Bottoms up to historic kiln restoration

A pot of tea was the obvious choice when Alison Tinning and Daniel Turner chose to say ‘bottoms up’ to the completion of a long-term project to restore a historic kiln base, dating back to the eighteenth century, at the Brampton Museum in Brampton Park, Newcastle.

Alison Tinning, Education Officer at the Brampton Museum, and Daniel Turner, Belong Care Village Heritage Co-ordinator, raise a cup to the newly restored kiln base.

The chinking of pottery made in the region was a fitting end to the restoration of the base, which was unearthed on the site of the old Pomona Inn, now being developed as a state-of-the-art care village by not-for-profit care operator Belong.

Alison, Education Officer at the Brampton Museum, devises curriculum-friendly workshops and activities for school groups visiting the museum based on the museum’s collection.

Daniel, the newly appointed Experience Day and Heritage Gallery Coordinator at Belong Newcastle, will be leading the care village’s programme of activities for residents and members of the wider community. He will also run events at the Belong Heritage Gallery that will provide opportunities for people to engage with local history.

The kiln base will remain in the gardens of the Brampton Museum, in Brampton Park. At the same time, the gardens of the new Belong Newcastle-under-Lyme care village will include an art feature designed to replicate the original bottle kiln, which will sit on the site where the kiln was excavated.