Express & Star

Victorian Christmas arrives at Black Country Living Museum

Visitors to the Black Country Museum this festive season will be able to experience the sounds and smells of a Victorian Christmas.

Published
Demonstrator Moyah Rzym gets help stirring the Christmas pudding at the museum

The popular attraction has launched the new multi-sensory experience Christmas through Time which will run until December 24.

There will be seven ‘sound points’ around the museum, where visitors will hear snippets of conversations from the past in relation to Christmas.

Guide Claire Taylor warms her hands as she strolls around the festive site
Hazel Worthington makes Pomanders in the Tilted cottage

A spokesman for the Black Country Museum said: “In our 1940s house they will hear a family agonise over what to cook over dinner when the rations are so low – they settle on murkey, or ‘mock turkey’ as it’s known.

“In our Victorian back-to-back, in contrast, they will hear a family with a young baby desperately trying to make ends meet in order to afford Christmas dinner.

Denise Bennett puts the festive snacks on display at Veal's bakery
The Santa hunt begins

“In another, they will step into the flat of well-off family in the 1930s who are listening to the King’s speech and discussing the abdication crisis of December 1936 while preparing Christmas dinner.”

There will also be a number of smell points around the site, including the smell of vegetables cooking in the kitchen and freshly baked Christmas pudding.

There are a number of seasonal specials lined up for the museum. Families are invited to go on a search for Santa, meeting elves and reindeer footprints on their way to receiving a little present from Father Christmas himself.

Evie and Iris Vincent meet Father Christmas