Shropshire’s top visitor attraction, The Blists Hill Victorian Town, could be in line for a £100,000 windfall – with a little help from its friends. Amy Bould reports.

Nestled in the heart of the Ironbridge Gorge, there’s a place where time has stood still.

A living, breathing, Victorian town where bread is made by hand and delivered by bike, where medicine comes in brown bottles with cork stoppers, and where hot molten iron is being poured in the foundry.

But the Blists Hill Victorian Town is relying on something far more modern and hi-tech to help it win the top Oscar of the arts world, an internet online poll never dreamed of by the real inhabitants of the Gorge more than 100 years ago.

And in the fast-paced world of the 21st century, there are now less than 48 hours for supporters to cast a vote which could see Blists Hill scoop a £100,000 prize which will benefit thousands of schoolchildren across Shropshire and beyond.

The museum has already knocked out the Natural History Museum in its David and Goliath battle to win the Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2010.

It made it onto the short-list for the prize and is now running around four per cent behind the front-runner, Northern Ireland’s Ulster Museum. Steve Miller, chief executive at the Museum said there was still a chance to recoup the lead in the online poll which would put Blists Hill at the top of the competition’s shortlist.

Although the final decision will be made by a panel of judges, they will be influenced by the way the public votes.

Blists Hill is one of four museums and galleries in the final, facing tough competition not only from the Ulster Museum but The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry.

Challenging

Broadcaster Kirsty Young is chairwoman of the judging panel which visited all the museums before deciding on the shortlist.

She said: “My fellow judges and I have found it a very challenging task to select only four to go forward to the short list. Our visits have been eye-opening and the exceptional quality of the long list has meant that we’ve been spoilt for choice. During our deliberations the judges’ passion and enthusiasm for the museums and galleries was more than evident.”

If the judges’ enthusiasm was passionate, that’s nothing compared to the overwhelming support shown by the thousands of people who have already voted for Blists Hill and the intense belief shown by museum bosses in the quality of the attraction they run.

The Victorian town is the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust’s largest site at 54 acres, and presents life in a typical town of the East Shropshire Coalfield around 1900.

Brought to life through a unique mix of first and third-person interpretation, combining the efforts of costumed museum staff, professional actors and volunteers, it has recently seen a £12 million re-development.

Blists Hills now has a landmark Visitor Centre and World Heritage Site exhibition, a new street of shops and trades, a clay-mining experience, a narrow gauge railway and an incline lift.

And this investment in recording the life of generations gone before as a living museum is surely what captured the hearts and minds of supporters and judges alike.

Barrie Williams Chairman of The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust says: “We are thrilled that Blists Hill Victorian Town has reached the shortlist of the Art Fund Prize 2010 – an achievement which is a tribute to the hard work of the trustees, staff and volunteers of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.

“We are immensely grateful for all the support we have enjoyed during the public vote and we would like to pass on our sincere thanks to all our visitors and friends for their considerable efforts. ”

But that effort can’t stop now, says Mr Miller, with the poll only open until tomorrow at 5pm.

“It’s tough, but we believe we can do it. We’d like to say a huge thank you to all the businesses in Telford and Shropshire who have helped us get this far in the competition.

“We’d like to think that a vote for Blists Hill Victorian Town is also a vote for the tourism economy and for Shropshire and Telford as a whole”.

Public vote

Local businesses including Makita, Lyreco, Schneider, Mahle and Syspal as well as the members of the Shropshire Chamber of Commerce and Network with Style have been rallying behind the museum in the important public vote.

Rosie Beswick, strategic business relationship manager for the Shropshire Chamber of Commerce said: “Blists Hill winning would be the boost the county needs in these difficult economic times, our very own World Cup win.

“We may be large, land locked and rural but businesses in this county are second to none for supporting each other. We want everyone to show their support and vote in this David and Goliath struggle to win a victory for Shropshire.”

If they scoop the £100,000, Ironbridge will have a new education and gallery space in the Museum of Iron for the many thousands of school children who visit each year from Shropshire and beyond.

Time might have stood still at Blists Hill for more than a century, but the clock is ticking until 5pm tomorrow, which means there’s still a chance to vote at www.artfundprize.org.uk/2010/vote