Blists Hill visitors treated to industrial strength fun

Visitors to one of the Ironbridge Gorge Museums were whisked back to the Industrial Revolution.

Blists Hill Victorian Town opened its ironworks for the first time this year as visitors poured in to get a taste of the age old industry.

The works, which are only open four days a year, showed spectators at the weekend how to re-forge and re-roll iron, as well as a few other tricks along the way.

John Challen, operations manager at Blists Hill, said: "A lot of the people come down to see the steam hammer because of it's size, but also because it's an iconic image of the industrial revolution.

"People like it because of its size; it's quite slow but it comes down with the force of 20 tonnes."

The re-rolled and re-forged iron is stored up for use for the blacksmiths, and will be used as more than 100 blacksmiths visit the town this weekend for the British Artist Blacksmiths Association for their AGM.

The only other night the works open is on Bonfire Night, when they do the work under the cover of darkness, allowing the hot metal to light the way.

Mr Challen added: "We've had a lot of extra visitors in this weekend, and it's a real mix of people.

"Some of the real engine enthusiasts come to see what the engines can do that power the steam hammer, while other people come just because they don't understand what it is.

"They hear the noise and see the smoke from at the top of the hill because it's quite loud.

"It was good to have it open this weekend as the metal industry played a massive part in the Olympic opening ceremony."