Walk the streets of the Black Country Living Museum, the open-air museum of the Black Country industrial village opened in 1978

Take a narrowboat trip into the Dudley Canal Tunnel from the museum

See the Tecton buildings at Dudley Zoo, the listed modernist enclosures by Berthold Lubetkin of the 1930s

Climb the ruins of Dudley Castle above the zoo

The Black Country Living Museum, opened in 1978, is an open-air museum of the industrial villages of the Black Country, with narrowboat trips into the Dudley Canal Tunnel. Beside it, Dudley Zoo keeps Berthold Lubetkin's Tecton buildings of the 1930s, listed modernist animal houses, below the ruins of Dudley Castle.

The Black Country Living Museum and Dudley

Walk the towpaths from Gas Street Basin around the Birmingham Canal Navigations, which have more miles of canal than Venice

Visit the National Sea Life Centre at Brindleyplace, beside the canal

Tour the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, in the preserved Smith and Pepper jewellery factory

Book a guided tour of the Birmingham Back to Backs, the city's last surviving court of back-to-back houses, now cared for by the National Trust

Birmingham's canals, the Birmingham Canal Navigations, run to more miles than Venice's, and the towpaths lead out from Gas Street Basin; the National Sea Life Centre stands beside the water at Brindleyplace. In the Jewellery Quarter, the Smith and Pepper factory is preserved as it was left as the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, and in the city centre the National Trust keeps Birmingham's last surviving court of back-to-back houses.

Birmingham: Gas Street Basin, the Jewellery Quarter and the Back to Backs

Ride the Bridgnorth Cliff Railway, opened in 1892, between High Town and Low Town

See the leaning Norman tower of Bridgnorth Castle in Castle Gardens

Board the Severn Valley Railway at Bridgnorth station

Walk the High Street and down the Cartway to the river

Bridgnorth is built in two halves, High Town on the cliff top and Low Town on the Severn below, joined since 1892 by a cliff railway that bills itself as England's oldest and steepest inland electric funicular. The Severn Valley Railway runs steam sixteen miles down the valley from here to Kidderminster, and the leaning remains of the Norman keep sit in Castle Gardens at an angle steeper than the tower of Pisa.

Bridgnorth: The Cliff Railway and the Severn Valley Railway

Walk the trails of Wyre Forest National Nature Reserve, one of the largest ancient semi-natural woodlands in England

Visit the Wyre Forest Discovery Centre at Callow Hill

Walk the Dowles Brook valley through the forest to the Severn

Wyre Forest is one of the largest ancient semi-natural woodlands in England, now a National Nature Reserve. The Discovery Centre at Callow Hill is the way in, and the Dowles Brook runs down through the forest to the Severn.

Wyre Forest: Ancient Woodland Down to the Severn

Look up at the three spires from Stowe Pool

See the Lichfield Angel and the St Chad Gospels in the cathedral

Walk the close and find the Civil War damage

Visit Samuel Johnson's birthplace on the market square

Lichfield Cathedral is the only medieval English cathedral with three spires — the Ladies of the Vale — built in sandstone around the shrine of St Chad, whose relics were kept here until 1538. The close was besieged three times in the Civil War and the cathedral lost all its medieval glass; Samuel Johnson was born in the town and his house on the market square is a museum.

Lichfield: Britain's Only Three-Spired Medieval Cathedral

Mountain bike the Follow the Dog trail at Birches Valley on Cannock Chase

Visit the German Military Cemetery on Cannock Chase, where nearly 5,000 German and Austrian dead of both world wars are buried

See the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery on the Chase

Look for fallow deer on the open heath of Cannock Chase, the smallest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in mainland Britain

Cannock Chase National Landscape is the smallest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in mainland Britain, open heath where fallow deer graze. Mountain bikers ride the Follow the Dog trail from Birches Valley, and on the Chase are two war cemeteries: the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery and the German Military Cemetery, where nearly 5,000 German and Austrian dead of both world wars were brought together after 1959.

Cannock Chase: Deer, the Follow the Dog Trail and the War Cemeteries

Walk across the Iron Bridge over the Severn, built in 1779 by Abraham Darby III as the world's first major bridge of cast iron, and see the tollhouse

Explore Blists Hill Victorian Town, the open-air museum of a Victorian Shropshire town

Visit the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, beside the furnace where Abraham Darby first smelted iron with coke in 1709

Walk the Ironbridge Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986

In 1709 Abraham Darby first smelted iron with coke at Coalbrookdale, and in 1779 Abraham Darby III built the Iron Bridge over the Severn, the world's first major bridge of cast iron, with its tollhouse at one end. The gorge has been a World Heritage Site since 1986. The Museum of Iron stands beside Darby's furnace, and Blists Hill Victorian Town, now run by the National Trust, recreates a Victorian Shropshire town.

Ironbridge Gorge: The Iron Bridge and Blists Hill

Explore Warwick Castle, the medieval castle begun by William the Conqueror in 1068 beside the River Avon

Watch the trebuchet, Britain's largest working siege machine, and the Falconer's Quest birds of prey show

Visit St Mary's Church in Warwick, and the Beauchamp Chapel with the 15th-century tomb of Richard Beauchamp

William the Conqueror began Warwick Castle in 1068 beside the River Avon, and it now has Britain's largest working trebuchet and a birds of prey show. In the town, St Mary's Church holds the Beauchamp Chapel and the 15th-century tomb of Richard Beauchamp.

Warwick Castle and the Beauchamp Chapel

Walk the Carding Mill Valley to the Long Mynd plateau, where Pole Bank is 516m high

Climb the Stiperstones to the rock outcrop known as the Devil's Chair

Walk the Port Way, the old ridge track along the Long Mynd

The Long Mynd is a whaleback of heather and bracken above Church Stretton, cut on its eastern side by the Carding Mill Valley and topped at Pole Bank by a view that takes in the Welsh mountains. West across the valley, the Stiperstones run as a quartzite ridge of shattered tors, the biggest and best known of them the Devil's Chair, the rock at the heart of the hill's many legends.