West Midlands
West Midlands
West Midlands offers a huge range of cultural interests, drawing over 100 million visitors a year and is something of a cultural heartland. The area has one of the youngest and most diverse cultures in the UK. The region has produced leading figures in the world of literature, music and the performing arts, such as Shakespeare, Ozzy Osbourne’s Black Sabbath rock band and Jeff Lynne’s Electric Light Orchestra.
At the heart of England, the West Midlands has an incredible heritage with castles, country houses and a window into the industrial past through the region’s intricate canal network. There are so many stories to be told from kingmakers at Warwick Castle, the conspirators in the gun powder plot and revolutionising the motor industry.
Heritage attractions have seen the biggest growth in visitor numbers recently. Also, the region’s heritage has been played out on an international stage through the BBC Peaky Blinders drama series, set in the 1920s. Visitors can walk in the footsteps of the Shelby’s at the Black Country Living Museum – the official home of Peaky Blinders.
The Cotswolds covers a huge area – almost 800 square miles – and runs through several counties, including Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. One of the delights of visiting the Cotswolds is exploring the different areas, each with its own identity, yet all with those defining Cotswold features: golden stone and rolling hills, the ‘Wolds’
