Location of the Black Country

You won’t find the Black Country marked on any official Ordnance Survey map but this schematic map shows the area to the North West of Birmingham which is often referred to as the Black Country.  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.  Halesowen now denies being in the Black Country, Stourbridge and Brierley Hill claim to be "on its edge" perhaps denying their industrial heritage (1).   Black Country folk may disagree on where should be included and where left out of the definition 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; even in 1785 the 14-miles between Wolverhampton and Birmingham was described as “one continuous town” where, it was said, you can get a view of most of the area (if the smoke allows) from Rowley Hill.  The poet, W H Auden, whose family had connections with Rowley wrote in a letter to Lord Byron "Clearer than Scafell Pike, my heart has stamped on/The view from Birmingham to Wolverhampton" (2).  Perhaps not the best of his poetry but the sentiment is appreciated.

The Black Country is, in fact, more defined by its culture, originating from its industrial past, rather than geography.  Dr. John Fletcher as president of the Black Country Society gave an authoritative, detailed, and more restricted view of what constitutes the Black Country in the inaugural volume of the Black Countryman Magazine (3), seeing it as the area where the 30ft coal seam which drove its industrial development came to the surface: so West Bromwich, Oldbury, Blackheath, 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 definition.  The importance of the coal seam will become clearer later.