Blists Hill Victorian TownIronbridge Gorge Museum Trust Overview

This vast, interactive museum recaptures the sights, smells and sounds of the Victorian era.

Spanning 54 acres, the site is based on a typical town of the East Shropshire Coalfield c 1900. This truly is a ‘living museum’, where visitors are free to wander the town, purchase items from the shops and speak to costumed staff.

Blists Hill is part of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, one of the largest independent museums in the UK. Founded in 1967, it operates ten museum sites within the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site. Together, they tell the story of the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.

After a major development completed in 2009, Blists Hill was long listed for the Art Fund Prize 2010.

Highlights

As well as shopping and interacting with Victorians, you can watch and smell fresh bread being baked in the bakery, witness iron being forged and try your luck in the Victorian fairground. There’s also a clay-mining experience, narrow gauge railway and incline lift.

Don’t miss Canal Street, a new street added in 2009, which includes a Post Office, fried fish dealer, draper’s shop, sweet shop and photographers. You can also visit the plumbers, tinsmiths and decorative plasterers located in the Artisans’ Quarter.

Visitor information

Following the £12 million development, Blists Hill now offers a brand new Visitor Centre. Visitors to the village can buy wares from the shops with shillings and pence, and visit the pub, school, doctor, chemist, workshops and factories.

There are three venues offering a range of refreshments from self-service light snacks to waitress-served traditional meals. You can buy traditionally cooked fish & chips from the fish dealer, and pies from the pie shop.