🧢 A bigger welcome, for more visitors, to Middleport Pottery
The charity operating the UK’s last continuously-working Victorian pottery factory is now hoping to double its visitor figures after being granted £249,954 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund in October. The money will be used by Re-Form Heritage to “grow visitor engagement” at Middleport Pottery - with work due to start on a visitors' welcome centre and learning centre at the start of 2025. Around 50,000 people visited the Stoke-on-Trent attraction last year. The long-term aim is now to grow that figure to 100,000.
🧢 It’s the reel thing
Derby Film Festival is one of the leading regional film festivals in the UK, and will once again be bringing together film fans, film makers and industry figures between 7 and 10 November. Tickets for the majority of screenings are priced at £7.50 (standard) and £6 (concessions). Preview screenings are priced at QUAD’s regular cinema ticket prices. Q+A screenings are individually priced.
🧢 This week’s ‘Top Pick’ @WeightmanPR: Stokesay Castle
Open to the public at weekends during the winter months, Stokesay Castle - just off the A49, and close to the world-famous Shropshire Hills, in the borderlands with Wales - was one of the first fortified manor houses in England. Still remarkably intact since a leading wool merchant Laurence of Ludlow built it in the late 13th century, it was created as a statement of wealth and power - with a fairytale-like gatehouse being added around 1640. Barely touched by the passage of years, it was sympathetically repaired (and saved from ruin) in the 19th century, and is today one of English Heritage’s most iconic properties.
🧢 Celebrating World Craft City status
Stoke-on-Trent last week celebrated the way in which The Potteries gained global recognition in July of this year by being granted World Craft City status - which is awarded by the World Crafts Council to areas where there are excellent social, cultural, and economic contributions from communities. One of the biggest benefits of becoming a World Craft City is the potential it offers for opening-up so many doors across the world for further recognition. Talk is now turning towards a possible bid for The Potteries to be recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site - something that might make the agenda as the City of Stoke-on-Trent sets out to celebrate its 100th anniversary of city status during 2025.