Heritage & gamification
Local history you can play.
Discover Middleport is an open-world game of Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent: its pottery, its canal and the people who built them. Made with Middleport Matters, free to download.
Ey up duck!
Free to playon Windows PCs
Made together with
- Middleport Matters
- Stoke-on-Trent City Council
- UK Shared Prosperity Fund
Featured project
Discover Middleport, in action.
An open-world Middleport, where young people explore the streets they know and meet the people who came before them.
- The challenge
- Middleport Matters wanted young people to care about the history on their own doorstep: the pottery, the canal and the families who worked them.
- What we did
- We rebuilt Middleport Pottery and the streets around it as a game world, filled it with characters from Middleport’s past, and hid pieces of history across the map to find.
- The result
- A free game for Windows PCs that turns a history lesson into something you explore, climb, collect and play.
Inside the game
Explore, climb, collect and learn as you go.
People from the past
Meet characters from Middleport’s history and help today’s residents rediscover a forgotten past.
Hidden history
Bits of history are tucked all over the map, waiting for curious players to find them.
What’s in the canal?
Biodiversity lessons: find out which fish live in the canal on your doorstep.
Get active locally
Discover the sports facilities your area already has, and where to find them.
Spray-paint murals
Leave your mark: spray-paint murals onto the walls around Middleport.
Rooftop runs
Climb onto the houses and run along the rooftops for a whole new view of the town.
The canal-boat crane
Take control of the arm on Middleport’s iconic canal boat and load the clay.
Collectibles
Hunt for Arnold Bennett book titles and a flock of ducks hidden around the map.
The people who built it
Middleport grew up along the canal.
The game puts the canal side front and centre, along with the engineers who dug it.
James Brindley
The engineer behind the Trent & Mersey Canal, which linked the Potteries to the rest of the country. He died in 1772, before it was finished.
Hugh Henshall
Brindley’s pupil and brother-in-law. He took over the work and completed the canal in 1777.
Collectibles
Ey up duck! Can you find them all?
Ducks are dotted all over the map, a nod to the Potteries’ favourite greeting. Arnold Bennett, the Five Towns’ own novelist, is hidden in there too: track down his book titles as you explore.
Who it’s for
Whether you live here or you’re just visiting.
If you’re from Middleport
- See where your house and your street come from
- Meet the people who lived and worked here before you
- Find out what lives in your canal
- Discover the sports facilities right on your doorstep
If you’re new to Middleport
- Learn why this corner of Stoke-on-Trent matters
- Explore the canal side that shaped the town
- Meet the people who built it
- See a working Victorian pottery up close
Play it yourself
Download Discover Middleport. It’s free.
Windows PCs only. It runs on most computers, though older or lower-powered machines may struggle.
Download for WindowsOpens our Google Drive folder.
- DownloadPress the button and download the game from Google Drive.
- Find itLook in your Downloads folder for the file ending in
.exe. - PlayDouble-click the
.exefile and the game will load.
Why gamification for heritage?
People remember what they’ve explored.
Meets young people where they are
A game is somewhere young people already want to spend time, so history arrives as play rather than homework.
Learning by discovery
Facts found by exploring stick far better than facts read off a board, and every find rewards curiosity.
Pride in place
Seeing your own streets as a world worth exploring builds a real connection to where you’re from.
Got a place with a story worth playing?
Museums, heritage sites, community groups and councils: tell us about your place and its people, and we’ll help you find the most memorable way to share them.
