The Black Country: A History in 100 Objects

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“The furnaces roar and glow by night and day, and the great steam hammers thunder…, and every kind of machinery invented by man, are ringing, clicking, and whizzing as if tasked to intercept all this raw material of the mines and impress upon it all the labour and skill which human hands could give to it.“ Elihu Burritt

Walks in the Black Country and its Green Borderland, 1869 The history of the Black Country is remarkable and worth celebrating. Its world-famous, fossil-rich geology provided the accessible foundation of limestone, iron ore, coal and clay on which Britain’s industrial heartland was built. 

Here Black Country men, women and children converted this natural treasure into an extraordinary range of goods in thousands of furnaces, foundries, factories and workshops from which came the dirt and smoke that gave the region its name.

As they made everything from anchors for ocean liners, nails, and chains to fine glassware and enamels they also forged a unique culture of hard work, skill and self-deprecating humour – all expressed in the distinctive language. 

This vivid and continuing story is now captured in a unique collection of items specially selected by the people of the region for The History of the Black Country in 100 Objects.