Potteries Museum & Art Gallery

The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery has the revamped Staffordshire Hoard exhibition to mark ten years since the discovery of the treasure.

This includes star items that haven’t been on display for years – and it’s the biggest ever Hoard exhibition at the site.

Click here for more information

The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery also has an Apollo 50 exhibition, marking 50 years since the historic moon landing (with the anniversary on Saturday, July 20).

This includes 50-plus models, memorabilia, info, dressing up for children, a big video screen showing historic clips, and an astronaut cut-out for photos.

The exhibition runs until November 3.

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Gladstone Pottery Museum

Potteries Bottle Oven Day takes place on Thursday, August 29 - make sure you come along to celebrate and find out more.

The day was officially recognised last year as part of the Festival of Bottle Ovens, held to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the last ever coal firing of a bottle oven. The 2018 festival at Longton’s Gladstone Pottery Museum was the first major activity of the Stoke-on-Trent Ceramic Heritage Action Zone.

This year the museum and partners are planning to mark Potteries Bottle Oven Day on Thursday, August 29 with a programme of events and activities. They will celebrate the city’s rich bottle oven heritage through workshops, displays, events and tours – as well as opportunities to meet people who took part in the last ever firing back in August 1978. The activities include:

• A Heritage Action Zone display at the museum and the chance to meet the project officer.

• Walking with Kilns presentation in the museum’s Twyford Room at 10.30am, 1pm and 3.45pm. A virtual tour of bottle ovens using cutting edge technology as part of a Heritage Action Zone Admission is free to these presentations.

• Final firing talk at 11.30am. Paul Niblett, a member of the organising team for the last firing of a bottle oven in 1978, will be giving a talk. The talk is free but places must be booked by calling 01782 237777.

• Bottle Ovens – The Facts at 2pm. The Potteries Heritage Society’s Andy Perkin will be quizzing Terry Woolliscroft, bottle oven blogger and co-author of Bottle Ovens and the Story of the Final Firing. Places can be booked by calling the museum on 01782 23777 and this event is free.

• Voices of the Bottle Ovens at 2.30pm. The Potteries Heritage Society will present extracts from Revealing Voices project audio archives and the last bottle oven firing tapes. The recordings were made more than 40 years ago by BBC Radio Stoke producer Arthur Wood and Terry Woolliscroft. Places can be booked by calling the museum on 01782 23777 and this event is free.

• Museum volunteers will also use special effects to show one of the kilns as it would have looked during firing. Weather conditions permitting, an oven will be ‘smoking’ on the hour from 11am to 4pm.

• Throughout August visitors to Gladstone Pottery Museum can see the ‘Last Bottle Oven Firing’ display as part of their visit.

There is also a bottle oven badge making drop-in workshop on Wednesday, August 28. Create your own bottle oven badge to take home. The event is suitable for all ages and included with museum admission, 11am to 4pm.

Little Longton Bottle Oven Bus Tours will also be running on Saturday, August 31. Visitors can join short tours to see most of the remaining bottle ovens in Longton on board a 1978 PMT double-decker bus. Information will be provided on board by your ‘conductor’. Tours are free and will leave Gladstone at 10.30am, 12pm, 2pm and 3.30pm.

Click here to find out more.

At Gladstone you can also see regular demonstrations of traditional skills and try your hand at throwing a pot, making a bone china flower or painting pottery for a small extra charge.

Opening hours are:

• Tuesdays to Saturdays and bank holidays, 10am to 5pm.
• Entrance: adults - £7.75, children - £5.40 (four to 16 years old inclusive), concessions - £6.20, family ticket - £23 (two adults, two children).

Gladstone Pottery Museum website

Summer Reading Challenge

Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s libraries are calling for children to sign up to read six books this summer as part of Space Chase, Summer Reading Challenge 2019.

The challenge asks four to 11-year-olds to borrow and read any six library books over the holidays.

This year’s theme is inspired by the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. To take part in Space Chase, all children need to do is sign up at their nearest library, where they will be given a collector folder to keep a record of their Summer Reading Challenge journey.

All children who complete the challenge will receive a certificate and medal. Space Chase is at Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s libraries until Saturday, September 14.

There is also a programme of library events and activities planned for families over the holidays to celebrate the Summer Reading Challenge, including science workshops, storytelling performances, space discos and Little Library Van roadshow visits.

Click here to find out more

Dimensions Leisure Centre has leisure swims, aqua fit, and sensory splash sessions throughout the holidays.

There are also free ‘save a child’s life’ and ‘save an adult’s life’ sessions running over August.

The aim of this Royal Life Saving Society workshop is to increase knowledge and awareness of CPR skills. Limited spaces.

To book a place, call 01782 233500.

Click here to find out more about Dimensions Leisure Centre