Festival Park Marina - Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
N 53° 01.432 W 002° 11.815
30U E 553864 N 5875227
This 'You Are Here' map is located on Festival Park, Etruria near to the lift bridge that allows access to and from the marina for canal boats.
Waymark Code: WMVBKA
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/28/2017
Views: 1
The map is metal and located on one side of the black Festival Park marker near the marina and the Toby Carvery pub.
Festival Park was the site of the second National Garden Festival of England. It was officially opened on May 7th 1986, by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Background to the site. (
visit link)
The Festival site, together with Shelton and Etruria were key areas in the industrial development of the City of Stoke-on-Trent. Less than a decade before the ground vibrated to the sound of heavy machinery and the landscape was dominated by blast furnaces, forges and chimneys of the Shelton Steel Works. Half a kilometre south of this point is Etruria Hall (now part of the Moat House Hotel), former home of Josiah Wedgwood whose famous Etruria Pottery Works were once sited by the canal.
The City was given an unique opportunity to redevelop the derelict site by hosting the National Garden Festival of England. Over two million people visited the event in the summer of 1986. Thousands of exhibitions and activities were featured including seventy themed gardens and visitors were able to view the spectacle by railway and cable car.
The Garden Festival attracted new private investment into the City as well as creating a lasting legacy of green space for local people. Today the site is a combined leisure, retail and business park set in the Festival grounds for visitors and local people to enjoy."
The main site was completed in 1995, and is now known as Festival Park. It has been, for the most part, sympathetically treated by St. Modwen Properties who took on its management and development.
The marina with a canal side inn and show houses was developed as part of the Garden Festival Site. The nearby lift bridge provides pedestrian access for people walking along the canal towpath and is lifted when canal boats want to enter or leave the marina to and from the Trent and Mersey canal.
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visit link) (
visit link)