The Shropshire Hills boast some fantastic easy-to-visit museums, packed with exciting things to see and do that will keep both younger and older members of the family busy for hours.
Relics of the area’s old mining sites in the Stiperstones area are lovingly looked after by volunteers. Snail beach Lead Mine is the most complete collection of mine building remains in England, while The Bog Mine and its visitor centre and tearoom, can be found in a conserved school is nearby. Further east, volunteers look after Daniel’s Mill, near Bridgnorth.
The World Heritage Site of Ironbridge and its various museums, near Much Wenlock, are a day out in themselves, but the much smaller scale local museums reflecting many aspects of life are also fascinating. You’ll find these in Ludlow, Much Wenlock, and Bishop’s Castle, with its House on Crutches, and railway museum. Just over the border at Presteigne, the unique Judge’s Lodging, shows the rural criminal system in action, for both the judges and the felons.
The area’s distinctive agricultural heritage is celebrated at Acton Scott Historic Working Farm, where the kids can get up to close to animals from newly hatched chicks to squealing piglets to majestic shire horses. Traditional country crafts, like wheel-making and black smithing are regularly on display.
The Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre, a few miles from Acton Scott, is a great place to learn about how the local landscape was forged and to see a life-size replica of the Shropshire Mammoth, whose remains survived from the last Ice Age till they were found in 1986.
