Geosite 18
Visit the award-winning museum and join in with 300 years of history. Immerse yourself in the sights, sounds smells and tastes of the past as you explore period buildings and discover what it was like to live and work in one of the world's most industrialised landscapes. This is one of the most visited attractions in the Black Country.
The ground beneath the Museum site was once mined for coal, limestone, fireclay, and ironstone. More than 40 old mine shafts are shown on old plans and around one of these shafts, Racecourse Colliery has been built as a typical small Black Country coalpit. Small scale, ‘rough and ready’ pits were common in the Black Country. There were once as many as 500 or 600 of these pits across the region.
The colliery was so named because the land on which it stands was originally the Dudley Racecourse which was closed when the railway line from Dudley to Wolverhampton was built in 1846.
Ride a bus or take a tram down to the museum's canal side village. Discover weird and wonderful treatments of the past in Emile Doo's Chemist; indulge yourself in our Victorian sweet shop; test your times tables in the school or watch a film in the 1930s Lime Light Cinema. Once you've worked up an appetite, grab a bag of traditionally cooked fish and chips or quench your thirst in the Bottle & Glass Inn where a warm welcome awaits.
If you like this, try these too...
Geosite 010 Dudley Canal & Tunnel Trust to take a trip into the underground limestone mines visit +44 (0) 121 557 6265. www.dudleycanaltrust.org.uk
Geosite 017 Dudley Zoological Gardens to explore and 11th century Castle and Zoo visit +44 (0) 1384 215313. www.dudleyzoo.org.uk
Geosite 001 Dudley Museum at Dudley Archives to visit the Geopark headquarters visit Dudley Museum at the Archives