When I was a kid growing up in and around Stoke on Trent the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery was always the ‘museum of pots’ to me. There was never any variety on display other than pots, plates and anything ceramic.
You could stop going for half a decade only to return and the same items would be still lying around. Yes, we’re in the potteries home of our prestigious pottery heritage but the Potteries museum is a huge building. A building so large in fact that it could contain so much more local history.
The venue is also easily big enough to hold touring exhibitions. A huge building of pots was never all that thrilling for me to visit as a child.
Fast forward many years later and I revisited and what a difference. New exhibitions, temporary touring exhibitions, and a bit more variety was on display. Walking past those same pots and those same stuffed animals again was a memory I’d much quickly want to forget thogh!
Even the animals themselves are starting to look quite bored with being there all these years but these new exhibits were much improved. A Way of the Warrior exhibition explored Saxon warriors and equipment, an Apollo 11 exhibition that celebrated the moon landing and finally my favorite, the Memento Mori exhibit. Let’s take a look:
Memento Mori Exhibit at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery
Memento Mori is Latin that roughly translates to ‘remember you will die’ which is always a cheery thought.
This exhibition explored various funeral-themed artifacts. Scattered around the entire museum are various skulls and bones and other darker items but they’ve been moved a little closer to the Memento Mori exhibit and rightly so.
The exhibit is rather small thou however which is a shame as I certainly felt this area had some incredible potential for expansion.
The items on offer were unique, intriguing and a little on the darker side of things. I felt as thou I was back at the Haunted Museum in Nottingham all over again!
Memento Mori Collection
Focusing mainly on Victorian society the Memento Mori collection has a whole host of objects on display linked to the funeral and burial process. Coffin handles, decorations and preserved corpse hair are on display here! Mourning of loved ones is also addressed with the display of black time period clothing such as a Victorian funeral headdress and black rosary beads.
Middle Age burial is also explored with a few buried objects such as a chalice that was buried with a priest in the hope to speed up his journey to heaven.
Mary Elkin Headstone
This rather creepy looking headstone is made from ceramic. Belonging to a young girl called Mary Elkin who passed away in 1790 aged only 17. Whilst the stone itself looks like something taken straight out of a horror movie its inscriptions are more meaningful.
The poem at the bottom of the stone reads “Farewell my Friends & Parents dear, I am not dead but sleeping here, it was decreed by heave above, hope we their (Sic) to meet in love”.
Funeral Bier
Much like the hearse on display at the Haunted Museum, this Bier is dated from the late 19th century from a church in Alton.
The bier was used to transport coffins to the church for the burial. Just think of how many passed souls have been carried by this device. A haunting piece indeed!
Etruscan Cremation Chest
Around the 3rd or 2nd century BC this cremation chest was found in a tomb in Tuscany, Italy (1842). The chest is made from volcanic stone.
Skulls
Funnily enough in the actual Memento Mori section, there weren’t any skulls. Other than the resident skeleton that has been housed in the Potteries Museum way before this exhibit was created. But if you sneak around the corner and have a nosy around there are a few skulls dotted here and there.
In addition, there are mixed bones, jaws, arms, and all other bits and pieces scattered around. It certainly adds to the ‘mori’ atmosphere.
Overall
If you’re a fan of the darker side of things then this is certainly for you. There’s an eerie presence around this area which made the items all the more intriguing. Highly recommend you go to see and cure those curiosities.
As I said above, I do wish it was a larger exhibition as this could be expanded into something truly special.
