Middleport Pottery , Stoke-on-Trent

Invitation to Tender

Preparation of an Audience Development Plan

September 2011

1 The Project

1.1 Introduction The United Kingdom Historic Buildings Preservation Trust (UKHBPT) purchased Middleport Pottery in June 2011. The Prince’s Regeneration Trust (PRT), one of HRH The Prince of Wales’s group of charities, has been appointed by the UKHBPT as the agent responsible to undertake and see through this procurement.

The purpose of this brief is to set out the tender requirements for the appointment of a consultant to produce an Audience Development Plan (ADP) for Middleport Pottery.

1.2 Project Summary

The principal aim of the project is to conserve and restore the listed buildings on the site and so enable the traditional pottery-making processes to continue within. Just under half the site will be leased to Burgess Dorling and Leigh Ltd (BDL) as an operational pottery and workshops and small business premises will be created in the remainder, together with a café and other appropriate visitor and educational facilities. In preserving the heritage asset we will be creating opportunities for public access and learning as well as creating employment in an economically depressed area.

We will employ staff on site to operate the proposed visitor centre, cafe and day-to- day building management. Volunteers will be used to undertake guided tours of the factory with visitors being able to learn and understand about traditional ceramic manufacturing techniques. The tours will also give the visitors the opportunity to see exhibits of ceramics, moulds, artefacts and archives showing 200 years of ceramics history both at Middleport and the wider Potteries.

The Prince’s Regeneration Trust’s Vision for Middleport Pottery is:

To conserve and convert Middleport Pottery and its historic contents to retain the existing operational pottery and make it a principal visitor attraction in the area. This vision will sustainably preserve this important heritage asset and make it accessible for the public to come and learn about an important part of the national heritage.

1.3 The History and Setting of Middleport Pottery

Middleport Pottery, built in 1888, is situated beside the in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. It is at the heart of the Potteries yet one of the few surviving operational pottery businesses in UK. The business, originally Burgess and Leigh Ltd, has operated continuously and still produces the world-renowned “Burleighware”. The remaining intact bottle-kiln is in itself of outstanding industrial archaeology interest and the ensemble of Victorian industrial buildings is of exceptional historic value. The site illustrates the whole pottery-making process, from the arrival of the clay to the packing and distribution of the finished article.

The large collection of moulds illustrates the range of products produced at Middleport since it opened and there is an important extensive business archive of ledgers and photographs that add to the interpretation of the site.

In the context of the rapid decline of the Potteries, the rescue of Middleport is of great importance to the future interpretation of our industrial heritage and to the economic wellbeing of the locality.

The buildings are listed Grade II* and are included on the English Heritage Buildings at Risk register. Although altered over the years, the buildings and their collections still retain a very evocative historic character which this project seeks to preserve. Middleport lies within a Conservation Area and adjacent to a large area of workers’ terraced housing.

1.4 Project Objectives

The project aims and objectives are to:

1. Repair and restore the Grade II* listed buildings and site to reinstate Middleport’s character as an operational Victorian pottery. 2. Retain the ceramics manufacturing business and traditional pottery-making skills at Middleport Pottery. 3. Refurbish and rationalise the ceramics production activities into a smaller area, c.41,000 sq ft floor space, and lease this to BDL at a full market rent. This will safeguard the existing jobs on site and generate new jobs through expansion of the business. 4. Create Artisans 21: The Home for Creative Industries in the 21st Century by providing: • 10 new workspace units in • 21,725 sq ft new commercial floor space. 5. Create 10,000 sq ft of dedicated Heritage Interpretation space, including a visitor centre within the existing historic buildings with high quality interpretation in a range of media.

6. Provide visitor facilities, including car parking, cafe/restaurant and retail outlet for the pottery and other crafts produced on-site. We aim to increase visitor numbers to the site (and wider area) from 8,000 per annum to 30,000 per annum over five years. 7. Allow public access around the operational pottery through the creation of an escorted visitor route. This will follow a logical sequence of events, starting at the canal where raw materials were delivered, and finished products shipped off-site, through the main production areas, to completion and packing of the final produts. There will be safe viewing opportunities at key production stages, with heritage interpretation provided. 8. Provide learning and participation opportunities for local residents, school children and visitors to the site by giving them the chance to speak to workers, view and understand the processes, and enjoy the non-intrusive heritage interpretation media. 9. Offer skills training through the project, by providing placements for traditional ceramics- making and establishing a programme for training volunteers. 10. Catalogue and conserve the collections of moulds, archives and historic artefacts on the site. Display to the public a representative sample from the collection and make the remainder accessible for those carrying out specific research.

1.5 Funding The funding package is a mix of private and public sector funding. Specifically, PRT is applying to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for assistance with the heritage aspects of the project. These include repair of the external and internal historic fabric; internal fit out to the Trust offices and visitor centre areas; cataloguing of the archive and collections; heritage interpretation for visitors (including a factory tour); and support with revenue costs e.g. staff and training costs.

An application was submitted to the HLF on 16th February 2011 and was awarded a pass for £1.1m in May 2011. The Trust has also been awarded development funding to prepare the Round Two application, and as part of this work, it is now recruiting a consultant to produce an Audience Development Plan.

2 Invitation to Tender

2.1 Requirements

PRT is now seeking to appoint a consultant to produce an Audience Development Plan. The consultant will be responsible for conducting market research on the potential for increasing both the numbers of visitors to Middleport as well as expanding the diversity of audiences. The consultant will need to work closely with the Architect and the Design Team, who have been appointed; the consultants selected to prepare the Heritage Interpretation Plan, Conservation Management and Activity Plans.

2.2 Key Issues

Although Middleport Pottery is visible from both the main road (A500) and from the trains that run on the principal railway running through the centre of Stoke-on- Trent, this particular Pottery seems to be little known by the people in the city. Taxi drivers, for example, always need to be directed to the site.

At present, due to Health and Safety issues, the majority of visitors are customers in the shop. The audience base of the Pottery is not dissimilar to a niche ceramics retailer, that is principally an older clientele from Stoke-on-Trent and the surrounding region, as well as tourists (either national or international) who are especially interested in fine Englishware and the traditional Burleigh patterns.

There is therefore work to be done to develop and diversify the audiences who visit Middleport Pottery, particularly in order to meet the HLF’s requirements of participation and learning. In order to achieve this, the consultant will need to:

• Investigate potential audiences (local, national and international) and explore how these could be persuaded to visit the pottery • Undertake a competition review of existing local tourism attractions • Consider how existing tourism destinations could be strengthened by a new visitor centre at Middleport Pottery i.e. if there are any synergies • Determine through qualitative and quantitative research what is required in terms of facilities, activities, interpretation materials, staff and general layout that would encourage these audiences to engage with the site and its heritage, and therefore produce learning, enjoyment and participation outputs. • Consider price ranges for guided tours • Consider barriers to visiting the site, including cost and intellectual barriers. An access consultant on the Design Team will address physical access issues on the site.

The consultant will need to work closely with the Heritage Interpretation consultant, who is in the process of being appointed, to ensure that the proposed activities and audiences are compatible with the emerging range of interpretation being prepared. It is important that the presentation of the Pottery is as authentic as possible.

There are also practical issues to consider in terms of access, car parking and signage, although it is hoped that these issues can be principally addressed through the major capital works.

The other key issue that the consultant will have to take into account is that Middleport Pottery is an operational factory which is fully functional between 8am and 4pm Monday to Thursday, and 8am to 12pm on Friday. Although the site itself is quite extensive, the rooms in which the production, pottery making and decoration take place are fairly constrained. In addition, the priority for pottery staff has to be to undertake their duties and therefore ensure that the chain of production runs smoothly. The numbers of visitors and the frequency of tours will therefore have to be controlled for these practical reasons.

Moreover, the operational Victorian pottery is the Unique Selling Point of Middleport. If numbers on the tour have to be constrained, and if a full working tour is only available during weekdays until 4pm, it is essential that other facilities be provided which can attract and retain visitors outside these times or when all the touring slots have been booked.

2.3 Key Audiences

We see the key audiences who will benefit from the project as.

• Local residents including visiting friends and relatives who wish to visit the site. Local residents may be interested in becoming volunteers; • Day and staying visitors in Stoke and including visiting friends and relatives and overseas visitors; also visitors passing through the area. These will include a proportion of international visitors; also those travelling along the Trent and Mersey canal on boating trips/holidays. • Formal education and lifelong learning groups including schools and colleges and Universities throughout the region, Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and students in full and part-time education; adult education • Special interest groups including people attending events, people interested in architectural, industrial and social history, the ceramics industry and industrial archaeology; • People contacted through outreach programmes including ‘hard to reach’ groups, non-user groups in the local area (e.g. young people, C2DE communities, BME groups) i.e. those who wouldn’t normally visit a heritage site or cultural place; and • Community and business users. • People who want to use the cafe/restaurant because it is accessible and attractive, but who could observe the interpretation facilities and find out about activities while they are there.

The consultant may identify other audiences not included here or wish to define the audiences in different ways.

2.4 Outputs Required

The report should include: • A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the present audience make-up using appropriate established methodologies, which might include, for example, Acorn geo-demographic categories and ARK Leisure Segmentation or other methodologies. • An assessment of the differences that completion of the restoration project will make to the awareness, understanding and appeal of Middleport. • A strategy for improving the capture of audience data for exiting visitors to the site. • Quantitative and qualitative analysis of catchment areas and audience potential for Middleport based on factors specific to the site such as capacity, appeal evolution of the offer, marketing and image; and on wider trends and developments in the visitor attraction sector. • A competition review, identifying with principal competitor attractions; and highlighting synergies, crossovers and differentiations (Points of Difference) for Middleport. • Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the main factors limiting the reach of the site to audiences including but not limited to: location, transport, presentation, marketing and reputational factors, and outline strategies to mitigate these. • Numeric projections for audience growth figures for each segment of the potential audience for Middleport. This should include seasonal and other structural fluctuations. • A pricing strategy for the site incorporating price sensitivity analysis set out in matrix format, bringing together all income and showing ‘bottom line’ figures for the next ten years. • A strategy for identifying and accessing non-traditional audience segments for all aspects of the offer • Use should be made of audience development ‘dartboard’ analysis, or similar graphic presentations, to amplify written descriptions of existing and potential audience segments and how these relate to each other. Any methodology should be explained in the text and the whole report should be capable of being understood in its entirety by an interested layperson. Weekly and seasonal variations should be plotted across the analysis. • Other material which the consultant considers will assist the client in achieving its objectives. • An outline commercial strategy for increasing visitor numbers in line with the market and site capacities identified above, identifying the main areas of growth and the principal media and key messages for effectively addressing the segments of audience growth identified.

All the above should be presented in language accessible to intelligent non-specialist reader, with technical terms and concepts being explained in the text and with graphics where these help

The findings of the market research of the Audience Development work will inform the Activity Plan and the Heritage Interpretation Plan which are being prepared separately. This consultant will need to work with the other consultants retained to prepare these plans and be flexible about the release of information and recommendations. This may be essential in order to allow other consultants to proceed with their Development and Design work and therefore to keep the project on schedule.

2.5 Consultation & Research

The following people should be consulted in preparing the plan: • PRT staff, Trustees and Advisers • principal tenant – BDL • those directly involved with the use and upkeep of the building (eg pottery staff) • other users of the building • appointed Design Team and other consultants retained by the Trust (see below) • wider interest groups • statutory organisations (including English Heritage) • local authority • local education authority and local schools • tourist information office • local residents • hard to reach audiences and community representatives; • ceramic-based attractions in Stoke-on-Trent and the nearby area, including but not restricted to: , Emma Bridgwater, Etruria Industrial Museum, Gladstone Pottery Museum, and Denby Factory in Derby • National Trust

2.6 Budget

The budget price for the work is £15,000 (excluding VAT).

2.7 Submission of the completed Audience Development Plan

The hard copy should be an A4 or A3 document with photographs and illustrations set within the text. The document should be presented in language accessible to intelligent non-specialist reader, with technical terms and concepts being explained in the text and with graphics where these help

The ADP should be available as 5 hard copies of both the main text and the appendices. An electronic copy on CD is also required which should be in PDF and Word formats and include images.

2.8 Copyright

The copyright of the plan and material quoted in it will be assigned to and remain with PRT which will retain rights to reproduce and distribute the reports as necessary to support the project and its work generally.

2.9 Confidentiality

The Plan may contain sensitive material. The material may not be disclosed to third parties without the prior approval of the Client. In contacting stakeholders in connection with the work, the terms of approach should be cleared in advance with the Client.

2.10 Finance/Payment Terms

The Client will make stage payments as follows:

50% on production of a Draft Audience Development Plan (including summary of key findings and recommendations) 50% on completion and sign off of the final documents.

3 Other Relevant Information

3.1 Consultants Retained by The Prince’s Regeneration Trust

The architect’s design team is currently being recruited through the OJEU process and we expect an appointment to be made at the end of August. The team incorporates the following disciplines: • Measured Building Surveying • Landscape Design • Biodiversity Consulting • Civil and Structural Engineering • Mechanical and Electrical Engineering • Industrial Archaeology/Historic Machinery specialist • Inclusive Access Audit and Design • CDM Consultancy • Party Wall Surveyor • Cost Consultancy and Quantity Surveying • Contract Procurement

An HLF Project Monitor has been appointed to this project, who is expected to attend some project meetings and will be consulted throughout the course of the project development. However, they will have no instructing role with the consultants.

In addition, the Trust is recruiting the following other consultants separately:

• Historic Collections Adviser responsible for: o Moulds and Ceramic Artefacts o Archives and other Historic Collections • Project Manager • Heritage Interpretation Plan Consultant • Conservation Management Planning • Activity Planning • Maintenance and Management Plan.

Some of these consultants’ reports may not be available to the consultant at the start of the commission and this will need to be factored into the methodology and work programme.

3.2 Middleport Pottery as a Visitor Attraction and Workplace

Middleport Pottery is an operational ceramics factory, and production will continue in the design development phase and throughout the period of major works, scheduled to take place in 2012 and 2013. Fully operational visitor facilities and interpretation centre will not open until early 2014 once construction on site is completed.

During the construction period, the Trust is planning to provide limited heritage interpretation facilities including:

• Visitor reception facilities • Simple video introduction to the site (with existing audio-visual material) • Potentially, a very restricted visitor route to see inside one of the historic production buildings and visit the Factory shop • Story Boards to explain the regeneration project underway for the site • A short published guide on the history of Middleport Pottery, The Prince’s Regeneration Trust, BDL and the future of the site.

The public response to these interim visitor and interpretation facilities will be an important source of information for identifying questions to be asked during audience development research. Similar feedback from some of these visitors may lead to recommendations that can be included in the audience development plan.

4.0 Preparation and Submission of Tender

4.1 Site Access

Access to visit the Middleport Pottery site in connection with responding to this brief and throughout the design process is available Monday to Friday 9am – 4pm, by prior appointment only.

If you are interested in submitting a tender and would like to visit the site please send an email to [email protected]. Times and dates for site visit(s) will be posted on the MyTenders website.

All consultants should ensure that for the purposes of carrying out work on site that they have appropriate levels of professional indemnity and public liability in place. It is the consultants’ own responsibility to take due care and attention and to comply with Health and Safety requirements. Some parts of the site require particular care until repair works have been completed.

4.2 Required format of tender

Consultants are invited to submit a quotation to undertake this brief. Alongside the quotation consultant should also submit:

• A description of their approach and methodology. Please include lead-in time and a timetable of the work and that of any sub-contractors; • Evidence of their experience in undertaking this kind of work; • Curriculum vitae, company profile and track record; • Names and contact details of two recent clients for whom the consultant has recently completed Audience Development work or prepared plans. Please include date of contract, brief details of the project and the requirements undertaken, and note whether the delivery of audience development plans has been implemented and the timescale for its use; • Fee proposal broken down into days and day rate, including all sub- contractors.

Tenders will be considered on a best value basis against the following criteria: • Evidence of demonstrable understanding of the brief; • Track record of the consultants in handling similar heritage-related commissions; • Robustness of proposed methodology for undertaking the commission; • Experience and suitability of project team; • Value for money.

4.3 Timetable

The timetable is set out below and is a condition of the appointment.

• Tenders invited 7th September • Site visit week commencing 19th September • Tenders returned 30th September • Preferred Consultant appointed 7th October • First Draft of Audience Development Plan to be submitted to Client by mid November; and • Final report to be submitted to Client by end of December.

4.4 Submission of Tender

Procurement of this consultant will be administered via the MyTenders website: http://www.mytenders.org/. Please follow this link to The Prince’s Regeneration Trust’s buyers profile: princes.mytenders.org and click through to the “Audience Development Plan” Contract Notice. You can register your interest in the tender, download additional information and consult the contract notice on this page. If you have a question in relation to this tender which is not answered in this document or in the contract notice, you can post a question on the mytenders website.

Your completed tender document, including CVs, references and the fee tender should be bound into a single pdf and submitted via the Postbox of the mytenders website according to the timetable above.

© Copyright: The Prince’s Regeneration Trust September 2011