Where is the Black Country?
You won’t find the Black Country marked on any official Ordnance Survey map but it is an area to the North West of Birmingham. Locals may argue whether Wolverhampton and areas in the north of the region should be included in the Black Country but today the term commonly refers to most or all of the four metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, and Wolverhampton.
The Black Country is, in fact, more defined by its culture, originating from its industrial past, rather than geography. It is an area where the 30ft coal seam which drove its industrial development came to the surface: so West Bromwich, Oldbury, Blackheath, Rowley Regis, Cradley Heath, Old Hill, Bilston, Dudley, Tipton, Wednesfield and parts of Halesowen, Wednesbury and Walsall (but not Wolverhampton, Stourbridge and Smethwick) are the Black Country "proper" by this particular definition; although different definitions come up with different answers. You can read more about it here.
Is the Black Country part of Birmingham?
No, Black Country folk famously disagree on where should be included and where left out of the Black Country but all agree that Birmingham is not part of the Black Country and the Black Country is not part of Birmingham (a view also held by the good folk of Birmingham itself I should add). This is in spite of the fact that the Black Country and Birmingham are joined in a continuous urban development so unless you are a local you might not know that Birmingham and the Black Country are separate, see here.
Why is the Black Country called the Black Country?
There are two main ideas of how the name, Black Country, came about historically: either from the land, atmosphere and buildings having a blackened appearance due to the blackening of the soil and streams from rain washing coal dust from outcrops and spoilheaps combined with the soot and black smoke from the many furnaces, foundries and forges in the area or that the name came from Charles Dickens who, when he visited Dudley, looked towards Netherton, Old Hill and Cradley Heath covered in a pall of smoke and said 'God help those poor people in that black country'.
Is the Black Country black everywhere?
By no means! Walsall is famous for its Arboretum, a 170 acre park in the centre of the town, perhaps less well known is Leasowes Park in Halesowen, one of the first natural landscaped gardens in England and now recognised as being of national importance and Grade 1 listed. Haden Hill park in Old Hill is of considerable and architectural interest as it containing two remarkable buildings: the late 17th century Haden Old Hall and the Victorian Haden Hill House. The Black Country also has many nature reserves, many of them admittedly based on earlier, now disused, industrial and mining areas. Examples are Rowley Hills, Corngreaves, Bumblehole, Sandwell Valley, Warrens Hall and Wrens Nest.
How did the Black Country feature in the industrial revolution?
The Black Country was important for its mining and metal working from before the industrial revolution with metalworking being important as early as the 16th century. All of this was possible because of the ready availability of iron ore, limestone and especially coal which was present in a seam 30 feet thick, which outcropped to the surface making mining easy even with simple technology. The iron industry grew during the 19th century and in the 18th century the construction of canals and later rail to link the output of the Black Country coal mines to the rest of the country was important. Industries rapidly developed so that the Black Country can claim to be the first industrial landscape with a wide range of metal working industries. Chain making and nail making together with glass making, fire bricks, leather goods and enamelling were major industries. You can find much more information here.
Are there any canals in the Black Country?
The Black Country is crisscrossed with canals which were developed in the 18th century to link the output of the Black Country coal mines, which previously could only be used locally, to the rest of the country, they of course also enabled the transport of the finished metal goods manufactured from the locally produced iron and steel. Important examples are the Brindley canal which starting in Birmingham and traversed the heart of the Black Country eventually allowed access to the river Severn thus enabling transport more widely to the rest of the UK. The great extent of the Black Country canal network can be seen in this diagram.
How has the geology of the Black Country influenced its historic industrial development?
Without its particular geology the Black Country would not have had its industrial history where it was one of the most important sites of the industrial revolution. The presence of iron ore, limestone and fireclay were critical to the development of the metal industries but perhaps the most important mineral was coal. Read more about it here.
What is the "Dudley Bug"?
The Dudley Bug is infact a fossil trilobite with the scientific name Calymene blumenbachii. It was called the Dudley Bug by 18th century quarrymen in the Wren's Nest limestone quarry in Dudley who found it when mining the deposits for use in iron smelting. There is a photograph of it here. You can even find it on the Dudley Borough Coat of Arms.
Who was Dud Dudley?
Dud Dudley was the son of the Baron of Dudley who was famous for setting up one of the first forges for smelting iron with coal rather than charcoal in 1619 and obtaining patents for the process. However his work was of limited success mainly due to brittleness of the iron produced which contained sulphur which originating from the coal. This problem later solved by Abraham Darby in Coalbrookedale who used coke derived from coal which had been "roasted" to remove the sulphur and other impurities. However Dud Dudley has still been recognised as a "grandfather" of the industrial revolution which was based on the use of coal to produce iron. You can learn more here.
Does the Black Country have a flag?
Yes it does, although only devised in 1912 when a competition was launched to design a flag for the Black Country in response to the Parliamentary Flags & Heraldry Committee which was encouraging communities to develop their own flags to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. You can see the Black Country flag here. Its colours are based on the description of the area by Elihu Burritt, the American Consul in Birmingham in 1862, as being “black by day and red by night” – a result of the furnaces giving out smoke during the day and glowing by night. The chains represent a major product manufactured in the area in the past and the white central section the glass cone, a symbol of glassmaking in the Stourbridge area.
What were the poet Wystan Auden, the novelist Charles Dickens and the writer J R R Tolkiens conection with the Black Country?
Surprisingly all had Black Country connections, Auden's father came from Rowley Regis and he wrote to Lord Byron recalls a trail journey through the area; Dickens's maternal grandmother came from near Wolverhampton and he visited from time to time, Tolkien was born near Birmingham. None were very complimentary about the Black Country's industrial environment at the time, see here for more details.
Why is the Black Country important in Trade Union history?
Two Black Country towns: Old Hill and Cradley Heath are famous in Trade Union history, for the women chain makers strike. Hand made chain was known as one of the "sweated trades" which became notorious during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This exploitation lead to the Womens Chain Makers Strike of 1910 lead by Mary Macarthur, the leader of the National Federation of Women Workers. The strike became a pivotal industrial dispute which rapidly became a focus of national campaigns against exploitation. It became an international cause célèbre rallying public support across all sections of society, from trade unions to politicians and members of the aristocracy. This public pressure led to the government passing the Trade Boards Act of 1909, to set and enforce minimum rates of pay.
What connection does the Black Country have with the Titanic ocean liner?
The Titanic's anchor and anchor chain were made at Noah Hingley and Sons' works in Netherton in the heart of the Black Country. It was the largest hand forged anchor at the time weighing nearly 16 tons (16,000 kg) with each link of the 900 ft (275m) long accompanying chain weighing nearly 2 cwt (100 kg). Its transport through the streets to Dudley train station for onward transport to Belfast required a wagon pulled by 14 dray horses. It saw hundreds of townsfolk come out to follow the slow procession. You can read much more about it here.
I'm a fan of Peaky Blinders; was any of it filmed in the Black Country?
Yes indeed, while much of it was filmed in Birmingham of course the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley was used extensively because its outdoor museum site has buildings similar to those in Birmingham which made it suitable for the programme's street scenes. The buildings are not stage sets for filming but the original 19th century buildings moved from various locations in the Black Country and rebuilt and furnished in the style of the period as part of the museum: a great place to visit even if you are not a Peaky Blinders fan. There are more details here.
Do people in the Black Country speak with a Birmingham accent?
Not quite, the accents are similar but as the population of the Black Country is larger than that of Birmingham Black Country folk might insist that the people of Birmingham speak with a Black Country accent! Of more interest is the Black Country dialect which is now sadly dying out and is in some ways closer to Old English so perhaps Chaucer would not have had difficulties understanding Black Country folk. You can learn some Black Country dialect words here.
What do people eat in the Black Country?
Well now pretty much the same as in other industrialised areas in the Midlands or North of England i.e. based on Indian, Turkish, Italian or Chinese cuisine adapted for British tastes. Maybe of more interest is what food was special to this area in the past: vegetable, perhaps from your allotment, were plentiful but cheaper meat such as shin and neck and also offal were common. Specialities of the area were chitterlings (boiled pigs intestines), groaty pudding (based on hulled but unrolled oat grains with shin beef), faggots (offal meatballs held together with caul fat), ham hock, scratchings and grey peas. Not forgetting fish and chips of course (but with traditional vinegar, not gravy) You can read more details here.
What family names are common in the Black Country?
The Black Country was fairly isolated for much of its early history with little immigration and emigration to other parts of the country therefore persistence of family names in the area was common. I think that names of particular significance (at least to me) were Priest, Nock, Astbury, Cartwright, Cooper, Faulkner, Griffiths, Hackett, Hardeman, Harris, Johnson, Lowe, Morris, Moy, Oldfield, Page, Parks, Perry, Poole, Shilvock, Tromans, Wallis, Willetts and York. Because localisation of names were common within particular areas of the Black Country others may have a different list however.