Elephant ready for grinding

Well, museums should be re-opening this month... if, that is, they have met the Covid-prevention conditions imposed by the government.

This means that you will once again be able to view these grisly elephant bones at Shirley's Grinding Mill Museum in Etruria. They have been preserved there for over one hundred years as a sort of odd trophy.
The mill ground flint and bone to be used in the china-making process.

Quite how the mill got the elephant bones is another story.

Wedgwood in Mumbai

Talking of Josiah Wedgwood, it's really extraordinary that, in virtually just one generation, he turned a small pottery concern in an insignificant North Staffordshire town into a worldwide business. 
It was the beginning of the age of the entrepreneur, but even so...

Nowadays, Wedgwood is a name revered all over the globe.  Even in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) Museum in Mumbai, India, Wedgwood objects get a display case all to themselves....

Wedgwood's curvy museum

The museum at the Wedgwood factory in Barlaston is not very pretty on the outside; it's rather functional really (I think).  Also, the interior design of it is rather staid in my opinion, though the actual route through the museum is nicely curvy.
The museum is more of an art-lover's and historian's place than a fun day-out - though is none the less valuable for that.

The wide & undulating of the roof-design reminds me of the roof at the Mitchell Memorial Theatre extension in Hanley.

Great preserver

... jar upon jar of 'colours' used in the pottery industry from a hundred years ago.

Lots of people will descend upon Gladstone Pottery Museum this Easter weekend - because it's a fun place (believe it or not) with its maze of courtyards & outbuildings and quirky displays.

However, it does have a serious purpose too, as preserver of the history of this once-pervasive industry.  As this display shows.

Cuts cut potters

The Gladstone Pottery Museum in Longton really is an outstanding experience. Sited in an authentic old 'pot-bank' factory, there are lots of different sections, and sights and sounds - including real potters making real pottery - so it's a proper family day-out, but one that historians can savour too.  My favourite section is the one on the history of indoor sanitation - but, maybe that's just me.

Because it is council-funded, the latest round of local government cuts have hit it badly; and it looks like it will be open on fewer days in future, according to the BBC's report.
Oh well. Oh well.

Bass beer meets Staffs regiment

The 'Bass-Triangle story' is an amusing one, and has Staffordshire at its core....

When the Staffordshire Yeomanry regiment decided to adopt a new badge for its officers in 1941, a Major Eadie suggested it be placed on a triangle of red felt.  This idea was adopted - as you can see in the photo.
It transpired later that the red triangle is also a symbol of the Bass Brewing Company, also based in Staffordshire - where Major Eadie had worked in civilian life...! 
A happy coincidence?  Perhaps.

The story is told at The Museum of Staffordshire Yeomanry, which is Stafford town centre.  It's a small museum but one of the best - with clear labelling, some interactive stuff, and lots of maps and diagrams showing the Yeomanry's campaigns... including the WW2 desert campaign.   Really worth a visit.
What's more - it's free to get in... 

A wallaby in Leek

Wallabies are of course Australian citizens...normally... yet this one was definitely north Staffordshire born and bred.
Its body was found in the 1990s on the wild moors north of Leek, being then stuffed, and then mounted here in the Nicholson Institute, the museum of Leek.

The reason he was there was on the moors was, as you'd expect, that his forebears had escaped in the 1930s from a private zoo on the nearby Swythamley estate, and had formed a small wild colony - from which he is presumably descended.
It does seem amazing that these wallabies should have survived the harsh winters up there though.

Sadly, no other wallaby has been spotted for a while now, so (even though they can be notoriously shy) it has to be assumed the colony has died out.

Potteries Museum in need

Museums everywhere feel threatened, and the one in Stoke-on-Trent is no different

The City Museum (aka The Potteries Museum) is now asking for donations of £3 from visitors in order to keep entry free. The fear is – clearly – that, when the new financial year arrives in April, that the City Council may withdraw some of its subsidy.

...by the way, the owl icon that you can see in the display, and which has been adopted by the museum, is a reference to one of its most famous exhibits, a rare late 17th century Staffordshire slipware owl jug.

Link: Potteries Museum

Wedgwood ... is back

In early 2009, Waterford-Wedgwood went into administration with debts of £4million. The iconic Staffordshire pottery brand, founded in 1759 by Josiah Wedgwood, was in danger of disappearing.
It was touch & go, before American firm KPS bought it two months later.  

Yet, it is amazing to report that WWRD (Waterford Crystal, Wedgwood & Royal Doulton) - the name of the company these days - is one of the companies now chosen to produce official souvenir merchandise for the Olympics. Quite a revival.

From beyond the grave, Josiah (standing guard here at the Barlaston factory site) must be relieved.

However....  the future of the Wedgwood Museum (which is also on the factory site, and which Josiah is facing) has been placed in doubt because of the 2009 problems. Its exhibits may be sold off to pay the debts. Naturally, people aren't happy about that. See: Save Wedgwood Museum