The leader of Dudley Council has welcomed the announcement that work will start soon on a major expansion to one of the borough’s biggest tourist attractions.

Work on the £30 million Forging Ahead project at Black Country Living Museum -  a major expansion to the site focusing on the period from the 1940s to the 1960s – starts this month, museum bosses announced today.

More than 20 new historic buildings and structures will be added to the site in the first phase, including the brick-by-brick relocation of Woodside Library with help from Dudley Council. Councillor Patrick Harley, leader of the council, said:

"This is fantastic news and a really exciting new development for what is already a top-class visitor attraction. It’s been well documented that the pandemic and lockdowns have hit our tourist attractions hard, but its great to see one of the biggest outlining plans to come out the other side bigger and better with plans to welcome even more visitors to the borough in the future.

"Along with the new Metro line, VLR, the bus interchange and plans for a university park, the future is looking very bright for the borough."

It is hoped that the new 1940s to 60s historic town and industrial quarter will be open to welcome visitors in 2023.  The development will expand the Museum’s footprint by about a third and increase its capacity to welcome around 500,000 visitors per year by 2026.