Overview

A lovely place to explore on a mobility scooter or powered wheelchair, with welcoming shopkeepers in Victorian costume and a few really nice surprise touches for disabled visitors.

Transport & Parking

No problem getting a blue badge space in the large car park on a moderately busy day, but it doesn't look like somewhere that would be good by public transport.

Access

This is one of those historical attractions where they preserve old buildings from the region by bringing them to a new site and rebuilding them, brick by brick. It mainly consists of little Victorian shops where you can go in and buy things with Victorian money you've changed at the bank, and there's also a Victorian school, a Victorian fairground. working steam engines and places where they make things like candles using traditional methods. I found I was able to go into most of the shops and workshops on my small scooter, but it was a bit disappointing that I couldn't get into everything, when this could have been achieved just by having the odd ramp available. There was actually one wooden ramp up to a high pavement near the beginning, so there was no reason not to replicate this elsewhere. There were a couple of nice surprises in wait on the far side of the site, though. The mine train had cars for wheelchairs and helpful staff with ramps, and there was an incline lift (like a funicular) from the lowest part of the site to the highest, so you don't have to run your batteries down getting up a steep slope.

Toilets

Top marks for the loo by the Forest Glen cafe, which had a Euan's Guide card on the emergency cord! I was surprised to see it, because I hadn't found a previous review of Blists Hill on Euan's Guide, but it was great that someone had put it there. Both this loo and another one I visited near the entrance were big enough to get my scooter in, had decent rails and were clean.

Staff

All friendly and welcoming. Slightly let down by one volunteer, though, when I asked her if there were any more ramps that could be put out and she was flummoxed, saying she'd never come across a query like that and maybe I should just accept that this was an old place where you couldn't expect such things. Actually, it's not an old place; it's a new town made of rebuilt old buildings, and it would be perfectly feasible to put in a few dropped kerbs in keeping with the style of the site, or get more than one wooden ramp out. Blists Hill is already a lovely place - a tweak or two like this would make it even better.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

I had a great time there on my scooter and would absolutely visit again.

Photos