A new �7m technology centre opened on Tuesday at one of the Midlands' top visitor attractions.

Enginuity at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum, near Telford, Shropshire, is expected to attract 100,000 visitors a year.

The museum's latest crowd-draw, which took five years of planning and two years to build, is part of the National Design and Technology Centre.

Enginuity chief executive Glen Lawes

It will be the 10th attraction at Ironbridge Gorge, the world's first Industrial World Heritage Site.

The nine existing attractions celebrate the industrial era from the early 1700s through to the Victorian times.

The new centre spotlighting advances in technology is housed in a 150-year-old Grade II listed building, the former Coalbrookdale Company Engineering Works.

Enginuity chief executive Glen Lawes said: "It is fitting that the very place which shaped the modern world by pioneering the use of iron as a structural material is to get the UK's first dedicated design and technology visitor attraction."

Exciting exhibits

Enginuity's bosses have scoured the world for some of the most exciting exhibits so visitors can twist, pump, clank, tighten, fix, tweak, click and even levitate their way around the centre.

"Visitors will leave with a greater understanding of the role that design and technology has played in building the world we live in, " Mr Lawes said.

"It would be nice to think we can inspire some young minds turning them into the designers and engineers of the future."

Funding for the attraction has come from the Heritage Lottery Fund, SITA Environmental Trust through the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme and the Edward Cadbury Charitable Trust.