Midlands Holiday - Day 7
After much debate we settled on visiting the Ironbridge Gorge. There are ten different museums to visit as well as the Ironbridge itself so we bought one of their passports which will allow us to visit as many times as we like for a year. Today we visited the Gorge Museum which gives the history of the gorge showing how the local availability of coal, iron ore, clay and limestone kickstarted the industrial revolution. After a mooch around the town we headed off to the Tar Tunnel – a bricklined tunnel into the mountain that oozes with bitumen.
Then it was off to Blists Hill – a Victorian working town full of folk dressed in period costume – from banks to bakers, blacksmiths to candle makers. At the moment they are expanding the site considerably so it looks a bit scruffy but it’s still great. We bought some handmade candles and had a go on the merry-go-round type thingy.
We may go back later in this week to see some of the other museums.
On our way down to Cheltenham we visited Bridgnorth – what a lovely town! They have a little Cliff Train which trundles up and down between the top and bottom halves of the town – and it’s only 90p return – and it runs until 8pm. We walked around the castle walk (which has great views over the Severn valley) while listening to the bellringers practicing in the local church. Then we went down to the riverside and ate a packet of very nice chips from the local chippy. Just great! I don’t understand why I’ve never heard of the town before.
Now we’ve arrived in Cheltenham for three nights of sleeping in a furnace. They’ve rigged the windows so they hardly open. I’m sorry but I really have no desire to leap from the windows. The Travelodge is attached to a Harvester and a KFC so I guess I know what my tea’s going to be for the next couple of nights.