Kids will love this levers-and-pulleys science centre where they can control robots, move a steam locomotive with their bare hands (and a little engineering know-how) and power up a vacuum cleaner with self-generated electricity.
Enginuity
Shropshire
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
Library of Birmingham
27 MILES
Resembling a glittering stack of gift-wrapped presents, the Francine Houben–designed Library of Birmingham is an architectural triumph. The 2013-opened…
Barber Institute of Fine Arts
27.17 MILES
At the University of Birmingham, 3 miles south of the city centre, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts has an astonishing collection of Renaissance…
Cadbury World
27.7 MILES
The next best thing to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory is Cadbury World, 4 miles south of Birmingham. It educates visitors about the history of cocoa and…
National Sea Life Centre
26.82 MILES
Exotic marine creatures including otters, jellyfish, piranhas and razor-jawed hammerhead sharks swim in the Sir Norman Foster–designed National Sea Life…
Birmingham Back to Backs
27.56 MILES
Quirky tours of this cluster of restored back-to-back terraced houses take you through four working-class homes, telling the stories of those who lived…
Nearby Shropshire attractions
1. Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron
0.01 MILES
Set in the brooding buildings of Abraham Darby's original iron foundry, the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron contains some excellent interactive exhibits. As…
2. Darby Houses
0.17 MILES
Just uphill from the Museum of Iron, these beautifully restored 18th-century homes housed generations of the Darby family in gracious but modest Quaker…
3. Museum of the Gorge
0.66 MILES
An ideal place to kick off your Ironbridge Gorge visit is the Museum of the Gorge. Occupying a Gothic riverside warehouse, it offers an overview of the…
4. Iron Bridge
0.88 MILES
The arching Iron Bridge, which gives the area its name, was built to flaunt the new technology invented by the pioneering Darby family. At the time of its…
5. Bedlam Furnaces
1.08 MILES
By the River Severn, you can see the remains of the 1750s-built coke-fired blast furnaces, which remained in use into the 19th century.
6. Broseley Pipeworks
1.54 MILES
This was once the biggest clay tobacco pipe-maker in the country, but the industry nose dived after the introduction of prerolled cigarettes in the 1880s,…
7. Jackfield Tile Museum
1.59 MILES
Once the largest tile factory in the world, Jackfield was famous for its encaustic tiles, with ornate designs produced using layers of different coloured…
8. Blists Hill Victorian Town
1.88 MILES
Set at the top of the Hay Inclined Plane (a cable lift that once transported coal barges uphill from the Shropshire Canal), Blists Hill is a lovingly…