieces of this ancient treasure in the archaeology gallery at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery. The Saxon part of this gallery was updated in late 2010. This helped to show the hoard in a clearer way, using other ancient items from the museum's collection.
Other Special Exhibitions
In 2012, the museum held an exhibition about the connections between Stoke-on-Trent and the Titanic ship. It shared stories about people from the area who sadly died when the ship sank. The exhibition also included old videos of Captain Edward Smith, who was born in Hanley.
On February 28, 2017, something very exciting happened at the museum. The Leekfrith torcs were shown to the public for the first time. These are gold necklaces believed to be the oldest Iron Age gold jewelry ever found in Britain! They went on public display the very next day.
In June 2017, a bronze statue of the famous writer Arnold Bennett was placed right next to the museum's front entrance.
See also
- Mercian Trail
- List of surviving Supermarine Spitfires