THE merger of Birmingham’s two leading museums is a golden opportunity to right a historical wrong and embrace a whole new audience, according to a private museum curator.

Andrew Lound, who runs the Avery Historical Museum of scales and weighing at the company’s headquarters in Smethwick, has been a critic of Thinktank at Millennium Point ever since it replaced the old Science Museum a decade ago – claiming it has rejected the city’s industrial and engineering heritage and instead offered only a children’s introduction to science exhibition.

He is also among those who believe that Thinktank has wrongly charged admission to view historic artefacts which belong to the citizens such as the iconic City of Birmingham Locomotive.

But with the announcement that Thinktank is to merge with the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG) in a new Birmingham Museums Trust that could all change.

Mr Lound, who is also an authority on the Titanic disaster and the UK co-ordinator for Planetary Society, said: “Thinktank caters for children and has been fantastic at that.

“But it has not catered for anyone with an interest in industry, science and engineering. For someone in their 40s with no children who wants to discover more about Birmingham’s industry and science there is nothing.

“I don’t think it has been worthy of the name Birmingham Science Museum.

“The Museum of Liverpool and Manchester Museum of Science and Industry set the benchmark for how you should do it.

"The Black Country Living Museum gets it. They have grabbed hold of our heritage.”

He points out that exhibits from the grubby, smog engulfed industrial past, such as the City of Birmingham steam engine or the Smethwick Steam Engine, are presented in a clean, clinical setting.

“It’s meaningless without the context,” he explained.

Mr Lound, who lives in Great Barr, added: “With this merger we have a golden opportunity to change this.