Questions about Black Country
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What does the name Black Country mean and where does it come from?
The Black Country takes its name from the thirty-foot-thick coal seam close to the surface and the coal, coke, iron, glass, bricks and steel production that covered the region in soot and pollution. The name was first recorded in 1841 when a town clerk to Lichfield referred to the "black country" of Staffordshire in a published toast. The Reverend William Gresley used it as a formal place name in his 1846 novel Colton Green: A Tale of the Black Country.
Where exactly is the Black Country located in England?
The Black Country is a loosely defined area in England's West Midlands, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, along with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The Black Country Consortium and the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership both define it as these four boroughs, covering an approximate area of 138 square miles.
What role did the Black Country play in the Industrial Revolution?
The Black Country was one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution. Its thirty-foot coal seam, the thickest in Great Britain, together with deposits of iron ore and fireclay, powered iron, steel, glass and chain manufacturing on a massive scale. By 1863 the region contained 200 blast furnaces and over 2,000 puddling furnaces, and an American consul described it as unmatched in productive output for any equivalent area on earth.
What was the Black Country 1913 strike about?
The 1913 Black Country strike began on the 9th of May at the Old Patent tube works of John Russell and Co. Ltd. in Wednesbury. Workers in the steel tube trade demanded a 23-shilling minimum weekly wage for unskilled workers, matching pay levels in nearby Birmingham. Within weeks upwards of 40,000 workers had joined, and a settlement was reached on the 11th of July after arbitration led by Sir George Askwith, 1st Baron Askwith.
When did coal mining end in the Black Country?
Coal mining in the Black Country ended on the 2nd of March 1968, when Baggeridge Colliery near Sedgley, the last colliery in the region, closed. This brought to an end approximately 300 years of mass coal mining, though a small number of open cast mines remained in use for a few more years.
What is the Black Country dialect called and what are its features?
The traditional Black Country dialect is called "Black Country Spake." It preserves features of Early Modern English and Middle English, including the use of thee, thy and thou. Distinctive vocabulary includes "bostin'" for something excellent, "fittle" for food, "goost" for ghost and "wum" for home. A lottery-funded project called "Where's our Spake Gone" ran between 2014 and 2016 to document and preserve the dialect.