|
 |
||||||||||||||
|
|
Blists Hill Victorian Town, Ironbridge Museum Trust
The largest site is Blists Hill Victorian Town, a fifty-four acre site which interprets life in a typical town of the East Shropshire Coalfield around 1900. Blists Hill is brought to life through a unique mix of first and third-person interpretation, combining the efforts of costumed museum staff, professional actors and volunteers.
The development has greatly enhanced the Trust’s award-winning schools’ work, and its engagement with local communities and groups. Since the completion of the development, visitor numbers to Blists Hill Victorian Town have been 30% up on 2008. Total project costs: £12 million, funded by Advantage West Midlands and European Regional Development Funding, with support from Renaissance in the Regions, DCMS/Wolfson Foundation, British Postal Museum & Archive and the private sector. Some of your comments: Ever since I went there as a small child, I have always loved Blists Hill. The helpful signs and attendants and the amount I can learn each time makes the whole experience magical for me. I also love crafts, and enjoy doing the old fashioned crafts that they conveniently provide in kits. The attendants are very talented people and they create amazing items. The fact I can learn something new, every time, even though I must have gone about 45 times make it worth going again and again. The museum is "alive" in that it is an accurate recreation of real shops and businesses, where all ages can live the life of a Victorian person, at home, in school, or at work. Fascinating! This is an incredibly authentic facility which has advanced in content and layout in a short time. The dedicated band of hard-working volunteers are always cheerful and welcoming towards visitors. As a true record of the Industrial Revolution and its precursor activities, the area of Ironbridge is quite unique and deserves to be encouraged and supported by the extension of the scope of Blists Hill, thus offering an outstanding educational amenity for future generations. We have visited on several occasions with grandchildren and intend to absorb the individual atmosphere on future occasions, for our own enjoyment as well as for the knowledge provision to the younger members who find Blists Hill an exciting place. Lest we forget the endeavours of our forefathers and the achievements spread throughout the world from a small place like Telford set on an outcrop of coal, iron, clay and limestone. Today’s children need to know of their Victorian heroes and the way they lived. They can so easily be consumed by today. Thank you. The museum has worked tirelessly over the years to take advantage of all opportunities to improve, develop and expand the experience offer. The museum's offer is dynamic as it must be to maintain its standing. The museum's offer is spread over many sites with Blists Hill being the largest. Notwithstanding this particular physical challenge and the generally difficult environment for museums and galleries, the museum continues to improve its offer. The museum offers a superb balance between fun, pleasure, education and understanding of our heritage. It's an excellent place where knowledge and education is stored for children and adults to learn and explore. This is a fantastic local resource for us all to enjoy. The prospect of winning, further developing and enhancing this historical place for everyone's enjoyment is such a fantastic opportunity!!!!!! My 9 year old daughter and I have now visited the museum twice over the last 2 years and found the whole experience fascinating. It is a place suitable for all ages and very interesting also exciting for young children to spend old currency and see how life used to be many years ago. It is an amazing day out for all ages. The brilliance of bringing history to life is its strength - created by staff who share their own passion for sharing their knowledge. They involve their local community by holding so may varied events throughout the year to involve people on a regular basis. Blists Hill is a brilliant museum for all ages. Everyone loves to go there and they put on some great events. It's very educational, and all schools take their children on trips there. Blists Hill Victorian Town Museum brings history to life in such a vivid way that it inspires the imagination of young people to find out more about the way their grandparents and great grandparents lived and how people coped with everyday life before modern conveniences became everyday necessities. It also brings back nostalgic memories for older people who can remember the slower pace of life from first hand memories or from handed down ones.
|
Home
See some of your comments 
Founded in 1967, the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust is one of the largest independent museums in the UK. It operates ten museum sites within the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site which collectively tell the story of the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. These museums receive around 570,000 visits per annum, including 70,000 school visits.
In 2009, the Trust completed a transformational development of Blists Hill incorporating a landmark Visitor Centre, a new street of shops – including a Post Office, Fried Fish Dealer, Draper’s Shop, Sweet Shop, Photographers and Artisans’ Quarter – a clay-mining experience and narrow gauge railway and an Incline Lift. Substantial conservation work has been completed on the historic wrought ironworks on site which offers one of the most powerful live demonstrations of any museum in Britain.
Previous entry
Top