You don’t have to visit us in person to be inspired by our collections and use your imagination! Check out our Heritage Makes activities below, and download and watch to get creative at home!

Don’t forget to follow us on social media to be the first to find out about fun events and activities and share your creations using #HeritageMakes.

Be inspired by our Pilkington’s Pottery collection, which you can see on your next visit to Salford Museum and Art Gallery. The designers, potters and chemists at Pilkington’s were known for their cutting-edge techniques and beautiful designs, often featuring animals and plants.

What will you put on your own vase design? Will the colours be bright and bold or soft and light? How big would the vase be? What would you put in it?

Watch our short video, download the design sheet and have a go! Don’t forget to share your #HeritageMakes with us on social media!

Be inspired by our Pilkington’s Pottery collection, which you can see on your next visit to Salford Museum and Art Gallery. The designers, potters and chemists at Pilkington’s were known for their cutting-edge techniques and beautiful designs, often featuring animals and plants. Their tiles were used around fireplaces, on walls and on floors.

What will you put on your own tile design? Will the colours be bright and bold or soft and light? Where would the tile be used?

Watch our short video, download the design sheet and have a go! Don’t forget to share your #HeritageMakes with us on social media!

Maker’s marks were used by potters to show who had made each piece. When you visit us at Salford Museum and Art Gallery next, you can see lots of different maker’s marks for the dozens of potters who created the beautiful Pilkington’s ceramics in Salford.

Have a go at designing your own! How will you show that it is yours, and nobody else’s?

Download design sheet →

One of the most-loved paintings at Salford Museum and Art Gallery is The Fancy Dress Ball by Arthur Perigal. It was painted between 1828 and 1830, and shows 3,000 guests at a fancy dress ball during the Manchester Music Festival in 1828.  Local businessmen and important people paid a guinea (£1 and 1 shilling) each to attend, and paid the artist a further guinea to be included in the painting.

What would your fancy dress costume have been? What do you think it would have been like at the ball? We think it might have been rather hot! Why not have a go at making your own fan to keep cool! We’d love to see a photo of you keeping cool in your fancy dress – share on social media with #HeritageMakes!

Fancy Dress BallFancy Dress Ball

Cup-and-ball toys have been popular throughout history, and during many different time periods. They are often made out of wood and string, but here you can have a go at making your own with items you can find around the house! You can make your own design to personalise it too.

Watch our short video and have a go! Don’t forget to share your #HeritageMakes with us on social media!

Peg dolls have been popular with children for centuries. Originally they were carved out of small pieces of wood, and then became another way of using pegs from washday to make cheap toys, using scraps of fabric from around the house.

Check out the video for a bit of history and some simple instructions to make your own at home! Don’t forget to share your #HeritageMakes with us on social media!

Peg Doll

Thaumatropes were popular Victorian toys, that were part of the craze that the period saw for scientific play and learning. When the disc spins, the images on either side blur together, and they appear as one image to us. Popular designs were birds and cages and birds and trees.

Have a go at making your own! They are very simple, just make sure you put the 2 images the correct way up on the disc!

Don’t forget to share your #HeritageMakes with us on social media!

Learn about some of the key people making Pilkington’s ceramics and make your own lovely playset!

Pilkington’s Pottery made a huge range of beautiful pots and tiles during its 117 year history. We have picked some of the pieces on display in our museum to create this lovely mobile template. Just match the vase shapes, stick together and hang with string – our video will show you how!

Don’t forget to share your #HeritageMakes with us on social media!