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Black Country Living Museum, Tipton Road, Dudley, West Midlands, DY1 4SQ.

tel: +44 (0)121 557 9643 fax: +44 (0)121 557 4242

Black Country Living Museum Trust is registered as an educational charity. Charity No. 504481

Celebrating the World’s First Industrial LandscapeBlack Country Living Museum

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The award-winning Black Country Living Museum invites

you to discover the rich heritage of one of the UK’s most

exciting yet hidden histories. It is a national story, with

international significance, told through the endeavour of

its people - the ordinary craftsmen and women whose skill,

energy and entrepreneurial spirit created the Black

Country - the world’s first industrial landscape.

An abundance of coal, iron ore and limestone in the region

heralded an explosion of industry and by Victorian times

the Black Country was one of the most heavily

industrialised areas in Britain. Thousands of furnaces,

foundries and forges worked around the clock, chimneys

filling the air with smoke, transforming the skyline black by

day and red by night.

Elihu Burritt, the American Consul in Birmingham in 1868

said: "The Black Country, black by day and red by night,

cannot be matched for vast and varied production, by any

other space of equal radius on the surface of the globe".

The smoking wastelands of the Black Country inspired

authors from Dickens to Shenstone and J. R. R. Tolkien

based the grim region of Mordor, in his novel The Lord of

the Rings, on the region.

The Black Country was mining country and the world’s first

successful steam engine for pumping water out of mines

was made in Dudley by Thomas Newcomen. Canals were

the lifeline of industry in the 19th and 20th century and

opened up the region, which boasted more canals than

Venice, to worldwide markets. The Black Country became

known as ‘the workshop of the world’.

The industrial might of the Black Country was known

throughout the world. Famed for its production of vast

quantities of iron and steel goods including chain, nails,

tube manufacturing and forgings, Black Country wares can

still be found in all four corners of the globe. Almost every

industry in the Empire depended on Black Country

products from firebricks to post boxes to bridges.

Black Country men from Hingleys of Netherton fashioned

the anchors and chains for the Lusitania, the Olympic and

the ill-fated Titanic. Black Country bridges and railway

bogies, engineered by Patent Shaft and Axletree of

Wednesbury, span rivers and bring communities together

in India, Japan, South America, Egypt and Africa. Black

Country ornamental ironwork, by Hill and Smith of Brierley

Hill, graced the gates of the Royal House of Siam. Black

Country ‘Penfold’ post boxes, made by the Cochrane and

Grove Company of Dudley, delivered mail to some of the

world’s most remote communities including Muree in the

Himalayas. A Penfold post box was excavated in the village

of Te Wairoa having been buried by volcanic eruption in

1886. Black Country glass sparkled in Crystal Palace,

London and Black Country glass looked down upon the

Houses of Parliament from the clock face in Big Ben.

The first ever ordinance survey maps to include the Black

Country rolled off the press on the 21st August 2009 in

recognition of the areas cultural and historic importance.

The Black Country is described as covering most of the

four Metropolitan District Council areas of Dudley,

Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton. Ask any local,

however, and they will tell you ‘The Black Country is

wherever a Black Country mon says it is!’

A LittleBit of theHistory

A Living Museum Telling the Story of the Black Country

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Black Country Living Museum was awarded Designated

status by the Arts Council England in February 2012. The

accolade recognises collections of national and

international importance held in non-national museums in

England.

Black Country Living Museum was recognised for its

documentation of industrial and social history in the Black

Country.

Black Country Living Museum tells the story of the

industrial revolution through the everyday lives of the

people whose skills shaped the modern world.

A recreated ‘living’ village lies at the heart of the Museum

and gives visitors an atmospheric glimpse into the lives of

the ordinary men and women who made the Black Country

what it was.

Historic buildings from across the Black Country have

been moved, brick by brick and rebuilt at the Museum to

create a typically tightly-knit Black Country community in

the early 20th Century.

Sights, sounds, smells and tastes recall images of the past

as visitors immerse themselves in history, experiencing it

first hand. The sound of metal striking metal reverberates

around the village as the chainmaker plies his trade; the

sweet scent of tobacco drifts from the tobacconist shop as

glamorous advertisements peer out from the windows;

colourful potion bottles catch the light in the chemist shop

whilst eye-catching pills promise miracle cures; moving

speeches stir the heart as voices echo from vintage radios

in the repair shop and childhood is remembered with the

dip of a finger into a bag of lemon sherbet from the

sweetshop.

Costumed guides and demonstrators live the history of the

Black Country and visitors step into their world as they

enter the Museum village. Traditional crafts are revived

and nail making, chain making, baking and sweet making

are all demonstrated. History has never been so

fascinating as costumed guides captivate all with living

stories from within the pages of history.

Black Country Living Museum covers 26 acres and

encompasses modern exhibition halls, a vintage vehicle

showroom, cast iron houses, an early 20th century historic

village, coal mine, school, fairground and boat dock.

Moving from the 1850s through to the 1950s visitors

interact with the past through exhibitions, narrated

interpretation, demonstrations of skilled crafts,

storytelling and street theatre.

Black Country Living Museum is the third most visited

open air museum in the United Kingdom and attracts more

than 307,000 visitors annually.

Black Country Living Museum vividly illustrates life in the

Black Country in the early 20th Century. Costumed guides

and demonstrators, passionate about history, breathe life

into the Black Country story and create a living snapshot of

life in the region. A visit to Black Country Living Museum

offers a unique learning experience that cannot be

replicated in a classroom.

Throughout the Museum buildings are occupied by

costumed demonstrators who depict the living and

working conditions of times past. Role play characters and

demonstrators along with craftsmen and women revive

long-forgotten skills including nail-making, chain-making,

sweet-making and bread-making. Characters include a

policeman, a chainmaker, a pub landlady and shopkeepers.

Each character represents a different element of Black

Country life, each narrating their own story and acting as a

guide and point of information for visitors.

Black Country people are known as “yam, yams” because

of their distinct dialect. One of its identifying features is

the “yam yam” sound of phrases such as “yo'am?” (are

you?). Often maligned for this melodious of dialects, Black

Country folk may well possess one the purest forms of

English in the United Kingdom. Derived from 12th Century

Middle English (Chaucer's English) with it's roots dating

back to the original Germanic language upon which all

European languages were founded, the Black Country

dialect is in itself living heritage.

The Museum's guides are all experts in their field and

before they take up their duties undergo an extensive

induction period. 4

Black Country Living Museum was awarded Designated

status by the Arts Council England in February 2012 in

recognition of the Museum's documentation of industrial

and social history in the Black Country. It is the only

collection in the world which relates to the story of the

Black Country – the world’s first industrial landscape.

Black Country Living Museum has a collection of over

67,000 records for objects ranging from buildings and

engineering structures to books and ephemera. These

items help to tell the story of life in the region as well as

the impact of the industrial revolution and the emergence

of transport and the canal waterways upon the lives of its

people.

Unique to Black Country Living Museum are its buildings

which form the foundation of the collection. They have

been saved from various locations in the Black Country

and carefully rebuilt, brick by brick, to retain their

originality and authenticity. Meticulous historical research

and skilful collection of associated objects paint a portrait

of life, layer by layer, until an authentic picture of the

working and living conditions of the past emerges.

The Museum also has about 500 items on loan within its

collections, the majority of which form part of the Rolfe St.

exhibition. Loans also include the collections of the

Sedgley Local History Society, the Thomas Trevis Smith

cooperage collection, and the David Kenrick collection of

domestic ironmongery.

Evolution is a big part of the Museum and the collection is

constantly enhanced as items are donated and collected.

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The Collection Black Country Living Museum

Few places

can offer such

a wealth of

history.

site map Smoking is notallowed anywhereon site.

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You arrived here

Please remember that the Museum has recreated the conditions of the 19th and early 20th

Centuries. Please take care on the paths especially by the coal mine where surfaces are

typical of their time and not as smooth as modern paths. Suitable sturdy footwear should be

worn. Be alert for vehicle movement, especially where the trams and buses are operating.

Please ask the tram driver for our wheelchair friendly access vehicle - Doris.

First Aid and Assistance Please ask any member of staff.

In case of emergency call 0121 557 9643.map key1 Entrance & Exit

2 Exhibition Halls

3 Gift Shop & Rolfe Street Café

4 Bradburn & Wedge Motor Company

5 Bus Depot

6 Cast Iron Houses and Print Shop

7 Rock & Fossil Shop

8 Newcomen Steam Engine

9 Underground Mine

10 Colliery Waste Heap

11 Brook Shaft Mine

12 Racecourse Colliery

13 Tram Rides

14 Pitt’s Cottage with vegetable garden

15 Toll House with vegetable & herb garden

16 Jerushah - Tilted Cottage

17 Horse Paddock

18 Fairground (separate charges apply)19 Albion Tram Depot

20 Alec Broome’s Garage

Old Birmingham Road

21 St James’s School

22 Hobbs’ and Sons Fish & Chip Shop

23 Hobbs’ Courtyard Café

24 H. Morrall’s Gentlemen’s Outfitters

25 Humphrey Brothers’ Builders’ Merchants

26 A. Harthill Motorcycles

27 1930s Living Quarters

28 A.Preedy & Sons Tobacconists

29 Gripton’s Radio Stores

30 Builders’ Yard

31 Cradley Heath Workers’ Institute & Café

32 Folkes Park

33 Lench’s Oliver Shop

Canal Street

34 1866 Penfold Postbox

35 1842 Lime Kilns

36 Gregory’s General Store

37 Glass Cutter’s Workshop

38 Chainmaker’s House & Backyard Workshop

39 Photographer’s Studio

40 Emile Doo’s Chemist

41 Darby Hand Chapel

42 T. Cook’s Sweet Shop

43 Baker’s Shop

44 Pawn Broker’s Shop

45 Fried Fish Shop (peak periods only)46 Bicycle Shop

47 E. Langston’s Hardware & Nash’s

Ironmonger’s Store

48 Sidebothom’s Trap Works

49 Carter’s Yard and Stables

50 Bottle & Glass Inn

Cobbled Stone Street

51 Station Road Cottages

52 Cobbler’s Shop

53 Nailmaking Workshop

54 1930s Limelight Cinema

55 Back to Back Houses

56 Brass Foundry

57 Ironwork’s Office

Canal Arm & Castlefield Ironworks

58 Bakery

59 Chainmaker’s Workshop

60 Blacksmith’s Workshop

61 Rolling Mill

62 Anchor Forge

63 Lifting Bridge

64 Canal Boat Dock

65 Dudley Canal Tunnel Boat Trips

(separate charges apply)

Toilets

Toilets & adaptedtoilets + babychange

Food & drink

Drinks only

Picnic area

Viewpoint

Shopping

Tram stop