The Enlightenment: Places to Visit

‘The Enlightenment Landscape’ a clear focus on ‘people of ideas, innovation and enterprise’. The historic counties of Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a period when the region was developing a shared experience. The places to visit highlighted here reveal the radical, experimental and original approaches of regional individuals to science, technology, art, industry, social reform and education.

• Bersham Heritage Centre, Wrexham - One of John 'Iron Mad' Wilkinson's ironworks.
• Black Country Living Museum, Dudley - Home to a working replica of the Newcomen Engine.
• Cromford Mills, Matlock - Site of Richard Arkwright's water-powered cotton spinning mill.
• Derby Museum & Art Gallery - Houses an internationally important collection of paintings by Joseph Wright.
• Erasmus Darwin House, Lichfield - Home to the eighteenth-century polymath and Lunar man, Dr Erasmus Darwin.
• Ironbridge, Shropshire - Centre of iron production and site of the world's first cast-iron bridge.
• Pickford's House, Derby - Family home and workplace of Joseph Pickford, architect.
• The Infirmary, Worcester - Eighteenth-century hospital now dedicated to the history of medicine.
• Wedgewood Museum, Barlaston - Tells the story of Josiah Wedgewood and the company he founded.

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