Lake District Break & a Trip to the Gladstone Pottery Museum in Stoke!

Simon and I escaped for a week to the Lake District last month for a change of scenery and to celebrate Simon's birthday.

We spent some time with Simon's son, Rory, and on our way back down to our stained glass workshop with Number8Glass in Tollerton (see post HERE) we dropped into Stoke to visit the Gladstone Pottery Museum.

As a potter, I've wanted to visit the museum for some time - not just because it's the set of the Great Pottery Thrown Down, but also because it's the last bottle kiln museum in the country with the 4 kilns preserved for all to see.

If you're ever in the area, I'd definitely recommend a visit. I particularly enjoyed the tile museum (such wonderful colours, textures and techniques) and discovering more about the conditions the workers endured over the years. It was amazing to see all the old glaze containers in the museum. The equipment, machinery and techniques that were used to create repeated forms and keep production going seem so alien to us now.

The bottle kilns themselves are gigantic. You are able to walk around inside them, so you can truly appreciate the size and scale. The conditions and heat the workers (often young children) withstood doesn't bear thinking about.

The toilet museum takes you on a journey from holes in the ground through to state-of-the-art loos. Another interesting area to visit.

Massive bottle kilns at the Gladstone Pottery Museum

Simon pretending to be a GPTD contestant.

Bottle kilns.

Beautiful tiles in the tile museum.

Toilet museum.

Stunning tile collection.

Old glaze containers.

Inside a bottle kiln.

Old sanitary ware poster.

Simon and I at the Gladstone Pottery Museum