|
|
|
Shropshire
Museums & Art Galleries
|
|
This section covers museums
including working heritage museums and both civic and
commercial art galleries.
Not all the
attractions in an area are listed.
If you know of an
activity provider who does not yet have an entry, please
submit the information
here.
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
OSWESTRY TRANSPORT MUSEUM
Oswald Road, Oswestry, Shropshire, SY11 1RE
Tel: 01691 671749
E-mail:
museum@cambrian-railways-soc.co.uk
Web:
www.cambrian-railways-soc.co.uk
Open: Daily 10am - 4pm. Closed Christmas Day
We cover a time from Pre
Cambrian Railways right through GWR and BR. This
is important in a historic railway centre.
Covering about 150 years of railway history in
Oswestry, we have exhibits and artefacts from
all periods.
On certain weekends
throughout the season, you can visit the museum
and have a train ride. New additions in the
museum include a Narrow Gauge Tipper Wagon which
was last used in the Water Works in Oswestry.
Currently we are working on the society Nantmawr
branch line project to restore one and a quarter
miles of the former Gobowen to Nantmawr branch
line.
|
|
|
SHREWSBURY MUSEUM & ART
GALLERY
Barker Street, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY1 1QH
Tel: 01743 361196
E-mail :
museums@shrewsbury.gov.uk
Web site:
www.shrewsburymuseums.com
|
Shrewsbury
Museum & Art Gallery occupies two
adjoining buildings, which themselves are
worth a visit. |
|
 |
One is a late 16th century timber-framed
warehouse, Rowley's House; the other, of stone and
brick construction dating from about 1618, was the
home of the merchant William Rowley and is known
as Rowley's Mansion. Shrewsbury has many fine
buildings but these are two of the finest. This is
Shrewsbury's main museum and also headquarters of
Shrewsbury Museums Service.
During 2009, the town's visitor information centre
will relocate to Rowley's House and the museum
will have reduced opening hours during a period of
redevelopment. See website for details.
|
|
|
THE IRONBRIDGE GORGE
MUSEUMS
Ironbridge, Telford, Shropshire, TF8 7DQ
Tel: 01952 884391
E-mail:
paul.gossage@ironbridge.org.uk
Web:
www.ironbridge.org.uk
|
Ironbridge
Gorge is a World Heritage Site.
It was here that the Industrial
Revolution really started and it is not
surprising that there are no less than
ten museums within the six square miles
of this valley. |
|
 |
|
 |
|
Nowhere in the world has had such an
influence on the development of technology
and the way society has developed in the
industrialised world.
Before this remarkable development
commenced, the gorge must have been a
tranquil place. |
Today it is still a beautiful place to visit but
it is for its industrial heritage that most
visitors come with many of its early industrial
sites surviving as furnaces, factories, workshops,
canals in the communities of Coalbrookdale,
Coalport, Ironbridge, and Jackfield. The most
impressive image of the area, though, must be that
of the world's first iron bridge spanning the
often wild waters of the River Severn. Here
history was made! Many of the museums have working
craftsmen who demonstrate traditional crafts ...
ironworking, pottery, glassmaking, candle making,
etc. Here were made cast iron cooking pots, rails
and iron wheels for railways, cylinders for steam
engines, stoves for cooking and heating, china to
grace the tables of the world's aristocracy (as a
gift for Czar Alexander I, Queen Victoria ordered
a 500 piece service some of which survived the
Russian Revolution in the basement of the Winter
Palace in St Petersburg), tiles to be exported
worldwide, clay pipes for the rich and poor...
Even today, cast-iron stoves and cookware are
still being made at foundry next to the Museum of
Iron in Coalbrookdale.
|
|
|
SHREWSBURY CASTLE &
SHROPSHIRE REGIMENTAL MUSEUM
Castle Street, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY1 2AT
Tel: 01743 358516
E-mail :
museums@shrewsbury.gov.uk
Web site:
www.shrewsburymuseums.com
|
The oldest
parts of the Castle were built during the
reign of William the Conqueror but
additions were made at various times
later. In the late
18th century, Thomas Telford remodelled
the Great Hall as a private house. |
|
 |
This Hall, now partly restored to its original
state, houses the collections of the Shropshire
Regimental Museum Trust which include pictures,
uniforms, medals, weapons and other equipment from
the 18th Century to the present day. The grounds
are open all year (except Christmas/New Year) -
admission free. See our website for details of
museum opening times & charges.
|
|
|
MUCH WENLOCK MUSEUM
High Street, Much Wenlock, Shropshire, TF13 6HR
Tel: 01952 727773
E-mail:
much.wenlock.museum @shrophire.gov.uk
Web:
www.shropshire.gov.uk
|
It is strange to think
that a small town like Much Wenlock could be
associated with the origins of the modern
Olympic Games, but it was here in 1850 that
Dr. William Penny Brooks founded the Wenlock
Olympian Society and the town's annual
Olympian Games.
Throughout his life, Dr. Brooks was a leading
member of the National Olympian Association,
working to promote the moral and physical
benefits of physical education. |
|
 |
The museum also provides
information on local history, the geology of
Wenlock Edge and the archaeology of the
south-west Shropshire area.
|
|
COLEHAM PUMPING STATION
Longden Road, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY3 7DN
Tel: 01743 361196
Web:
www.shrewsburymuseums.com
|
The Pumping
Station was built in 1900 to house two
massive steam-driven beam engines used to
pump sewage as part of Shrewsbury's then
new sewerage system.
These coal-fired pumps were in use until
1970. |
|
 |
Volunteers from Shrewsbury Steam Trust (founded
1992) have restored the boiler and engines to
working order. 'Steam Up' is now a
feature of the regular Open Days, which are
normally on the 4th Sunday of the month, April -
July and September - October. Please contact to
check details before travelling. Education and
group visits can be pre-booked on the Monday after
Open Days. Booked visits welcome at other times,
though without the benefit of steaming.
|
|
|
Broseley Pipeworks
|
|
|
This
Museum is like a ‘time capsule’
containing much of the original equipment
installed in the 1880's and used until production
ceased here at the end of the 1950's. |
|
There
are displays which explain the history of
the local clay tobacco pipe-making industry from
its 16th century origins.
|
|
 |
|
|
Blists Hill Victorian Town
|
|
|
Set in 50 acres of
woodland. Much of this apparently 19th
century town is actually made up of rescued
and re-erected or replica Victorian
buildings alongside industrial monuments
which have been preserved in-situ.
The "town" includes a bank, chemist, pub,
bakers, sweet shop, school, doctor's and
candle-maker's. |
|
You can exchange modern currency for
Victorian pounds, shillings and pence to
spend with the staff of the shops in
authentic costume.
|
|
|
The Ironbridge
Web:
www.ironbridge.org.uk
|
The actual Iron Bridge
which gave the name to the town was cast in 1779
by the company run by Abraham Darby III.
It was built of iron but used the same
techniques that would have been used if it had
been made of wood.
Bridge-building has certainly moved on but
despite its age, it is still impressive and a
structure of great beauty today.
|
|
 |
|
|
ACTON SCOTT HISTORIC FARM
Wenlock Lodge, Acton Scott, Church Stretton,
Shropshire, SY6 6QN
Tel: 01694 781306
E-mail:
actonscottmuseum@shropshire-cc.gov.uk
Web:
www.shropshire.gov.uk
The first museum in Ludlow was established in
1833. The current museum includes the John
Norton Gallery and a display of the
internationally-famous geology of the area. Sir
Roderick Murchison, a famous Victorian
geologist, unravelled the story of Ludlow's
rocks and new finds are still being made today.
Some of the oldest known fossil plants and land
animals in the world have recently been found in
the area. The museum galleries are fully
accessible to wheelchair users. Public car park
and toilets are close by.
|
|
Ludlow Museum
Castle Street, Ludlow, Shropshire, SY8 1AS
Tel: 01584 878765
The first museum in Ludlow was established in
1833. The current museum includes the John
Norton Gallery and a display of the
internationally-famous geology of the area. Sir
Roderick Murchison, a famous Victorian
geologist, unravelled the story of Ludlow's
rocks and new finds are still being made today.
Some of the oldest known fossil plants and land
animals in the world have recently been found in
the area. The museum galleries are fully
accessible to wheelchair users. Public car park
and toilets are close by.
|
|
Museum of Iron
Coalbrookdale
Web:
www.ironbridge.org.uk
Coalbrookdale is where the Industrial Revolution
of the 18th century really started. In 1709,
Abraham Darby I perfected the process of
smelting iron with coke instead of charcoal as
had been used before. The ability to smelt by
this process and on such a scale saw the area's
importance grow. The Darby family expanded the
ironworks and developed the processes to enable
them to produce a wide range of products from
simple cooking pots to the world's first iron
bridge. The museum explains the role of this
site and includes a number of restored buildings
associated with the Coalbrookdale Company.
|
|
China Museum & Tar Tunnel
Coalport
Web:
www.ironbridge.org.uk
This museum is on the site of the original
Coalport China Works opened by John Rose in
1796. Built alongside the Shropshire Canal to
facilitate easy movement of materials and ware,
the factory saw over two centuries of continuous
production until manufacture ended in 1926. In
the surviving buildings, mostly Edwardian, is a
display of Coalport’s finest ware.
In 1785, it was planned to help the easy
movement of coal by connecting the underground
workings of the Blists Hill mines with the new
Coalport Canal and the River Severn by a tunnel
driven into the hillside at Coalport. However,
the 'tunnelers'
hit a spring of natural bitumen which proved
more lucrative to exploit than to use the tunnel
to move coal to the river. This is the Tar
Tunnel which visitors can explore today.
|
|
Tile Museum
Jackfield
Web:
www.ironbridge.org.uk
Most "potbanks" and tileries developed in a
haphazard manner but around 1871 an existing
pottery was transformed by Henry Dunnill into
this "model factory", production logically
arranged, and much better than normal working
conditions. Tiles from this and other local
factories became renowned for their excellent
quality and were exported around the world.
|
|
Enginuity
Coalbrookdale
Web:
www.ironbridge.org.uk
A new interactive hands-on technology centre.
This centre helps visitors understand how the
things we see and use every day were designed
and made, what makes them work, the science &
engineering behind the technology.
|
|
|
New Members required for this section!
To join or recommend an establishment to Tourist Net UK
contact us
|
|
[back
to top] |
|
