Black Country Living Museum’s £30m expansion receives funding boost

A £30m project to build a range of new attractions at the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley has received a £711,000 investment from the West Midlands Combined Authority.  

The Forging Ahead project will give visitors to the Dudley museum the opportunity to explore life in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. It will expand the museum by about a third and will include a new visitor centre as learning spaces as well as an industrial quarter and historic high street.

Once complete, the museum’s capacity will increase to half a million visitors a year.

The first phase of the project includes 26 historic buildings and structures. Work to recreate Wolverhampton’s iconic Elephant and Castle pub has already been completed, and Dudley’s Woodside Library will be rebuilt as one of the main landmarks of the new historic high street.

“This investment cements our ambition to bring the museum’s story into the 1940s, 50s and 60s and step into living memory,” said Andrew Lovett, the chief executive of the Black Country Living Museum. “We will widen our storytelling and introduce our visitors to new Black Country characters and stories that they might not be familiar with.

“The feedback from our visitors following the opening of the Elephant and Castle pub has been wonderful, and we can’t wait to bring other beloved buildings back to life and expand the visitor experience.”

The investment from West Midlands Combined Authority will be used to clean up derelict parts of the site. 

Andy Street, mayor of the West Midlands and chair of the authority, said: “The museum is a fantastic heritage and cultural asset for our region helping to generate tourist income and new jobs for the West Midlands. It’s fascinating to see how iconic buildings are being saved for future generations through these meticulous brick-by-brick reconstructions and recreations.”

About 140 jobs are expected to be created at the museum and in the local area as a result of the project.

The Forging Ahead project received £9.8m from the National Heritage Lottery Fund back in 2017.