Stoke Festival of Treasure to open free at city museum

A free Festival of Treasure is planned in Stoke-on-Trent for spring 2027 as The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery reopens after its multi-million-pound transformation.

The event will mark the first public display of a rare 3,000-year-old solid gold object, believed to be a Bronze Age dress fastener, discovered near Ellastone in Staffordshire in 2023.

Rare Bronze Age gold saved for Staffordshire

The museum has acquired the solid gold fastener after a £150,000 appeal kept the Treasure in the county. The money came through public donations supported by the Friends of the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, alongside grants from Art Fund, the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The object was found by a metal detectorist near Ellastone in 2023 and was later declared Treasure. According to the city council’s announcement, it is the first object of its kind found in Britain in almost 30 years, with only seven others recorded across England and Wales.

For visitors, the Festival of Treasure will be the moment the fastener moves from discovery and fundraising story into public view. The museum says it will go on display from spring 2027, when the building fully reopens.

What visitors will see at The Potteries Museum

The fastener will join the Staffordshire Hoard and the Leekfrith Torcs as part of the museum’s wider Treasure collection. Together, those objects stretch across thousands of years of local history and place Staffordshire’s gold discoveries in one public collection.

Joe Perry, curator of local history at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, said the object was made from solid gold and carefully worked, adding that it would not have been an everyday item. He said objects like it were worn as visible displays of wealth and status, likely by someone from the highest levels of Bronze Age society.

The museum has described the acquisition as its most significant Treasure purchase for almost a decade, and the first of its kind to be discovered anywhere in Staffordshire.

Before the full reopening, the museum team will run outreach events and activities supported by National Lottery players to help people explore the dress fastener and Staffordshire’s Bronze Age past.

Festival plans and practical details

The Festival of Treasure is planned to mark both the museum reopening and the fastener’s first public display. The confirmed practical point for now is simple: the display is expected to be free and open to the public at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent from 1 March 2027.

Start time, end date, daily opening arrangements and any booking requirements have not yet been announced in the source information.

Physical and digital replicas of the fastener are also due to be created for events linked to the Festival of Archaeology in July and Heritage Open Days in September. Those replicas are intended to help bring the object into wider public activity before and around the museum’s reopening programme.

Source: Stoke Scraper

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This preview is based on the Stoke-on-Trent City Council announcement and the event details confirmed in the brief.

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• Confirmed the venue as The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent.
• Used the stated free public display status and avoided adding booking details.
• Kept the event timing to spring 2027 and the supplied 1 March 2027 start date.
• Included only source-backed details about the Bronze Age gold fastener and fundraising app...

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Stoke-on-Trent City Council

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Stoke-on-Trent

Updated

2026-06-04 19:38

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Article contextPeople & topics3#7

Sarah HillJoe PerryPeter Wilson

#Bronze Age gold#Ellastone discovery#Festival of Treasure#museum reopening#Staffordshire Treasure#Stoke-on-Trent#The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery

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