Step Back Into The 1950s At New £2.5m Tourist Attraction
Donated vintage items on display
COMMUNITY members have been treated to a sneak peek inside a multi-million pound heritage project which aims to show what life was like for pottery workers in the 1950s.
The row of Victorian terraced houses in Harper Street next to Grade Ii*-listed Middleport Pottery have been transformed thanks to a £2.5 million project – part-funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund – which extends the pottery’s popular heritage trail.
One of the houses – originally the Lodgekeeper’s house – has seen the clock turned back to the year 1950 and is filled with furnishings and the audio-visual stories of people who lived locally.
Residents donated authentic 1950s items and photographs for display following an appeal in The Sentinel, including furniture, clothing and bric-a-brac.
Around 30 interviews were filmed with members of the community talking about what life was like in Harper Street and the surrounding area – with clips playing in the house to enjoy as visitors walk around the Lodgekeeper’s house.
Other houses in the row have exhibitions spotlighting the people, the neighbourhood and life in the Potteries in the 1950s and 1960s
- as well as six workshops and studios for creative businesses, a purpose-built archive for Middleport Pottery, office space for Re-form Heritage and a community hub for Middleport Matters. The Harper Street houses were built in 1893 – and although they were considered ‘reasonable’ houses at the time, they lacked proper foundations and were built on top of broken pieces of pottery. As a result they were prone to subsidence and there were successive waves of demolition in the area from the 1930s onwards. In 1950 Mr and Mrs Hall and their three children lived in the Lodgekeeper’s House at 113
Harper Street – which was formerly known as Albion Street – and it’s kitted out as if the family have just stepped out.
You can look round their scullery, back kitchen, parlour and bedrooms, as well as seeing the original steep staircase.
Most of the furniture and ephemera has been donated, with some items coming from ebay.
There’s also a display of more than 100 photographs, some of which come from the Historic England archives and some which were donated by local residents.
The restoration was showcased to Middleport residents, staff, volunteers and contributors at a preview event which also included 1950s-themed entertainment, crafts and activities.
The Harper Street houses are set to open to the public at the end of
June, with an exact launch date still to be announced.
David Souden, director of
Past Present, the company who created the heritage interpretation and exhibition space, said: “We decided to set the house around 1950 because that is where the memories go back to. We wanted it to be living history.
“The driving force has been interviewing people and getting the community involvement. It’s not just a static display - we filmed people and are projecting their stories into the rooms.
“It’s really special to have so many items from the local area that people have kept for all these years. Many people said they didn’t want them to go to a house clearance or into a skip when they die.
“One gentleman whose wife died last year gave us her mirror that she had used for 50 years, and it is now hanging in one of the bedrooms. A lady donated handmade clothes and even seamed stockings that had belonged to two sisters who were friends of hers.
“It was a moving experience talking to people about their memories. They didn’t want the houses and what life was like here to be forgotten. We want people to go away with the message that this wasn’t all that long ago – and we want people to take some of the spirit of those times with them.”
Alasdair Brooks, chief executive of Re-form Heritage, the charity which owns Middleport Pottery, added: “The stories we are telling here are the stories of Middleport but also of Stoke-on-trent in general – how Stoke-on-trent is literally and figuratively built on pottery.”