| THE BLACK COUNTRY - LOCAL AREAS AND SOME HISTORY. |
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Why is the Black Country called 'The Black Country' ?
This 'unnofficial' area of the West midlands was so aptly 'nicknamed' or 'labelled', around the mid nineteenth century due to the heavilly smoke filled air, polluted by the thousands of ironworking foundries and forges at the time including the 'working' of shallow, 30ft deep, coal seams at that time.
How it happenned.
Elihu Burritt, the American Consul to Birmingham around the year 1862, said that the areas now known as the Black Country, " were black by day and red by night".
Famous authors including Charles Dickens and William Shenstone regularly referred to the intense 'smog' effects from manufacturing in the Black Country and its effect on the landscape, the local people and of course those who worked the foundries. |
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The black country is not labelled on maps as an official constituency area, though off the record 'officially' it contains a mix of local areas from Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.
Local traditionalists of the 'Black Country', will argue that the Main Black Country area is located at the Drift Mine spots, where the 30ft coal seams come to the surface in West Bromwich, Oldbury, Blackheath, Cradley Heath, Old Hill, Bilston, Dudley, Tipton, Wednesfield and some areas of Halesowen, Wednesbury and Walsall. The traditionalist idea on the Black Country does not include Wolverhampton, Stourbridge and Smethwick (formerly known as Warley).
Modern day Black Country is referred to by the four local Metropolitan District Council areas of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton and the term 'Black Country' is used as a local West Midlands marketing tool by both businesses and councils when promoting local poducts and areas around the north of Birmingham. |
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THE LIVING BLACK COUNTRY MUSEUM
If you are interested in the History of the Black Country, then the Black Country Living History Museum website could be an interesting visit for you.
The actual 'Living Museum' contains historic buildings from around the Black Country that were moved and rebuilt to create a real 'Living Museum'. Organisers put the museum project into place as a tribute to traditional skills, enterprise and the 'heart' of the actual people who lived and worked, in what was the hub and heart of the then, industrial Britain.
Visitors to the museum are literally 'transported back in time' through the modern exhibition and information halls to the canal-sided 'working' village, where costumed actors, demonstrators and working craftsmen bring the museums buildings to life with local knowledge, practical skills and the unique Black Country humour.
More info at www.bclm.co.uk/
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