Bilston Craft Gallery

Bilston Craft Gallery stands in a two-storey stone house at Mount Pleasant, Bilston, near the town centre. The building was completed in 1905 for the Harper family, lock manufacturers, replacing an earlier Regency house built in 1818. Between 1918 and 1930 it served as Bilston Girls High School. After the school moved, the house was remodelled and a large rear extension added. From 1937 to the 1990s it housed the Bilston Art Gallery and Museum. Today it also contains Bilston Library. The gallery opened in 1937 with a donation of about a hundred paintings from William Thompson. In later decades it built a strong collection of local art and artefacts. In the 1990s the collection was transferred to Wolverhampton Art Gallery and the site became Bilston Craft Gallery. It remains part of Wolverhampton Arts and Museums Service and shares the building with the library. Inside, the permanent Craftsense exhibition displays eighteenth-century local industry alongside contemporary pieces. Nearly a hundred Bilston enamels form the centrepiece, returned in 2005 after earlier removal. Temporary exhibitions feature modern craft works and the Craft Council Photostore offers over a thousand designer-makers. The Craftplay gallery is designed for pre-school children and the First Floor Gallery provides hireable community space. Outside, a garden holds craft works including carved wooden dragons and a circle of stone sculptures.