Black Country Living Museum
This 26-acre museum on social history gives insight into what life was like centuries ago for the men and women who worked in the coal-producing region known as the Black Country (a term that arose from the resulting air pollution from the region's coal mines), and it’s a little like walking onto a film set. The town of Dudley, 10 miles northwest of Birmingham, was where coal was first used for smelting iron way back in the 17th century. The replicated village is made up of buildings from around the region, including a chain maker’s workshop; a trap-works (where animal snares were fashioned); his-and-hers hardware stores (pots and pans for women, tools and sacks for men); a druggist; and a general store where costumed women describe life in a poor industrial community in the 19th century. You can also sit on a hard bench and watch Charlie Chaplin films in the 1920s cinema, peer into the depths of a mine, or ride on a barge to experience canal travel of yesteryear. For sustenance, there is a café, a 1930s-era fried-fish shop, and the Bottle & Glass Inn for ales and drinks. Peaky Blinders fans will also be pleased to know they now offer special themed nights where you can dress up and step back to the 1920s.
To avoid the numerous school parties, visit on the weekend or during school vacations. The museum, three miles from the M5, is best reached by car. Leave M5 at Junction 2 by the A4123, and then take A4037 at Tipton. Trains from Birmingham New Street to Tipton Station take 17 minutes; buses from the train station run past the museum, which is one mile away.
