On the North Worcestershire Path, not far from Iverley, there is a broken water pipe lying to one side of the track. It's a bit forlorn, but clearly a very nice thing: it's glazed, and the makers have taken the trouble to brand it: Doulton. There are many industries that have a ready association with the … Continue reading Clay miles: Henry Doulton in the Black Country
Category: Public Health
Plumbing; or, Wolverhampton’s Great Stink
I am in no way, shape or form a practically-minded person. So when last weekend was dominated by some DIY plumbing I felt fully out of depth, although as a team (my wife, me and Youtube) we managed to get the job done. The upshot was that we had to close the water off for the … Continue reading Plumbing; or, Wolverhampton’s Great Stink
“Slums” of the Black Country: Gold’s Hill, West Bromwich
The Black Country is constructed not just upon topography but upon geology. Mines can only be built where there's something to mine; other sorts of works require proximity to those materials; infrastructure is built around, and to meet the demands of, the geology. The communities that build up around such environments therefore tend to be ad hoc, at the … Continue reading “Slums” of the Black Country: Gold’s Hill, West Bromwich
“Slums” of the Black Country: Darlaston
I've ummed and aahed a bit about what to write about the Post's report on Darlaston. It's really the same old story: surface drainage, evils, abomination, bubbling and seething, stagnant, over-flowing, the cholera, back courts, and so on; there's not a lot to add compared to previous outrages at Oldbury or Bilston. Despite the fact that the journalist's … Continue reading “Slums” of the Black Country: Darlaston
“Slums” of the Black Country: Eel Street, Oldbury
The Post's next community is one I'm loathe to try and explain in detail. Oldbury was infamous as one of the most polluted towns in the country - so much so that Dr Janet Sullivan recently completed a top-notch PhD thesis on the environmental and biological costs of industrialisation in the town. For a quick overview of … Continue reading “Slums” of the Black Country: Eel Street, Oldbury
“Slums” of the Black Country: Quarry Lane, Bilston
If there's been some research into Carribee Island in the past, and a little into the Mambles in Dudley, there's almost nothing to be googled on another of the Birmingham Daily Post's 'low-lights' of the Black Country, the next in a series of exposées on the shocking sanitary conditions of the Black Country. Quarry Lane in Bilston … Continue reading “Slums” of the Black Country: Quarry Lane, Bilston