We want 100k visitors a year to pottery giant - boss

The charity running Middleport Pottery has been awarded £250,000 of funding

A charity is hoping to double visitor numbers to the UK’s last continuously-working Victorian pottery factory after it was awarded £250,000 of funding.

Re-Form Heritage, which owns Middleport Pottery in Stoke-on-Trent, was granted £249,954 by the National Lottery Heritage fund last week.

The money will be used to “grow visitor engagement”, with work due to start on a visitors' welcome centre and learning centre at the start of 2025.

About 50,000 people visited the site last year but Re-Form’s chief executive Alasdair Brooks told BBC Radio Stoke he was not satisfied with that figure.

“It’s a good number but we do want to grow it. We’re not satisfied with 50,000. Our long-term goal is to get that up to 100,000 – so to try and double it,” he said.

“Are we pleased with 50,000? Yes, but are we satisfied with 50,000? No.”

Middleport Pottery opened to the public for the first time in 2014

Mr Brooks said he was conscious that Stoke-on-Trent “may not be at the top of everyone’s tourism list”.

But he added: “We think there are real strengths in Stoke-on-Trent for a visitor offer and we’re going to work with partners…to try and grow that visitor offer and bring more people in.”

The funding follows a similar grant awarded last year by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, meaning Middleport Pottery has received about £500,000 over the last two years.

Mr Brooks said the money has been vital for the site, particularly following the impact of the Covid pandemic and the energy price rises.

“It [Middleport Pottery] would still be there, it would still be operating, but with the second grant in particular, we’ve managed to make sure that we don’t just have a future with the site but that we’re able to undertake some transformations that we hope will lead to a much-improved visitor offer,” he said.