Black Country
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The Black Country is a loosely-defined area of conurbation to the north and west of Birmingham, and to the south and east of Wolverhampton in the English West Midlands, around the South Staffordshire coalfield. It is also known for its midland accent.
Other Midlands English dialects
- Brummie (spoken in Birmingham)
- Potteries dialect (North Staffordshire)
Contents |
Scope
Places which comprise the Black Country include parts of the city of Wolverhampton, and the towns of:
- Aldridge
- Bilston, Blackheath, Brownhills
- Coseley, Cradley
- Darlaston, Dudley
- Great Bridge
- Halesowen
- Kingswinford
- Lye
- Oldbury
- Quarry Bank
- Rowley Regis
- Sedgley, Smethwick, Stourbridge
- Tipton
- Walsall,
- Warley, Wednesbury, Wednesfield, West Bromwich, Willenhall
The "capital" of the Black Country is generally considered to be Dudley, not Wolverhampton. The bounds of the Black Country, however, are controversial, and the whole of Wolverhampton is included by some and none at all by others. Despite the 1974 local government boundary, the northern border with Cannock Chase is also rather blurred. Birmingham is most definitely not in the Black Country.
Apart from the area covered by Wolverhampton City Council, the metropolitan borough councils of Sandwell, Dudley and Walsall administer most of the communities in the Black Country. A useful guide to outsiders is that Birmingham lies completely to the east of the M5 motorway, and the majority of Black Country towns are to the west of that motorway, although there are some Black Country towns such as Smethwick to the east.
The Black Country has a combined population of around one million, with the largest towns (in order of population) being Dudley, Walsall and West Bromwich.
The Black Country lies in the traditional counties of Staffordshire and Worcestershire. Curiously, Dudley, now part of the West Midlands County, was once in a detached part of Worcestershire within Staffordshire and some still consider Dudley to be Dudley, Worcs.
History
Prior to the 18th century the Black Country area was a collection of small villages and market towns. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century, discoveries of large deposits of coal and limestone meant that the area rapidly developed mining and manufacturing industries, and the population of the Black Country grew 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.
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 to Birmingham, described the region as "black by day and red by night", because of the smoke and grime generated by the intense manufacturing activity.
The area is popularly said to have got its name because of pollution from these heavy industries, which covered the area in black soot and led to the name of The Black Country. There is a famous but dubious anecdote about Queen Victoria ordering the blinds lowered on her carriage as the royal train passed through the area.
However, historians have suggested that it is more likely that the name was given earlier, arising from above-ground outcroppings of black coal seams that scarred the early heathland. Also, the coal seam just below the surface meant the soil in the area was very black.
When King Henry VIII gave Rowley its royal charter (to become Rowley Regis) the town was referred to as "Rowley in the Blacke Countrie". This was long before the Industrial Revolution.
The Black Country today
The heavy industry which once dominated the Black Country has now largely gone. Mining ceased in the area in the late 1960s, and 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.
Much but not all of the area now suffers from high unemployment and is amongst the most economically deprived communities in the UK; this is particularly true in Sandwell, and to a lesser extent Wolverhampton. As with many urban areas in England, there is also a significant ethnic minority population in parts; resistance to mass immigration in the 1960s and 1970s led to the slogan "Keep the Black Country white!".
The "Black Country Living Museum" (see below), in Dudley, re-creates life in the Black Country in the early 20th century, and is a popular tourist attraction.
Black Country dialect
The traditional Black Country dialect is very old, and can be very confusing for outsiders. The language is said to be a throw back to Middle English and still contains words such as Thee, Thy and Thou. "'Ow B'ist", meaning "How beist thou?" is a common greeting, with the typical answering being "'Bay too bah", meaning "I bayn't be too bad". "I haven't seen her" becomes "I ay sid 'er". Black Country dialect often substitutes the word "ar" for "yes".
Inhabitants are proud to be known as Black Country "folk" and resist hints at any relationship to people living in Birmingham, calling Birmingham "Brum-a-jum" (Birmingham's colloquial name is Brummagem). Residents of Birmingham (Brummies) meanwhile often refer to their Black Country neighbours as "Yam Yams", a reference to the use of "Yow am" instead of "You are".
The thick Black Country dialect is less commonly heard today than in the past.
See also
External links
- The Black Country 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article
- BBC Black Country BBC website for Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton
- Black Country Living Museum
- Black Country Society - publishers of the quarterly "Blackcountryman" magazine
- Black Country Pages
Further reading
- Raybould, T.J. (1973). "The Economic Emergence of the Black Country: A Study of the Dudley Estate". Newton Abbot: David & Charles.
- Higgs, L. "A Description of Grammatical Features and Their Variation in the Black Country Dialect" Schwabe Verlag Basel, 2004de:Black Country