Top 5 Landscapes in the City of Stoke-On-Trent

Stoke-on-Trent is known for its pottery factories and industrial heritage, but also offers beautiful gardens to visit.

Visit Emma Bridgewater Factory to witness its vibrant walled garden, beautifully maintained by Emma Bridgewater’s Gardener and recognized by Countryfile as a finalist for “Garden of the Year” award.

Longton Park

Longton Park in Dresden’s Trentham Road area offers an expansive green space dotted with gardens and lakes, featuring an historic pavilion for events and exhibitions. Longton’s open spaces offer respite from city life while its relaxing environment make it the ideal spot for weekend outings with friends.

Established to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, The Potteries Pleasure Ground opened for public enjoyment in 1888 and has remained virtually unchanged ever since its initial layout of 1880s. At its entrance lies an impressive half-timbered gatehouse and keeper’s lodge that lead into an elegant formal garden featuring bandstand, fountains, tree-lined carriage drives and more besides. Today its garden stands as an outstanding example of Victorian municipal parks; all C19 structures remain well preserved.

The west half of the park features an intricate network of curving paths and tree-lined drives, filled with mature copper beech trees as well as green-leafed species. Views from its centre drive are particularly stunning, while several 2m-high cast-iron posts still bear their ‘Carriage Drive’ finger signs – an impressive site indeed!

East half of the park reveals an open landscape, featuring a central bandstand and two lake basins. Groves of trees particularly notable include rows of fine beech. An area to the south-east of central area was once home to a pond.

Longton Park boasts a variety of sporting facilities and children’s play park, making it a popular spot for picnics with ample open spaces suitable for accommodating families and groups alike. There is also an assortment of cafes, restaurants, and pubs nearby if desired.

The pottery industry of Church Street, Uttoxeter Road and Sutherland Roads in Stockport is represented by numerous works; most can be found clustered along these three roads. There are also scattered smaller operations throughout town – especially north-east of the market and south-east of it – especially within their lane-strewn surroundings and bustling surroundings.

Park Hall Country Park

Park Hall Country Park features lakes, sandstone canyons, woodland, heath-land and fishing facilities – making it a popular place for picnics, mountain biking and horseback riding (license required). Visitors also come here to admire wildlife or explore geology of the area – making this park both a sandstone canyon and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Park Hall estate was more than architectural grandeur; it also served as a social hub in its region. The Digby family held and attended local events regularly, which further cemented their status as one of the most powerful families. These engagements demonstrated their emphasis on social policy within their family unit and served as essential power-building strategies.

Park Hall Country Park can be found just an easy drive from Stoke-on-Trent in Weston Coyney village and features activities and attractions for everyone in the family, such as hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding and cross-country running. Park Hall also makes for an excellent place for children to learn about nature while exploring it themselves!

Visitors to the park can also take advantage of all the water-based activities it has to offer, including canoeing and kayaking. Furthermore, walking and cycling routes exist with some suitable for wheelchair access – plus an on-site Visitor Centre provides further convenience for visitors.

The Countryside Experience at Park Hall is an interactive attraction perfect for all members of the family, where children can participate in animal experiences such as milking and lamb feeding while adults can try their luck at archery or take a ride on the barrel train. There are also lots of indoor and outdoor play areas such as an enormous indoor play arena as well as Warren Play Barn with nets, ropes, rollers punchbags and other items!

The park is known for its vibrant birding community, boasting an array of species throughout the year. Particularly notable is its population of long-eared owls and large numbers of kestrels nesting in its canyons; furthermore there are healthy populations of frogs, toads, newts and dragonflies such as Common blue and Blue-tailed damselflies within its many pools.

The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery

The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery (PMAG), situated in Hanley, one of the six towns that make up Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. This exceptional museum houses outstanding collections in natural history, fine art, local and social history as well as pottery including one of the world’s largest collections of Staffordshire ceramics. Additionally it hosts regular temporary exhibitions featuring works from their impressive art collection.

PMAG is a fully accredited museum with national status, categorising all its collections as Designated Collections. Its galleries showcase collections in fine and decorative arts, costume, local/social history, archaeology and natural science; in particular its natural history gallery runs educational events to help students understand its geology of the area while its exhibitions feature various objects with hands-on activities for visitors to experience.

There are numerous items of note in the gallery, including Leekfrith Torcs which are thought to be Britain’s oldest Iron Age gold jewellery and over 80 pieces from the Staffordshire Hoard which was discovered in 2009 dating back to Anglo-Saxon period; following its discovery a redevelopment of Saxon gallery at the end of 2010 helped put this hoard within tangible context.

Other highlights in the gallery include John Ward’s collection of fossils collected during the late 1800s from Fenton and Longton’s Carboniferous Coal Measure deposits as well as its impressive mineral collection. PMAG recently acquired another impressive geology department at Staffordshire University’s closed geology department which boasts around 2000 rocks and minerals for inclusion into PMAG.

The gallery also showcases an impressive collection of taxidermy and specimens, such as Rob Marshall’s mount of a red squirrel from Cannock Chase; other noteworthy pieces in its collection include sub-fossilised skull of an auroch.

Trentham Estate

Trentham Estate boasts gardens, buildings and a lake spread over 725 acres of parklands and woodlands – offering something for all at its tranquil gardens or wildlife walks to its thrilling high rope course Treetop Adventures or its Monkey Forest with over 140 Barbary macaques free roaming freely!

Trentham Estate was acquired by St Modwen Properties in 1996, who invested PS100 Million into rejuvenating its listed gardens and buildings to bring them back to life, earning Trentham its current name of Trentham Gardens; The Telegraph newspaper described their efforts as the ‘Garden Makeover of the Decade”.

Capability Brown was hired in 1768 to transform this Augustinian priory and Elizabethan mansion into beautiful gardens that date back between 1768 and 1778, creating the Italian Garden, Eastern Pleasure garden, yew trees (of which some larger specimens exhibit grid like patterns typical of medieval gardens when toxic yew was prohibited from cultivation), Italian Garden and Eastern Pleasure gardens as well as creating the Italian Gardens, Eastern Pleasure garden and Eastern Pleasure garden – which now serve a number of uses!

In the 1980s, Trentham was attempted to become a leisure attraction by the Sutherland family; however, they were unable to gain planning consent and consequently the estate fell into decay as its gardens became polluted with sewerage from nearby Potteries. By 1905 the Duke of Newcastle offered his house and gardens for purchase by County Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Borough Councils but these failed, leaving Trentham virtually destitute.

Building of a leisure center and caravan park impacted the Deer Lawns in West Park and led to parts of its gardens being damaged or destroyed, mining subsidence caused drainage of Trentham Lake to take place, prompting repair works.

At that time, a small team began research of names on the World War One memorial and this initiative has since evolved into the Trentham Heritage Project, which records and preserves all aspects of its gardens and buildings’ history. A variety of events are held each year to honor this heritage while encouraging visitors to discover Trentham’s historic landscape.