Woolly says – The roads were awash with water as we drove carefully along the A5 towards Telford for a very special get together, I sat trying to contain my excitement and keeping all of my paws crossed that the rain would cease before we arrived.

Our plan for the day was to meet up with bestie Sion and his carer Jen for a much needed catch up, our destination was one that we had been to previously with daughter Zoe and I was looking forward to looking round with the sheep. Blists Hill Victorian Town is an open-air museum built on a former industrial complex located in the Madeley area of Telford, Shropshire, England. Originally Blists an industrial region consisting of a brick and tile works, blast furnaces and coal, iron and fire clay mines. The museum was opened in 1973 with the museum’s buildings falling into one of three categories, buildings that were already part of the industrial site, buildings that represent a generic type and original buildings that have been relocated to the museum.

With only a light drizzle to greet our arrival, Sion and Jen weren’t far behind us and having paid for our tickets we went straight to the café for a coffee and a good chat before heading into the bank to change our money for old pennies.  As Sion and I were happily discussing how much we would need with the cashier a booming voice sounded behind us, ‘Has that dog got a licence?’ I peered down from the countertop to Alfie the Dog sitting at Jo’s feet and then across and upwards to the incredibly tall constable that had asked us. ‘Hmmm no’ said Jo, ‘No problem’ said the giant policeman ‘you can get one from the post office’, he waved and left us to go back to the question of how much money would we need.

With our pockets full we headed into the greengrocers to admire their stock and the fabulous till on the wooden counter, the shop door pinged open, and the super-sized officer of the law strolled in, Sion and I gave a quick nod and headed outside and into the chemist.

Victorian chemists are always fascinating as the served not only human medication but acted as vets as well as having a dentist on site, all the medical care you could wish for under one roof.

The main street led us past the public house and a number of shops including a haberdashery which sported to very fetching hats.

The next shop was the much needed Post Office to make Alfie legal, dog licenses were brought in during the Victorian era and were last issued in 1987 but we had gone back in time we did need to conform to the letter of the law, with licence in hand we crossed the road heading into a very smart looking home.

The parlour was warm and set up ready for tea which sadly the humans ignored as they checked out the kitchen instead.

Reaching the top of the road we arrived at one of the sites original buildings, the Blists Hill Brick and Tile Works which closed in 1912. Although empty it made for some wonderful pictures against the green and slimy looking canal.

Heading along the canal side we passed the end of a building displaying all manner of signage including some of the lovely metal signs which were once a popular way of advertising.  We passed variety of smaller sheds where workers would have once spent their days and an old railway carriage which would have brought Sunday school to the masses.

A lift took us down to the bottom of the site which was all the more exciting as we had to press the buttons ourselves.

We saw smoke puffing out of a chimney and headed into the Old Toll House which had once sat on the Holyhead Road. Inside was a little on the icy side as the lady of the house was struggling to light the fires. We peeked into the bedrooms and the kitchen, the parlour although sparse looked affluent enough. Back in the day a family of seven would have lived there which would have made it a very tight squeeze. Outside in the vegetable garden stood a very fine pig sty.

A short walk on and we arrived at St Chad’s Mission Church, a corrugated iron building which would have served the community, we peeped through the bars before heading across the road to look at the squatter’s cottage.

Tucked away it actually looked quite cosy and had the added highlight of an outside toilet which Sion and I immediately investigated.

We arrived at a large open area where during the summer the old time fair would be open to customers, it looked slightly forlorn today.

We turned our attention to a large barn structure which contained the ship called Spry. The Spry was a lower Severn River trow, one of hundreds that would have once been used to carry freight along the river, today it is the only one to survive. She was a fine specimen and had been beautifully restored.

A large red steam wheel caught my attention before we headed into the Victorian School house with its small classrooms, children would have been lucky to afford to attend the school in those days.

Former warehouses and offices of the mines made for a great picture.

Next was a huge building where iron would once have been produced, hard to imagine the noise and smoke that the workers would have spent their days in.

Taking the road back towards the town we stopped for a look at the former Mine Managers house which showed a huge difference in conditions compared to where many of the miners would have lived. A nice gent sat rocking by the fire told us about the Doctors surgery at the back of the house as we peered at the walls of medicine on display.

Outside was a lovely courtyard area with the privy to the rear, Alfie the Dog seemed quite excited to check it out.

We arrived at the Bakery with Jo and Jen taking it in turns to pop in and purchase some buns for later. The shop keeper was lovely as I spent my time trying to work out my old pennies and how many to hand over. Next door was the candle makers, Jo’s noise quivered on arrival at the stench of tallow, made from beef or mutton suet it did smell a bit meaty so after a quick photograph we headed back into the fresh air.

We passed the locksmiths, printers and butchers before heading into the old fashioned chip shop for a huge pile of chips, Jen’s cooked in beef dripping and Jo the boring veggie having hers done separately in vegetable oil. We sat on benches enjoying the warming food and continued to catch up on each other’s lives before wiping our greasy fingers on anything to hand and heading back to the warm café for a drink and some cake to finish our meal off.

Such a fabulous day and so wonderful to properly spend time with my bestie, hopefully it won’t be to much longer before we can meet up again.