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Drapers and Milliners

ÌýOne of many museums in the world-famous Ironbridge Gorge, Blists Hill is a recreation of a small Victorian town. Walk along the main street and pop into shops along the way to discover more about Victorian life - whether it's the chemist, grocer, tinsmith, plumber, or cobbler. You can even enjoy a traditional pint in the pub.

There's also a small foundry, where on a Wednesday morning you can watch staff working with iron. Alternatively visit the printmaker or the candle maker, where you can make your own candle.

All of the buildings are exact copies of those built during the Victorian era and still standing around the country. One is an exact copy of the Lloyds Bank in Broseley, while the ironworks is housed in a building that originally came from Woolwich Dockyard.

The town is staffed by people dressed in Victorian costumes, who are ready to show you what it would have been like to been like to work and live during this time.

Victorian Sweet shop

There are a variety of actives aimed at children, particularly during the school holidays, including taking part in a Victorian classroom and a fairground.

For more information on admission, group visits, free bus service to the museum for passport holders, events calendar, interactive tour and more visit the official website.

Visiting and opening times

10am - 5pm April to October 2008
10am - 4pm November 2008 to March 2009

Allow two to four hours for your visit to the museum.

History of Blist Hill Victorian Town:

Blists Hill Victorian Town began life as a cluster of buildings surrounded by little more than an industrial wasteland.ÌýThat was back in 1973, when the new town of Telford was being developed and the Telford Development Corporation was asking what to do with the Blists Hill site.

Little is known about the history of the area until the late 18th Century, by which time coal mining was well-established.

Three blast furnaces were built there as well as canals and plateways - early horse-drawn freight railways - all criss-crossing the site.

A brick and tile works soon followed, using the clay mined on the canal bank.

But by the 1950s it had all closed down and the site was abandoned, until it was opened as the Blists Hill Open Air Museum in 1973.

Gradually, other Victorian buildings sprang up on the site and the town was born. Before long, old buildings in the way of development elsewhere were demolished and rebuilt brick-by-brick at Blists Hill.