Miniature museum is a 3D guide book

Visitors to the Black Country Living Museum can see it in miniature when they tour a new exhibition aimed at giving them a preview of the attraction before they even leave the entrance.

The three-dimensional guide book is designed to explain to visitors in a fun way what they can expect to see when they tour the 26-acre site in Tipton Road.

Home life, leisure, transport and canals are the themes offering a more in-depth visitor experience by telling the story of the Black Country, its residents and industries. The exhibition, located in the Rolfe Street entrance, is largely interactive.

There are touch screens for people to listen to costumed characters such as Bessie Hawkes who talks about how to make the traditional Black Country dish of groaty pudding.

People can also listen to the stories of the region's people like Jack Huskisson, aged 84, who speaks about his lifelong love of Walsall Football Club.

The canals played a key role in the history of the Black Country and one part of the exhibition allows visitors to have a go at legging through a small scale model of Dudley Canal Tunnel – tricky but nowhere near as exhausting as the real thing.

Museum director Ian Walden said: "This is an interactive exhibition but hopefully it is also serious.

"One of the problems we found was if you have already been to the museum you know what it's about, if you have not been and come to see the Rolfe Street exhibition focussing on the origins of the Black Country you still don't know what you are going to see.

"Even if you have been round the site and seen the marvellous exhibits you still don't really know enough about what you have seen."

The opening of Hobbs fish and chip shop will follow in April and Folkes's park and the Cradley Heath Worker's Institute building are also being unveiled this year.