The Black Country Museum

Clare's birthday was in July but we celebrated on 10 August '08 by putting her in a museum - as it were. The weather was showery, the day busy with a trades union family day also taking part. Fish and chips, steak in ale pie, faggots and peas (overseas viewers note that they are not what you think but like cheapo meat balls, well spiced) and veggie lasagne were on the lunch menu - sorry, in this setting that should have been dinner menu. Ian took photos of the family, Alan took these of the museum. Spot the relatives.

The heart of the museum is this street scene. Besides shops, houses, a pub and a chapel there is an arm of the canal passing under a road bridge. Behind the pub in the background is the main line of the canal which passes through the Dudley Tunnels, taking visitors on boat trips below the hill.

Costumed performers draw a crowd into a bit of street theatre. An argument breaks out. There is some edgy banter causing laughter among the bystanders. Tempers rose and a scrap began....

The local policeman arives and deals out a few reprimands. Peace returns.

Plenty to discuss about the excitement, even if it was all a museum drama.

Now there's time to understand a bit about the sort of place these people lived in early in the last century.

A blacksmith demonstrating chain making. The hammer device on the right is operated by his foot while he can still wield another hammer by hand.

Canals were the industrial arteries of the Black Country from the end of the eighteenth century until just after World War II. A long tunnel cuts under the hill on which Dudley stands. Visitors can go through on a narrow boat like this one, though adapted for carrying people.

In an iron-working area like the Black Country it was inevitable theat someone would try building houses of cast iron and rolled iron sheets. After all, boats, engines, bridges and many other goods had been made of iron - including coffins and grave 'stones'. These two houses were built for Dudley Council in 1925 by a local foundry. Six hundred plates were bolted to an iron framework to make the structure. It proved too expensive - only two more were made this way.

The Visitor Centre at the entrance has displays about the Black Country towns, history and industry. In a group of vehicles is this beautiful 1903 Sunbeam car.

Lunch in the canalside cafe. Not everyone taking part in the day is to be seen - Clare's husband Huby and their boys Rupert, Isaac and Jacob, and David and Shirley's son Ian, are not shown.

Left: Shirley, David, daughters Alison and Clare; middle, Alison's husband Michael with Ian and Fiona's boys Sam and Joe, and Alison and Michael's daughter Flora; right: Ian's wife Fiona, plus Pat and Alan.

[Thanks, Ian, for the photos]