It's Black History Month, and as I have a little spare time I wanted to share a story that came up during my PhD research. Black history is often (wrongly) regarded as separate to Black Country history, or as something recent, but I turned up loads of Black people living their lives in mid-Victorian Wolverhampton. … Continue reading “A somewhat novel case”: a Black life in the Black Country
Tag: social history
#shs40, #storypast and academic memory
Tuesday this week saw a trip up to Lancaster and the Social History Society's 40th anniversary conference. It's always fun to take the train somewhere new, and this was no exception - the gap between the arrival of my train and the departure of my bus gave me a few minutes to wander around the … Continue reading #shs40, #storypast and academic memory
“Slums” of the Black Country: Waste Bank, Lye
The South Staffordshire coalfield defines the Black Country for many purposes, but as a culturally-defined region, its borders are highly porous. Wolverhampton is in or out, depending on who you ask; Walsall preferred to be out, at least in 1866. The coalfield knows no political boundaries either, stretching well into Worcestershire in the South (see this map Bob … Continue reading “Slums” of the Black Country: Waste Bank, Lye
“Slums” of the Black Country: Oatmeal Square, Wednesbury
Our Birmingham Daily Post correspondent is concerned with the sanitary condition of the Black Country. Filth, smells, pigs, crowded courts - all acted as signals for diseases like cholera, typhoid, smallpox, that terrified the middle-class, newspaper-reading sets. This accounts for his willingness to skip over Tipton as one of the best towns in the Black … Continue reading “Slums” of the Black Country: Oatmeal Square, Wednesbury
“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
Camping, privies, and mapping the everyday
At the age of 33, I recently had my first proper experience of camping (my subconscious has all but blocked the ramshackle Cub camps of my youth, although a few excursions in a refurbished caravan a couple of years ago helped). It was quite lovely, and afforded much opportunity for reading - I dipped between Lefebvre … Continue reading Camping, privies, and mapping the everyday