Blists Hill - Ironbridge

I didn’t get round to blipping yesterday, but we had a lovely afternoon with Jon’s parents and 3 sisters having afternoon tea at a hotel in Cambridge. It was nice to chat with just 7 of us and everyone enjoyed it.

We left there at about 4.30 heading to a hotel I had booked for the night in Rugby. Not much more than an hour up the road, so not a long drive. The hotel is called Brownsover Hall Hotel and was in a quiet location set in large grounds. We took a short walk up the road to a Harvester for an evening meal, then crashed out.

Didn’t sleep that well, even though it was a comfortable bed. Eventually getting up at 8 for a big breakfast. We had assumed we were at the hotel on our own as we didn’t see anyone else, but at breakfast there were 5 other couples.

We left around 10.30 and drove up the M6 through horrible rainy weather, which eased up as we came in to Ironbridge. We headed straight to Blists Hill - the main museum, and picked up our passes that I’d bought online. We then spent the rest of the day exploring the Victorian village as if it were 1900. The first stop, after a coffee, was the bank. I changed up £5 for a shilling - 12 and a half old pence - to spend in the shops. It was made up of 2 old pennies, (2d) 2 halfpennys (1d) a threepence (3d) a sixpence (6d) and 2 farthings 1/4d x 2 - total value 12 1/2d or £5 in todays money. I’ll upload a photo if I can. The coins are tokens with the right tails side but on the heads is a picture of the iron bridge- I managed to spend a total of 12d and have a ha’penny as a souvenir. For that I got 4oz of liquorice all sorts (invented in 1899), a liquorice stick for Jon to chew. He said it wasn’t as liquoricey as he remembered as a child, and 2 freshly baked fruit buns at the bakers. We went in every shop, and chatted to the actors who were really informative.

We ended there at 5 and drove to our hotel here in Shifnal, just 10 minutes from the museums in Ironbridge. We enjoyed dinner, I’ve written 1500 words of my book, and now settling to watch The Piano, and an early night to catch up on last nights sleep! Half way through our break and more exploring tomorrow:-)