Black Country Living Museum

History

It was in the 1830s when the heavy industry conquered the area north and west of Birmingham. At that time, the Black Country already was known for its vast, partly near-surface coal layers. Now, iron mills, foundries and coke plants joined the numerous mines. The region was described as ´Black by day and red by night´ by Elihu Burritt, the American Consul to Birmingham in 1862 and other authors, from Dickens to Shenstone, refer to the intensity of manufacturing in the Black Country and its effect on the landscape and its people.

Since then the immense industrial plants have largely disappeared. Only the award-winning Black Country Living Museum is still deeply rooted in Victorian times. Dozens of museum employees, dressed up as Victorian craftsmen, shopkeepers, projectionists, bobbies, and even entire families, keep the memory of the industrial heritage alive by enacting the material culture back in the era of booming industrialization. Nobody would suspect that this vibrant town sprang up in a completely derelict place. The idea of an open-air museum was first drafted in the 1950s by a private network of enthusiasts. In 1966 Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council set up a Black Country Museum section that collected artefacts on the region’s history and propelled the museum plans. Ten years later, the decision was taken to establish a viable open-air museum on a brownfield with many old mine shafts and a water treatment works. In 1980, a tramway system was installed to connect the site with the town, and by 1985 visitor numbers had grown to 250,000 a year. On an area covering more than twenty six acres, people delve deep into history, shaped by approximately 80,000 items, and explore, among others, the museum’s most recent addition: Old Birmingham Road, Dudley's high street of the 1930s, which was completely moved to its new location in 2010.