Public get say on Black Country Living Museum's £18m plans

The museum in Tipton Road, Dudley, attracts around 300,000 visitors a year but chiefs are hoping to increase the amount to half a million as part of a 10-year forward plan. The plans will see 60 new jobs created.

Bosses need funding for the ambitious development, which could include moving the site's entrance from Tipton Road to Castle Hill. Chief executive Andrew Lovett said the change would link the venue to Castle Hill, providing visitors with one shared arrival point to Dudley's four attractions – Dudley Zoo, Dudley Archives, Dudley Canal Trips and the museum.

Further proposals include a new visitor centre, exhibition space, and retail and café facilities. Visitors, who are being urged to have their say using an online survey, would also emerge from the new visitor centre into a bustling 1940s to 1960s town featuring a working library lending books, new shops and restaurants, including a corner pub, housing and a bowling green, under the plans.

Mr Lovett said: "There's a great opportunity to fulfil the museum's potential. We don't really tell the story of the Black Country beyond about 1938 or so."

A 1940s to 1960s area would include spaces for hire and holiday accommodation while plans for a nearby manufacturing and making zone would feature brick making, iron founding and metal working.

The masterplan would also see the museum's tramway extended to connect the developments, looping through the site in a figure-of-eight, with the Rolfe Street entrance transformed into a learning centre.