About Us
Stanley Head is owned and run by Stoke-on-Trent City Council and continues to be considered one of the ‘jewels in the crown’ for the Local Authority.
We deliver a real mixture of activities, courses and programmes here ranging from out-and-out activity days to delivering the School Curriculum.
The age of our guests ranges from four years through to retirement due to the diverse nature of our programmes - so there really is something for everybody. We have enough indoors accommodation for groups of up to 71 at any one time - which you can read more about here. Our conference facility also provides an excellent resource for local companies and services to deliver training and hold meetings.
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The centre itself is set in 30 acres, consisting of the buildings, extensive camping fields and some of the most rich and diverse woodland in Staffordshire filled with wildlife. On the edge of the centre is Stanley Reservoir, an excellent natural resource that the centre has unlimited access to and uses for a variety of activities and challenges.
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We are fortunate to have resident owls at Stanley Head. These owls have been rescued and could not survive in the wild. We also have a brood of free range hens and a badling of free range ducks that roam around the grounds.
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We look forward to welcoming you to our centre and hope you’ll agree with us in thinking that Stanley Head really is a friendly, fun and exciting place to visit.
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Our History
We have been providing Outdoor Education for over 50 years to schools from Staffordshire and beyond, although it was another 20 years before it began to take the shape that you may recognise today. Up until this time, the land was a working dairy farm, but in 1967 the land was bought by Stoke-on-Trent City Council to increase its capacity to teach outdoor education.
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Much of the farm atmosphere still survives – the farmhouse and one of the barns is now accommodation, another barn is now the climbing centre, and the milking parlour – complete with traditional farming tools – is now the dining room.
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Although only ten minutes away from the contrasting towns of Stoke-on-Trent and Leek, Stanley Head really does have the feel that it is in the middle of nowhere thanks to it being surrounded by farmland, a country park, woodland and a lake.
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