Re-Form Heritage

Growing Heritage Development Trust

Restoring and rejuvenating Stoke’s internationally significant built heritage to help drive the regeneration of the city’s local communities

Re-Form Heritage transforms historic buildings at risk into places that inspire, educate and connect people with their past, benefitting the local and wider community. Previously part of the Prince’s Regeneration Trust, it achieved its independence in 2016.

The organisation has already successfully delivered the regeneration of two heritage sites in Stoke-on-Trent. Its flagship building, Middleport Pottery, has become a blueprint for future restoration projects; the Grade II*-listed historic pottery factory was saved from closure and has since undergone remodelling and renovation to transform it into a popular visitor attraction and centre for creative businesses. Its second project at Harper Street, which the AHF supported with two Project Development Grants and a total loan investment of £350,000, has seen a row of 11 former pottery workers’ houses brought back into use to provide an immersive interpretation space, a collections space for the Middleport Pottery archive, a home for the Middleport Matters community hub, office space, and workshop and retail units.

Images: Harper Street. From left to right: End of terrace, interpretation space, and a retail unit in the courtyard.

In December 2023, Re-Form Heritage was appointed as one of the AHF’s Heritage Development Trusts (HDTs), which are supported through a strategic partnership with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Now, as a HDT, Re-Form Heritage is increasingly playing a leading role in restoring and rejuvenating more of Stoke’s internationally significant built heritage; through a sustainable business case and operational delivery, it hopes to breathe new life into these assets, helping to further the regeneration of Stoke’s local communities.

In Re-Form Heritage’s first project to be carried out under the HDT programme, a little-used, 19th-century Methodist chapel will be given a new lease of life as a centre for education and events.

Image: Exterior of Bethesda Methodist Chapel. Credit - Re-Form Heritage.

Known locally as the "Cathedral of the Potteries," Bethesda Methodist Chapel in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, was first built in 1798, reaching its current size in 1819, and is one of the largest surviving Methodist chapels in England outside London. For a long time during the 19th century, it was one of Stoke’s most prominent places of worship.

The Grade II*-listed chapel closed for worship in 1985, and has since been the subject of long-running restoration efforts.

Re-Form Heritage secured ownership of Bethesda in early 2025. A viability study, made possible by an AHF grant through the HDT programme, explored options for the building’s future.

Following the completion of this study, the organisation now proposes to develop the former chapel into an educational, performance, and exhibition venue, with some heritage interpretation. This will provide greater public access to the building and enable a wide variety of events. The anchor tenant will be Pinc College, a specialist college that offers education and pathways into employment for neurodivergent young people aged 16-24 years.

Today, Re-Form Heritage continues to focus its attention on the regeneration of Bethesda Methodist Chapel. The project has received a grant from Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Capital Fund, which will enable repairs and restoration of the chapel’s historic interior, beginning the work to return this special building to its former glory so that it can serve the community once again.

For more information, please visit the Re-Form Heritage website.