Tug Boats at the Black Country Living Museum

Last year we had planned to visit the Black Country Living Museum while on our summer trip, but due to time constraints we had to motor past. Well this weekend we were on our mooring checking the boat over and decided we could make the trip, but this time by car.

From Droitwich Spa Marina it is just 22 miles by road up the M5 to BCLM, so after a slow start off we went, we arrived at approx 11am and found the overflow carpark, which with luck had a row of PodPoint electric chargers, so we plugged in and wandered in.

At £22.50 Per Adult it is not cheap, but as we found, there is a lot to see, with lots of work going on with new displays being built. I suspect this kind of museum is never finished, as you can see from the map below lots of areas for development.

I was not feeling 100% so this was going to a slow walk around, we also could not stay late as we had left Obi, our Sprollie dog, looking after the boat.

There is lots to see all arranged in areas around streets, we started will a look around Jerushah Cottage, inside the lady of the house was working on a Rag rug, cutting the material into lengths, she told us some of the fascinating history of the building and the how the family lived.

We then moved on to the The Workers’ Institute and Cafe for a well needed coffee in a tin mug, while Sonia had tea and a slice of Victoria Sponge.

Then past the Elephant and Castle Pub popping in to A. Preedy & Son Tobacconists and the A. Hartill Motorcycles for a nose around, in which we found a early Seagull outboard motor, which was manufactured in the Sunbeamland Factory in Wolverhampton.

Then it was down to the canal for the main reason for out trip to see the old working boats that had come for a special weekend visit. We had a few chats to the owners and keepers of these fantastic old beasts, mostly tug boats used for pulling barges AKA ‘joeys’ around the local canals. We stopped and had a good look at Bitten a 1934 example which I was surprised to see had a draft probably 12″, 30cm, deeper that our modern boat.

We walked around the quay side, had a quick look at a nail making demonstration, but it was hard to see as it was drawing quite a crowd. The on for a look around the Bottle and Glass Inn, then we could smell the fish and chips cooking just up the road at The Village Fried Fish Shop, unfortunately due to my diet, only Sonia could sample there wares, I did steal the odd chip and very good it was too.

All that had taken over 3 hours, and I would think we had still a good 60% left to see and sample including cakes and pasties from Veal’s Baker’s Shop and sweets from T. Cook’s Sweet Shop, all of which seemed very popular to the bank holiday visitors.

Due to out time constraints we started walking back to the entrance and the obligatory browse in the gift shop, not forgetting to buy a parking token so we could get our car out of the carpark.

With our entrance we got a full 12 months access to the Museum, but I suspect we will be back again in the not to distant future.