Introduction Blists Hill Victorian Town, originally called
Blists Hill Open Air Museum, was opened in 1973, and has been slowly growing ever since. The museum's buildings fall into one of three categories: buildings that were already part of the industrial site (
e.g. the
brickworks); buildings that simply represent a generic type (
e.g. the sweet shop), some adaptively reusing existing premises on site or being
replicas of those still standing elsewhere; and original buildings that have been
relocated to the museum (
e.g. The New Inn
public house, which originally stood between Green Lane and Hospital Street in
Walsall). Each building is staffed by one or more costumed demonstrators, who have been trained in the skills and history of the profession they re-enact. For example, in the printshop, visitors can watch posters and newssheets being printed. The demonstrators normally talk in the third person, referring to the Victorians as "they" or "them" (rather than in the first person "I" or "we" which some similar museums employ): the museum management believes that this allows greater scope for comparing modern techniques with those re-enacted at the museum. Staff may also be seen performing such diverse tasks as operating stationary
steam engines, iron founding and mucking out pigs. The first building visitors see in the museum is the bank (modelled on the still-standing
Lloyds Bank branch in
Broseley), at which they can change modern coinage into token coinage that represents the predecimal
farthings,
halfpennies,
pennies,
threepenny bits and
sixpences, at an exchange rate of 40 new pence to 1 old penny. They can then use the token coins as an alternative to modern currency for buying goods whilst visiting the museum (the gift shop at the museum entrance operates only in modern currency).
Town area The High Street area of the Upper Town has been developed around a
London and North Western Railway interchange
siding with a
plateway which is an original feature of the site. Shops erected on the site include a
chemist (with fittings from
Bournemouth), butcher (from
Ironbridge), grocer (replica of a building from
Oakengates), and printer (building from Ironbridge, with equipment from
Kington, Herefordshire). Small crafts include an iron
foundry, a shoeing
smith, bootmaker,
locksmith, decorative
plasterer (with equipment from
Burton upon Trent),
builder, and
sawmill. Premises in Quarry Bank include a
tallow candle manufactory (from
Madeley), a bakery (from
Dawley), a physician's surgery (in a
Sutherland Estate cottage from
Donnington), and a
Board School (from
Stirchley). Recent new developments have included the addition of 'Canal Street', which was a new build closely modelled on extant and historic buildings in the Telford area. This area includes a new Fish and Chip Shop, Drapers shop and Post Office, as well as an enlarged Sweet Shop. A walkway is located at the end of Canal Street, which leads visitors to the ruins of the brick and tile works. Adjacent to the ruins, and on select days, an operational replica of a steam locomotive designed and built by
Richard Trevithick in 1802 runs on a short segment of
narrow gauge track. The original locomotive was the world's first steam locomotive on rails and was commissioned by the
Coalbrookdale Company, which was located nearby (however, no record exists of this locomotive ever being successfully run). In 2015, the Trevithick Shed was built to house the locomotive when not in use.
Ironworks area house and blast furnaces at Blists Hill The original
Madeley Wood Company blast furnaces produced
pig iron from 1832 to 1911. Their remains have been conserved and a
blowing engine from the
Lilleshall Company's
Priorslee Ironworks installed in one of the houses. Nearby are displayed a pair of
beam engines from the same location, alongside a
wrought iron works using equipment from
Thomas Walmsley's Atlas Forge in
Bolton in an iron-framed building designed by
Rennie for
Woolwich Dockyard.
Countryside area The more remote parts of the site demonstrate natural recolonisation of an industrial landscape. Amongst buildings re-erected in this area are a
corrugated iron tin tabernacle, (St Chad's Mission Church from Lodge Bank), a
squatter cottage (from
Dawley), and a
toll house (designed by
Telford for the
Holyhead Road at
Shelton).
New developments Since 1998 the last surviving
Severn Trow Spry has been on display in a dry berth at the museum. A new protective shed was completed for it in 2015. In 2009 a £12 million programme of redevelopment was completed which included the previously discussed buildings on Canal Street, a new World Heritage Visitor Centre, a
narrow gauge Mine Railway, and a Inclined Lift supplied by
WGH Ltd. The mine railway is intended to represent a 1920s clay mine, although the rolling stock is modern and the mine is formed by a concrete bunker. The inclined lift is entirely modern, and enables visitors with restricted mobility to access the lower part of the site. The project did not fund the restoration of the Scheduled Ancient Monuments and associated archaeological features on the site.
Hay inclined plane The Hay Inclined Plane is a
canal inclined plane with a height of 207 feet that is located on a short stretch of the
Shropshire Canal that linked the industrial area of
Blists Hill with the
River Severn. The inclined plane was in operation from 1792 to 1894 and can be visited as part of the Blists Hill Victorian Town and is also a waypoint on the
South Telford Heritage Trail. In operation box-shaped
tub boats 20 feet long were taken up and down the plane on twin railway tracks, an empty boat would be loaded into the river at the bottom and a full boat would be loaded into the canal at the top, a rope would connect the two so that gravity would drop the loaded boat down to the river counterbalanced by an empty boat being raised to the canal. At the bottom of the incline the rails went underwater allowing the boats to float free. ==Filming location==