Things to do in West Midlands

The Black Country Living Museum in Dudley in the West Midlands is one of the most ambitious and successful industrial heritage museums in Britain, an open-air site of approximately 26 acres built around a reconstructed canal-side industrial village that brings the working-class history of the Black Country region to life through carefully restored and recreated buildings, working period industry and costumed interpretation. The museum opened in 1978 on the site of a former coal mine and canal basin and has grown to encompass over fifty historic buildings relocated from across the region. The heart of the museum is the reconstructed Black Country village of the late Victorian and Edwardian period, a street of shops, houses, a pub, a working fish and chip shop, a fairground and various industrial workshops that together recreate the environment of a working-class Black Country community at the height of the region's industrial prosperity. The buildings include a chain shop where anchor chain is made by hand using methods virtually unchanged since the nineteenth century, a glass-cutting workshop, a chemist, a baker and a school, all staffed by costumed guides who interpret the displays in character. The museum occupies the site of the Dudley Canal Tunnel, a remarkable piece of early industrial engineering that passes beneath Castle Hill for nearly three kilometres, and boat trips through the tunnel provide an extraordinary experience of underground industrial archaeology. The tunnel was opened in 1792 and was an important commercial waterway during the height of the canal age, and the boat trip through the darkness offers a vivid sense of the underground landscape of coal mines, limestone workings and canal tunnels that underlies the Black Country landscape. The museum has recently developed a 1940s section, recreating the period of the Second World War and the years of austerity that followed, extending its chronological range and adding another layer to its interpretation of this uniquely industrial British region.

Bridgnorth in Shropshire is one of the most unusual and most visually interesting small towns in England, a town divided into High Town and Low Town by the dramatic sandstone gorge of the River Severn and connected by the steepest funicular cliff railway in England, the Bridgnorth Cliff Railway opened in 1892. The combination of the medieval and later architecture of the High Town perched above the river, the commercial character of Low Town at the riverside and the dramatic topography that separates them creates one of the most distinctive townscapes in the English Midlands. The remains of Bridgnorth Castle, reduced to a fragment of the original Norman keep by Parliamentary demolition following the Civil War siege of 1646, lean at a greater angle than the Tower of Pisa following the destruction of their lower sections, providing one of the most improbable architectural features in any English town. The Civil War history of Bridgnorth, which was one of the last Royalist strongholds in the Midlands, permeates the town's heritage and the local museum provides an excellent account of the siege and its aftermath. The High Town contains a remarkable collection of timber-framed buildings including the extraordinary Bishop Percy's House of 1580, one of the finest examples of Elizabethan half-timbered architecture in Shropshire. The Severn Valley Railway, one of the finest heritage steam railways in Britain, connects Bridgnorth with Kidderminster through the beautiful Severn Valley and provides one of the most rewarding railway heritage experiences in England.

Drayton Manor near Tamworth in Staffordshire is one of the most visited theme parks in the English Midlands, a large family attraction combining a substantial selection of rides and a well-regarded zoo in an estate whose history as the home of Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel in the early nineteenth century provides an unexpected heritage dimension to a modern entertainment venue. The park has been owned and operated by the Bryan family since 1949 and grew from a pleasure gardens concept into the full theme park complex it represents today. The Thomas Land section of the park, themed around the Thomas the Tank Engine brand, is the most celebrated and most visited section of Drayton Manor and one of the principal Thomas-themed parks in Europe. The rides, attractions and character meet-and-greet experiences themed around the television series make this section particularly popular with families with young children, and the combination of the Thomas experience with the wider park's rides creates a destination of broad age appeal. The zoo at Drayton Manor houses a range of animals including primates, reptiles, big cats and birds in habitat exhibits that provide both entertainment and educational value for families visiting the theme park. The combination of the rides, the zoo and the Thomas Land creates one of the most comprehensive family theme park experiences in the Midlands.

The Severn Valley Railway is one of the finest and most completely preserved steam heritage railways in Britain, a 16-mile line running along the valley of the River Severn between Kidderminster in Worcestershire and Bridgnorth in Shropshire through some of the most beautiful river valley scenery in the Midlands. The railway was preserved following closure in 1963 by an enthusiast group and has developed into one of the most professional and most visited heritage railways in the country, operating a comprehensive service of steam and diesel traction throughout the season. The line follows the Severn Valley through a succession of charming riverside stations, from the junction with the national network at Kidderminster through Bewdley, the finest of the intermediate stations with its Victorian buildings carefully maintained, to Arley and Highley on the west bank of the Severn before crossing to Bridgnorth on the east bank for the final section to the terminus. Each station along the route has been carefully restored to its Great Western Railway appearance, and the experience of travelling between them in coaches hauled by vintage steam locomotives provides a complete period railway experience of considerable quality. Bridgnorth, the northern terminus, is a town of great historical and architectural interest, its High Town and Low Town connected by the steepest funicular railway in England and its medieval and later buildings providing an excellent heritage complement to the railway journey. The walk along the Severn between Arley and Bewdley, following the riverside path through the most beautiful section of the valley, provides the alternative of a river walk with the railway stations available as points of departure and return.