Black Country

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For the rock supergroup, see Black Country Communion.
The Flag of the Black Country, adopted in July 2012

Coordinates: 52°32′N 2°2′W / 52.533°N 2.033°W / 52.533; -2.033

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The Black Country is an area of the English West Midlands north and west of Birmingham and south and east of Wolverhampton.[1] During the Industrial Revolution, it became one of the most industrialised parts of Britain with coal mines, coking, iron foundries and steel mills producing a high level of air pollution.

The Black Country as an expression dates from the 1840s[2] and it is believed that it got its name because of black soot from heavy industries that covered the area.

The Black Country encompasses the three Metropolitan Boroughs of Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall and the southern parts of the city of Wolverhampton,[3] and does not include Birmingham. A geological definition follows the South Staffordshire coal seam. The Black Country now lies within the West Midlands county but historically was divided between the counties of Staffordshire and Worcestershire.

Contents

History [edit]

Metalworking was important in the Black Country area as early as the 16th century, due to the presence of iron ore and coal in a seam 30 feet (9 m) thick, the thickest seam in Great Britain, which outcropped in various places. Many people had an agricultural smallholding and supplemented their income by working as nailers or smiths, an example of a phenomenon known to economic historians as proto-industrialisation.

In 1642 at the start of the Civil War, Charles I failed to capture the two arsenals of Portsmouth and Hull, which although in cities loyal to Parliament were located in counties loyal to him. As he had failed to capture the arsenals, Charles did not possess any supply of swords, pikes, guns, or shot; all these the Black Country could and did provide. From Stourbridge came shot, from Dudley cannon. Numerous small forges which then existed on every brook in the north of Worcestershire turned out successive supplies of sword blades and pike heads. It was said that among the many causes of anger Charles had against Birmingham was that one of the best sword makers of the day, a man named Robert Porter, who lived and made his blades in Worcestershire, but sold them in Birmingham, refused at any price to supply swords for "that man of blood" (A Puritan nickname for King Charles), or any of his adherents. As an offset to this sword maker, the Royalists had among their adherents Colonel Dud Dudley, who had invented a means of smelting iron by the use of coke, and who claimed he could turn out "all sorts of bar iron fit for making of muskets, carbines, and iron for great bolts", both more cheaply, more speedily and more excellent than could be done in any other way. His method was employed on the King's behalf.[4][5]

By the 19th century or early 20th century, many villages had their characteristic manufacture, but earlier occupations were less concentrated. Some of these concentrations are less ancient than sometimes supposed. For example, chain making in Cradley Heath seems only to have begun in about the 1820s, and the Lye holloware industry is even more recent.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, coal and limestone were worked only on a modest scale for local consumption, but during the Industrial Revolution by the opening of canals, such as the Birmingham Canal Navigations, Stourbridge Canal and the Dudley Canal (the Dudley Canal Line No 1 and the Dudley Tunnel) opened up the mineral wealth of the area to exploitation. Advances in the use of coke for the production in iron enabled iron production (hitherto limited by the supply of charcoal) to expand rapidly.

By Victorian times, the Black Country was one of the most heavily industrialised areas in Britain, and it became known for its pollution, particularly from iron and coal industries and their many associated smaller businesses. This led to the expansion of local railways and coal mine lines. The line running from Stourbridge to Walsall via Dudley Port and Wednesbury closed in the 1960s, but the Birmingham to Wolverhampton line via Tipton is still a major transport route.

The anchors and chains for the ill-fated liner RMS Titanic were manufactured in the Black Country in the area of Netherton. Three anchors and accompanying chains were manufactured; and the set weighed in at 100 tons. The centre anchor alone weighed 12 tons and was pulled through Netherton on its journey to the ship by 20 Shire horses.

The area soon gained notoriety. Charles Dickens's novel The Old Curiosity Shop, written in 1841, described how the area's local factory chimneys "Poured out their plague of smoke, obscured the light, and made foul the melancholy air". In 1862, Elihu Burritt, the American Consul in Birmingham, described the region as "black by day and red by night", because of the smoke and grime generated by the intense manufacturing activity and the glow from furnaces at night. Early 20th century representations of the region can be found in the Mercian novels of Francis Brett Young, most notably My Brother Jonathan(1928).

It is said[by whom?] that J. R. R. Tolkien based the grim region of Mordor on the heavily industrialised Black Country area in his famed novel The Lord of the Rings. Indeed, in the Elvish Sindarin language, Mor-Dor means Dark (or Black) Land, and is sometimes even referred to within the novel as "The Black Country".

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 2 March 1968, marking the end of an era after some 300 years of mass coal mining in the region, though a small number of open cast mines remained in use for a few years afterwards.[6]

The Black Country today [edit]

The heavy industry which once dominated the Black Country has now largely gone. The twentieth century saw a decline in coal mining and the industry finally came to an end in 1968 with the closure of Baggeridge Colliery near Sedgley. Clean air legislation has meant that the Black Country is no longer black. The area still maintains some manufacturing, but on a much smaller scale than historically. Chainmaking is still a viable industry in the Cradley Heath area where the majority of the chain for the Ministry of Defence and the Admiralty fleet is made in modern factories.

Much but not all of the area now suffers from high unemployment and parts of it are amongst the most economically deprived communities in the UK. This is particularly true in parts of the boroughs of Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton. According to the Government's 2007 Index of Deprivation (ID 2007), 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. Wolverhampton is the fourth most deprived district in the West Midlands, and the 28th most deprived nationally. Walsall is the fifth most deprived district in the West Midlands region, and the 45th most deprived in the country. Dudley fares better, but still has pockets of deprivation. Overall Dudley is the 100th most deprived district of the UK, but the second most affluent of the seven metropolitan districts of the West Midlands, with Solihull coming top.

As with many urban areas in the UK, there is also a significant ethnic minority population in parts: in Sandwell, 22.6 per cent of the population are from ethnic minorities, and in Wolverhampton the figure is 23.5 per cent. However, in Walsall 84.6 per cent of the population is described as white, while in Dudley 92 per cent of the population is white. Resistance to mass immigration in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s led to the slogan "Keep the Black Country white!".

The Black Country suffered its biggest economic blows in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when unemployment soared largely because of the closure of historic large factories including the Round Oak Steel Works at Brierley Hill and the Patent Shaft steel plant at Wednesbury. Unemployment rose drastically across the country during this period as a result of the modernisation process of Britain's industrial climate, but these areas were designated as Enterprise Zones and within a few years had been redeveloped. Round Oak and the surrounding farmland was developed as the Merry Hill Shopping Centre and Waterfront commercial and leisure complex, while the Patent Shaft site was developed as an industrial estate.

Unemployment in Brierley Hill peaked at more than 25% - around the double the national average at the time - during the first half of the 1980s following the closure of Round Oak Steel Works, giving it one of the worst unemployment rates of any town in Britain. The Merry Hill development between 1985 and 1990 managed to reduce the local area's unemployment dramatically, however.[7]

The Black Country Living Museum in Dudley recreates life in the Black Country in the early 20th century, and is a popular tourist attraction. On 17 February 2012 the Museum's collection in its entirety was awarded Designation by Arts Council England (ACE).[8] Designation is a mark of distinction that celebrates unique collections of national and international importance.

Evidence of this area beginning to grow once again can be found in the fact that a new Jaguar-Land Rover factory is set to be built near Wolverhampton.

The Black Country now has its own tartan, designed by Philip Tibbetts from Halesowen.[9][10]

Black Country dialect and accent [edit]

In general, the Black Country accent has resisted many of the changes from Middle English that are seen in other accents of British English. There is no Trap-Bath split, so that "bath" rhymes with "math", not with "hearth"; nor a foot-strut split, so that "cut" rhymes with "put"; nor NG-coalescence, so that "singer" rhymes with "finger". However, the Black Country accent is non-rhotic, such that "draw" and "drawer" are homophones.[11]

In common with most parts of the UK, the extent to which the Black country accent and dialect are used varies from person to person and across the Black Country itself, with some elements of the dialect being stronger in some towns than others. Local dialect was, and probably still is to a lesser degree quite distinctive between the different towns and villages of the Black Country. Although most outsiders to the Black Country cannot tell this difference, Black Country folk can quite fiercely defend the difference between the accents.

Thus while a single example of Black Country dialect is hard to give, as different areas of the Black Country differ with colloquialisms, examples include "babby" for baby, "alf baerked" (half-baked) for stupid, "argy-bargy" for fight, and "bostin" to mean "very good".

The word endings with 'en' are still noticeable in conversation as in 'gooen' for going, callen for calling. The vowel 'a' is pronounced as 'o' as in 'sond' for sand, 'hond' for hand, 'opple' for apple, 'sponner' for spanner, and 'mon' for man. Other pronunciations are 'winder' for window, 'fer' for far, and 'loff' for laugh.[12]

The traditional Black Country dialect preserves many archaic traits of Early Modern English and even Middle English,[13] and can be very confusing for outsiders. Thee, Thy and Thou are still in use, as is the case in parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire. "'Ow B'ist", meaning "How are you?" is a greeting contracted from "How be-est thou?", with the typical answering being "'Bay too bah", meaning "I am not too bad" contracted from "I be not too bad". "I haven't seen her" becomes "I ay sid 'er". Black Country dialect often uses "ar" where other parts of England use "yes" (this is common as far away as Yorkshire). Similarly, the local version of "you" is pronounced /ˈjaʊ/ YOW, rhyming with "now". The local pronunciation "goo" (elsewhere "go") or "gooin'" is similar to that elsewhere in the Midlands. It is quite common for broad Black Country speakers to say agooin where others say going.

Despite the close proximity, many inhabitants of the Black Country resist hints at any relationship to people living in Birmingham, which may be called "Brum-a-jum" (Birmingham's colloquial name is Brummagem, a corruption of its older name of Bromwicham[14][citation needed] – and hence West Bromwich) or Birminam (missing the "g" and "h" out and saying it the way it is spelt). Residents of Birmingham (Brummies) meanwhile often refer to their Black Country neighbours as "Yam Yams", a reference to the use of "Yow am" (or yow'm) instead of "You are".

A road sign containing local dialect was placed at the A461/A459/A4037 junction in 1997 before the construction of a traffic island on the site. The sign read, in translation, "If you're soft (stupid) enough to come down here on your way home, your tea will be spoilt."[15][16] This island was completed in 1998 and was the first phase of the Dudley Southern By-Pass which was opened on 15 October 1999.

The dialect's perception was boosted in 2008 when an internet video, The Black Country Alphabet, described the whole alphabet in Black Country speak.[17]

Media [edit]

The Black Country is home to three radio stations - Free Radio, Gold and Signal 107. Both Free Radio and Gold (formerly Radio WABC) have broadcast since 1976 from transmitter sites from Turner's Hill in neighbouring Rowley Regis, with the studios being located in Wolverhampton. Free Radio was known as Beacon until late March 2012 when it changed its name along with 3 of its Sister Stations. Signal 107 broadcasts from Mander House to areas of Shropshire & The Black Country.

The Express and Star is one of the region's two daily newspapers, publishing eleven local editions from its Wolverhampton headquarters and its five district offices (for example the Dudley edition is considerably different in content from the Wolverhampton or Stafford editions). It is the biggest selling regional paper in the UK.[18] Incidentally the Express and Star, traditionally a Black Country paper has expanded to the point where they sell copies from vendors in Birmingham city centre.

The Black Country Mail - a local edition of the Birmingham Mail - is the region's other daily newspaper. Its regional base is in Walsall town centre. Established in 1973, from a site in High Street, Cradley Heath, the Black Country Bugle has also contributed to the region's history. It started as a fortnightly publication, but due to its widespread appeal, now appears on a weekly basis.

One independent local publisher, Dudley's Kates Hill Press, has been producing books on the Black Country and its people since 1992. Recently the 'Black Country Alphabet and Black Country Christmas Song' by the Black Country Tee-Shirts company have helped to demonstrate the accent and dialect further across the country.

In September 2009 a group of Black Country film-makers showcased a variety of video poems about the area and its cultural identity (Known collectively as "Black Country Cinema"). The films were exhibited at Wolverhampton's Light House Media Centre. Local film and digital media agency Screen West Midlands referred to the event as “Personal, Instinctual & Organic Video Poetry of everyday life.”[19] The event was a way of embracing the Black Country's distinctive cultural characteristics in the medium of film. The group later went on with the help of the UK Film Council to produce the short documentary Luv'in the Black Country.

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ "What or where is the Black Country?". Blackcountrysociety.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-01-13. 
  2. ^ Jones, Peter M. (2009). "Birmingham and the West Midlands". Industrial Enlightenment: Science, technology and culture in Birmingham and the West Midlands, 1760-1820. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 22. ISBN 0-7190-7770-2. "The notion of the Black Country, that is to say, a crude rectangle of territory bounded by Wolverhampton and Walsall to the north and Smethwick, Halesowen and Stourbridge to the south, is also an anachronism, since the expression cannot be traced back beyond the 1840s" 
  3. ^ "Official Black Country history website, featuring content supplied by the boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall, and the City of Wolverhampton". Blackcountryhistory.org. Retrieved 2011-07-07. 
  4. ^ John William Willis-Bund. The Civil War In Worcestershire, 1642-1646: And the Scotch Invasion Of 1615, Birmingham: The Midland Educational Company, ltd., 1905, pp. 4,5,88
  5. ^ Joan Zuckerman, Geoffrey Eley. The Birmingham heritage, Taylor & Francis, 1979. ISBN 0-85664-875-2, ISBN 978-0-85664-875-5. p. 34
  6. ^ "Closing of Baggeridge". Blackcountrysociety.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-07-07. 
  7. ^ http://brierleyhillnesstoolkit.wordpress.com/my-brierley-hill-street-interviews/facts-and-stats/
  8. ^ Arts Council England. "Designation Scheme". Arts Council England. Retrieved 31/1/1. 
  9. ^ Black Country gets its own tartan BBC NEWS, January 12, 2009
  10. ^ Reference: WR3278 Scottish Tartan World Register
  11. ^ [1], Our changing pronunciation, John Wells
  12. ^ "Black Country Dialect". Retrieved 2008-08-05. 
  13. ^ Staff and Agencies Wolverhampton researches Black Country dialect Guardian Unlimited, January 27, 2003
  14. ^ The Church Warden's Book of St John's Parish Church, Halesowen, includes an early reference to an amount paid "to the organ builder of Bromwicham".
  15. ^ Scotland (2003-01-27). "The Black Country". Submitresponse.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-06-02. 
  16. ^ "A collection of weird news stories from around the world". Meldrum.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-06-02. 
  17. ^ "Black Country - Entertainment - Watch: The Black Country Alphabet Song". BBC. 2008-12-15. Retrieved 2011-07-07. 
  18. ^ John Plunkett (2010-08-25). "Regional newspaper ABCs: Two evening papers buck downward trend | Media | guardian.co.uk". London: Guardian. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
  19. ^ "Black Country Cinema’s "Personal, Instinctual & Organic Video Poetry of everyday life."". blackcountrycinema.com. 2009-09-29. Retrieved 2010-07-27. 

Further reading [edit]

  • Raybould, T.J. (1973). The Economic Emergence of the Black Country: A Study of the Dudley Estate. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-5995-9.
  • Rowlands, M. B. (1975). Masters and Men in the West Midlands metalware trades before the industrial revolution. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
  • Gale, W. K. V. (1966). The Black Country Iron Industry: a technical history London: The Iron and Steel Institute.
  • Higgs, L. (2004) A Description of Grammatical Features and Their Variation in the Black Country Dialect Schwabe Verlag Basel.
  • Led Zeppelin (1975). "Black Country Woman", Physical Graffiti.
  • Webster, L. (2012) Lone Wolf: memoirs in the form of short stories. Dudley: Kates Hill Press. ISBN 978-1-904552-42-0.

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