Ironbridge Gorge Museums open over festive season

Families seeking a fun day out during the festive period can go along to the Ironbridge Gorge Museums in Shropshire’s stunning Severn Valley where seven of the ten museums will be open daily from 10am until 4pm. They will only be closing on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

The museums reflect a slice of the history of the Gorge, its people, their lifestyles and their work from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the early 1700s. Whether you are interested in a recreated Victorian town, hands-on interactives, fine china, decorative tiles or the history of iron making, it’s all to be found in this World Heritage Site.

Step back in time at Blists Hill Victorian Town where you can meander around the period shops and the cosy cottage. You will receive a warm welcome and be invited for a chat around the fireside as the lady of the house goes about her daily routine, bringing to life the crafts and customs of a bygone era.

Over at Coalport China Museum you can marvel at the magnificent china displayed in the very buildings in which it was produced and see skilled crafts people at work; there’s even a special gallery for children where they can discover the secrets of how china was made. Then walk through the gas lit galleries and period room settings adorned with magnificent tiles at Jackfield Tile Museum. Displays include tiles from a London hospital children’s ward intricately painted with scenes from nursery rhymes.

Youngsters can let their imagination go wild at the Enginuity design and technology centre, as they become a design engineer for the day, able to play with huge interactive exhibits, ‘X-ray’ everyday objects to see how they are made, control a ‘river’ to generate electricity and compete against a robot. Modern equipment is combined with historic machinery to explain everyday principles - by turning a small flywheel, for example, you can pull a real locomotive.

The three other Ironbridge Gorge Museum sites open over the festive break are the Museum of Iron, Museum of the Gorge and the original Iron Bridge itself; cast in 1779 its great arch spans the stunning River Severn – as you walk across the bridge try and imagine what the area was like around 300 years ago at the beginning of industrial development.

A Passport, to all ten of the Ironbridge Gorge Museums, costs £14.95 per adult, £12.95 for the 60 plus, £9.95 for students and children and £48 for a family of two adults and three children aged up to 18 years in full time education; under 5s free. Individual museum entry tickets are also available.

For further information, log on to ironbridge.org.uk. Some sites close or reduce their hours during the winter months and all close 24 and 25 December and 1 January, call to check before you travel. The Gorge is easily reached via the M6 and M54 motorways exiting at Telford (M54 junction 4 or 6).