Black Country
The road between Wolverhampton and Birmingham was described as one continuous town in 1785. This description captures the dense urban sprawl that defines the region today, yet no single set of boundaries exists for the area known as the Black Country. Some traditionalists define it as the area where the coal seam comes to the surface, including West Bromwich, Coseley, Oldbury, Blackheath, Cradley Heath, Old Hill, Bilston, Dudley, Tipton, Wednesbury, and parts of Halesowen, Walsall and Smethwick. Others have included areas slightly outside the coal field which were associated with heavy industry. Arthur Mee posited that Wolverhampton was the capital of The Black Country in The King's England: Staffordshire published in 1937. Both boroughs were expanded to include increasingly suburban outskirts, which may have influenced the Dudley-centric publication The BlackCountryMan to perpetuate the idea that neither borough was part of the region. Today the term commonly refers to the majority of the four metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton although it is said that no two Black Country men or women will agree on where it starts or ends.
The first recorded blast furnace in the Black Country was built at West Bromwich in the early 1560s. Coal mining was carried out for several centuries in the Black Country, starting from medieval times, and metalworking was important as early as the 16th century spurred on by the presence of iron ore and coal in a seam thick, the thickest seam in Great Britain. In 1583, the accounts of the building of Henry VIII's Nonsuch Palace record that nails were supplied by Reynolde Warde of Dudley at a cost of 11 shillings 4 pence per thousand. By the 1620s within ten miles of Dudley Castle there were 20,000 smiths of all sorts. Dud Dudley, a natural son of the Baron of Dudley, experimented with making iron using coal rather than charcoal in the early 17th century. Two patents were granted for the process: one in 1621 to Lord Dudley and one in 1638 to Dud Dudley and three others. An important development in the early 17th century was the introduction of the slitting mill to the Midlands area. Richard Foley, son of a Dudley nailer, built a slitting mill near Kinver in 1628.
In 1913, the Black Country was the location of arguably one of the most important strikes in British trade union history when workers employed in the area's steel tube trade came out for two months. The dispute commenced on the 9th of May in Wednesbury, at the Old Patent tube works of John Russell & Co. Ltd., and within weeks upwards of 40,000 workers across the Black Country had joined the demand for a 23 shilling minimum weekly wage for unskilled workers. Notable figures in the labour movement, including Tom Mann, visited the area to support the workers. Jack Beard and Julia Varley of the Workers' Union were active in organising the strike. During this confrontation with employers represented by the Midlands Employers' Federation, the Asquith Government's armaments programme was jeopardised. A settlement of the dispute was reached on the 11th of July after arbitration by government officials from the Board of Trade led by Sir George Askwith. One of the important consequences of the strike was the growth of organised labour across the Black Country, which was notable because until this point the area's workforce had effectively eschewed trade unionism.
Much of the region lies upon an exposed coalfield forming the southern part of the South Staffordshire Coalfield where mining has taken place since the Middle Ages. There are several coal seams, some of which were given names by the miners. The top, thin coal seam is known as Broach Coal. Beneath this lies successively the Thick Coal, Heathen Coal, Stinking Coal, Bottom Coal and Singing Coal seams. The Thick Coal seam was also known as the Thirty Foot or Ten Yard seam. Interspersed with the coal seams are deposits of iron ore and fireclay. A mine was sunk between 1870 and 1874 over the eastern boundary of the then known coal field in Smethwick and coal was discovered at a depth of over 400 yards. In the last decade of the 19th century, coal was discovered beyond the western boundary fault at Baggeridge at a depth of around 600 yards. At Dudley and Wrens Nest, limestone was mined. This rock formation contains many fossils including the trilobite Calymene blumenbachii, so common that it became known as the Dudley Bug.
The 20th century saw a decline in coal mining in the Black Country, with the last colliery in the region , Baggeridge Colliery near Sedgley , closing on the 2nd of March 1968. It was only in the late 1970s and 1980s, as global shocks and political change affected British industry, that the region began to become deindustrialised. The years 1979-1982 witnessed the closure of large employers such as Bilston Steel Works, Round Oak, Patent Shaft Steelworks, Rubery Owen, Birmid Industries and others in quick succession. Unemployment rose drastically across the country during this period as a result of Conservative Prime Minister Thatcher's economic policies. Unemployment in Brierley Hill peaked at more than 25% during the first half of the 1980s following the closure of Round Oak Steel Works. According to the Government's 2007 Index of Deprivation, Sandwell is the third most deprived authority in the West Midlands region, after Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent, and the 14th most deprived of the UK's 354 districts.
The traditional Black Country dialect, known as Black Country Spake, preserves many archaic traits of Early Modern English and even Middle English. Thee, thy and thou are still in use, as is the case in parts of Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire. A woman is a wench, a man is a mon, a nurse is a nuss and home is wum. An apple is an opple. Put together, Ah just sid a goost, so Ah'm a gooin to sit on mah sofie and 'ave a fake translates to I have just seen a ghost, so I am going to sit upon my sofa and have a cigarette. In recent years the Black Country has seen the adoption of symbols with which to represent itself. The first of these to be registered was the Black Country tartan in 2009, designed by Philip Tibbetts from Halesowen. In 2008 the idea of a flag for the region was first raised. After four years of campaigning a competition was successfully organised with the Black Country Living Museum. This resulted in the adoption of the Flag of the Black Country as designed by Gracie Sheppard of Redhill School in Stourbridge and was registered with the Flag Institute in July 2012.
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Common questions
What defines the boundaries of the Black Country region?
The Black Country has no single set of boundaries, though traditionalists define it as the area where the coal seam comes to the surface including West Bromwich, Coseley, Oldbury, Blackheath, Cradley Heath, Old Hill, Bilston, Dudley, Tipton, Wednesbury, and parts of Halesowen, Walsall and Smethwick. Today the term commonly refers to the majority of the four metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.
When was the first recorded blast furnace built in the Black Country?
The first recorded blast furnace in the Black Country was built at West Bromwich in the early 1560s. Coal mining was carried out for several centuries starting from medieval times, and metalworking was important as early as the 16th century spurred on by the presence of iron ore and coal in a thick seam.
How did the 1913 steel tube strike affect trade unionism in the Black Country?
The dispute commenced on the 9th of May in Wednesbury when workers employed in the area's steel tube trade came out for two months demanding a 23 shilling minimum weekly wage for unskilled workers. A settlement was reached on the 11th of July after arbitration by government officials from the Board of Trade led by Sir George Askwith, leading to the growth of organised labour across the region which had previously effectively eschewed trade unionism.
What are the names of the coal seams found in the Black Country?
The top thin coal seam is known as Broach Coal while beneath this lie successively the Thick Coal, Heathen Coal, Stinking Coal, Bottom Coal and Singing Coal seams. The Thick Coal seam was also known as the Thirty Foot or Ten Yard seam and interspersed with these seams are deposits of iron ore and fireclay.
When did the last colliery in the Black Country close?
The last colliery in the region Baggeridge Colliery near Sedgley closed on the 2nd of March 1968. It was only in the late 1970s and 1980s that the region began to become deindustrialised following global shocks and political change affecting British industry.
Who designed the Flag of the Black Country and when was it registered?
The Flag of the Black Country was designed by Gracie Sheppard of Redhill School in Stourbridge and was registered with the Flag Institute in July 2012. This followed a competition organised after four years of campaigning which resulted in the adoption of the flag alongside the Black Country tartan registered in 2009.