The Black Country Living Museum

 It is exactly a week since we visited this fantastic museum in Dudley. The Black Country Living Museum is an open air museum of lovingly restored buildings and vehicles.

Most of the buildings have been rescued from demolition and rebuilt brick by brick on this site.

This pair of houses are made from cast iron in 1925, you can read more about them here.

 We were able to look around the ground floor and learnt more about the houses from a very helpful guide.

I loved the finishing touches. For example, this pair of shoes behind the kitchen door and a pinny hanging from a hook in the larder.

Our next stop was this charming cottage with a pretty garden. The house is tilted and distorted from being in close proximity to the mines. Inside, it was furnished and decorated as it would have been in around 1900.

Across from the cottage was a one-story dwelling which had served as a Toll House. The interior had been recreated from old photographs. I loved this bedroom with the iron bed and crazy patchwork quilt.

On our way to the Workers Institute building we were overtaken by these tiny cars.....

Next stop was the row of shops. These were my favourite as you could explore the shops and the homes above them.

There is a fully equipped tobacconist shop.

1930's Kitchen, bedroom and sitting rooms....

The Builders Merchants - Look at those rolls of 1930's wallpaper on the shelves. If only they had been for sale!

Hobbs and Sons is renowned for its food. You cannot visit the Black Country Museum without having something to eat from here. It was the best fish and chips I have tasted in years.

It was then onwards and over the bridge down into the 19th Century streets.....

More wonderful shops and interiors to explore. This hardware shop being my favourite.

The Washerwoman certainly felt at home here.There were several old stone wash houses, complete with dolly tubs and mangles.

Cosy looking interiors, but the reality of living in this type of housing was far from easy. Many of the shops and houses have guides in them who give the background, history of the buildings and what life was like to live there.

It was then time to hop onto a lovely old bus and wend our way back to entrance to view the vintage cars. If you are in the area, do visit the museum. You probably need a whole day, we had an afternoon so didn't quite do everything, so will be back there again soon.