Middleport Pottery festival

Middleport Pottery is planning a free Living History Festival on Saturday, July 4, 2026, turning its Stoke-on-Trent site into a day of reenactments and period displays. (re-form.org) The event is scheduled to run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Middleport Pottery on Port Street, Stoke-on-Trent, ST6 3PE, according to the venue listing and the city tourism calendar. (re-form.org) (visitstoke.co.uk) Visit Stoke’s listing says the program will range “from the Vikings to the Victorians, the Romans to the World Wars,” with reenactors staged across the pottery grounds. The same listing says admission is free and donations will support the charity that runs the site. (visitstoke.co.uk) The festival lands at a venue that already mixes free general entry with paid add-ons. Middleport Pottery says admission to the site is free, while separate Heritage Trail and factory tour tickets carry charges. (visitstoke.co.uk) (burleigh.co.uk) That setup reflects what Middleport Pottery has become since its restoration: a working factory, a heritage attraction, and an event space in one place. Re-Form Heritage, the Stoke-on-Trent charity that owns and manages the site, calls Middleport Pottery its flagship building. (re-form.org 1) (re-form.org 2) Middleport Pottery was built in 1889 and remains the home of Burleigh pottery production. Re-Form says it is a Grade II*-listed site, and its visitor materials describe it as the United Kingdom’s last working Victorian potbank in continuous production. (burleigh.co.uk) (re-form.org) The site’s heritage offer already centers on living industrial history. Visitors can book factory tours showing Burleigh ware made with traditional handcraft methods, or take a self-led Heritage Trail through preserved offices, a steam engine, a bottle kiln, and Harper Street workers’ housing. (burleigh.co.uk) (visitstoke.co.uk) Middleport has leaned into public events throughout 2026, with its calendar also listing a Spring Festival on April 26, “Wartime in The Potteries” on May 9, an artisan market in June, and a canal festival on June 13 and 14. The July 4 history festival extends that schedule into the summer with a broader historical theme. (re-form.org) For visitors, the July event offers a free way into a site where most of the history is usually accessed through tours or special programming. For Middleport Pottery, it puts a Victorian ceramics works at the center of a one-day timeline stretching from the ancient world to the 20th century. (visitstoke.co.uk) (re-form.org)