Bclm Reviews 78

Visited once - lovely place but did not see it all as I struggled with a bad knee. Wanted to come back. However I am booked in for a knee replacement and asked the Museum if I could extend my ticket date. They would not do it. It would not have cost them a Penny - just a bit of compassion and understanding - something they seem not to possess. To be discriminated against because of a medical condition is, quite frankly, appalling. Won't be visiting them again.
Ken Perrin

Was lovely to be able to take the dog as we had not been in over 10years, had drinks, food and brought gifts lovely to walk around, but this time of year February, not much open but fingers crossed, if dogs allowed will be coming back when hopefully everything open to look at.

Love the Black Country museum but just been on an evening Christmas event. It was way too busy, over an hour Que for food. 30-40 min Que for pub drink. Couldn’t get into any shops /houses or look around without 30-20 min Que. Couldn’t get to see the gospel singers!
Kids got very bored. Wouldn’t go again!

I feel cheated

Visited Wednesday 3rd December

The local historic tram trolleybus and bus exhibits were locked away. This was the main reason for visiting. At £26 a head entry this is quite unacceptable

Why can't you open the doors to the sheds , rope off as do not enter but at least let us view these exhibits?

Do you really think it doesn't matter?

Fabulous place for a day out , staff are so friendly and in character. The fair staff are especially good with my little boy who is autistic and struggles with queues etc they are very good , even giving me warning for when the rides coming to an end so I can prepare him 👍

I’ve been wanting to visit the BCLM for years and we finally made it today. Had a really great time. Loved everything, especially the 1940s to 1960s street, which reminded us so much of how things looked when we were younger. Had some lovely chats with the ‘shopkeepers’. Would highly recommend. It’s not cheap as people point out, but when you see how much is needed to run it every single day, and to invest in new projects, it makes sense. I just love that there are places like this to remind us older ones of the past and for the younger ones to see it with their own eyes. There were several parties of school kids there and who knows what interests it might have sparked in them?

LOVE BCLM however when visiting today I noticed the Cockrell stressed. When approaching he has no water, or chicken feed. Left feeling saddened as a chicken owner myself!

A great day out and return admission included in ticket price, great value. Such interesting things to look at but best thing the mine experience. Syphen took us round, made it really enjoyable and so interesting. Looked after us really well. Good job 👏

We have just visited Black Country Museum and were disappointed with the museum after having visited Beamish in the past. We felt as though it was quite expensive for admission and then if you want to visit the canal museum you have to pay again. The staff/volunteers were really friendly but the number of attractions was very poor compared to Beamish which is roughly the same entrance fee.
We left after a total of 3hrs due to being bored this time included stopping for 2 coffees & have stopped at the fish shop to purchase lunch.
Sadly we will not return in the near future

Despite writing a complaint regarding my BCLM experience I’ve been ignored - they obviously don’t care about the customer, as long as you’ve paid your money.

Really interesting and well set out place to visit, good parking, absolutely loads to see, and really really good staff, the buildings are very well presented with so much stuff in them, masses of information and atmosphere, and a very tidy and clean environment. The staff/ volunteers are very friendly and have lots of information and stories related to machinery, workshops and houses. Well worth the trip.

We visited for the 1960s evening. The place was full to capacity.
As a disabled person the lack of thought put into accessibility was appalling. There wasn't enough seating, food or drink places and those that were there had massive queues.
The workings mens club had a Frankie Valli act on which we wanted to see but it was impossible to get in. The Gay Flamingo wasn't children friendly but as adults we stayed and Dusty Tart was really good. All in all due to the amount of people in there, lack of thought for disabled people, not enough food and drink vendors and an overpriced chip shop the night wasn't that much of a success although we enjoyed the atmosphere.

The rest of my group loved the mine experience. It was a long wait however. I couldn't go in as under 5s aren't allowed so me and my daughter had to do other things for about 1.5hrs which was a shame when we had come to spend the day as a family together. Maybe clearer signs and a mention of the age limit on the website would have helped to not get my daughters hopes up.
The huge new building with loads of seating in the cafe barely sells any choice of food. It seems a waste of such a big site. The fairground staff were lovely and friendly and the dbildren enjoyed these rides, but you did have to pay £2.50 per ride after already spending over £100 to get in. The chip shop offers chips cooked in veggie oil, but these take 15 mins to cook. It was disappointing that they couldn't have a small quantity always cooking, while we were waiting for ours 2 more people came in asking for them too and had a very long wait as well. I felt the map was useless at showing where things were. No mention of where to find the sweet shop or cake shop or what the food places were- just marked as food and drink. A much clearer map would have really helped us plan our day as we kept going round in circles looking for things. The school was great and we felt the teacher did it in a great way. Very informative and fun too.
We will visit again, mainly to make the most of the expensive ticket price, but will def bring more food for the children as it was limited,

Aer bist me mon, we took our grandkids and had a fantastic day, even the youngest took a great interest,it was a happy reminder of how things were in my childhood, things we took for granted and were a regular thing, transport, shops, how people lived, the weather was brilliant, staff fantastic as was the food that was available, car parking was great, because of the attendance we were allowed to park right next to the train at the barrier, a day isn't enough let alone five hours and we'll certainly be visiting again, it also helps to be a certain age to appreciate that era and way of living it evokes a lot of happy memories , the school lessons, the church the pubs homes, the entire way of life, keep up the good work

What an extremely disappointing place to visit. I don’t doubt they’ve had this comparison before but if you want to know how to do this properly the go take a look at Beamish. Apart from being very expensive for what is there you have the additional pleasure of paying for parking. This place is promoted as part of the network of British transport museums and we saw 1 bus. Where were the trams or trolley buses? Even if they were not running they should have been on display especially as they are the main focus of the memorabilia gifts in the shop. We’d have ordinarily made a purchase but didn’t as they were nowhere to be seen. Expensive mediocre chips and tiny portions. A soulless unwelcoming atmosphere with staff to busy chatting about American football to Even notice they’re blocking your way. Not clear what of the replica shops you can buy anything from and doors closed or locked where you should be able to go inside. Despite our tickets being valid for 12 months there’s no way we would bother with a return visit . We travelled some distance for our visit and were nothing but disappointed and certainly wouldn’t recommend to anyone.

Booked for glad tidings just before Christmas £165.00 2 family’s had email in day to say some of the events were not on because of bad weather, few disabled in the group were not well, rang to see if I could book again another time was told no because tickets only valid for evening event , then also found out it didn’t include return visit in the year. Will never book again. Definitely not recommend no help at all on 2 phone calls I made

I would give it a zero if I could they sell out events yes but they can't handle them because I had no politeness when I was trying to get throught with my newborn baby everyone there just blocked my path and you can't sit down anywhere because everyone's selfish and plus I have a baby in my arms so I thought they would have some generosity wouldn't return here if they paid me Christmas event ruined 2024

Terrible Christmas evening 2024. We have been coming for years but very much doubt we will next year based on our visit yesterday, Very little to see most houses appeared closed to get food was like mission impossible with waiting times in lines of 1 hour 20 minutes hot food running out an hour after the doors opened, Very very poor Christmas market, two carol singers in the street had to buy cold food which was certainly not the best even selling under cooked bread pudding that was practically raw in the middle as couldn't get anywhere near hot unless we wanted to spend almost the entire evening waiting. Over priced under organised in our opinion waited at one store to be told what we wanted had sold out common sense would have been to make this known by displaying a sold out sign??? just a really poor and over priced under invested evening

Update 13.04.25
I love it how companies reply to your review on here with an obvious generic message that they never intend to follow up on. You asked me to email you, which I did. No reply! So my review stands. This company is seriously being run by people who don’t care and host terribly over priced events that are not worth paying for.
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Bit of a late review because we’ve been back and forth with the events manager Joe since our visit, who wasn't willing to refund customers who thought the event was a complete waste of money. In fact his words were 'I do not personally feel that such level of compensation is fair and reflects the impact on your visit'. But it is fair to promote an event that customers don't get?

We attended the Halloween night on Tuesday the 29th October. When you add up the admission cost, the parking cost and fish and chips for a family of four, it was the best part of £120 night out. The experience was awful, boring and didn’t cater for older children/adults. Both of my boys, aged 9 and 11 were bored and wanted to go home. The cues were too long for what was actually inside the houses, the characters in the houses and around the museum didn’t interact with customers. Most of the people that work at the BCLM look unhappy and I heard one member of staff say they couldn't wait to get home. You barely got to see the animals in the animal show after cuing for over half an hour. Decorations around the museum were non existent. The whole thing is another rip off to get people out spending. Overall for the £70 admission cost, it was terrible. We were offered a free return on a day when no events are scheduled. If everyone was bored on an events evening, how will we feel on a normal day visit! There seems to be a lot of poor reviews on Trust Pilot saying the same thing, it's not worth the cost.

We just want others to know so that you don’t make the same expensive mistake as us. Please avoid it and spend your hard earned money somewhere else.

Attended the Haloween nights event on the 26th of October which was overcrowded, queues everywhere, overpriced stalls selling food and could not get anywhere near the chip shop due to a queue which trailed as far down as the canal barges. The entertainment inside the houses was really poor and nothing was offered to the children who became bored very easily. The only half decent attraction was the mines however after the front people in the group were jumped out at, it kind of ruined the effect for the other people at the back. We won't be returning.