I've been looking for a way (and time) to wrap up my after-life of Carribee Island series (see 1880s, 1890s, WW1, 1939) for a while. I'm going to start this one with going right back to a time when this officially-designated Unhealthy Area was being torn down and its residents dispersed through Wolverhampton. Typically, those … Continue reading After Carribee Island: the Black Country’s long migration history
Tag: walsall
Towards a bibliography of Black Country history
I've just added a new page to this website: a bibliography of Black Country history. This region is, as any scholar who tries to research it will tell you, tremendously under-researched compared to many comparable regions, which is strange when you consider the huge significance of the Black Country to British industrial, social, technological and … Continue reading Towards a bibliography of Black Country history
Black Country Irish: lies, damned lies and statistics
We've had a quick look at some of the stories and statistics behind the Irish in the Black Country, particularly focusing on the census data for 1851. Data is an essential part of the story, but it is just a part. The historian can do loads with that, but it stops being interesting before too long: … Continue reading Black Country Irish: lies, damned lies and statistics
Black Country Irish: Walsall in the 1850s
Sometimes, otherwise wonderful digital sources are a great frustration. John Denvir, in his survey of the Irish in Britain, points to a mysterious attack upon the Irish in Walsall, in 1851. Excellent, I thought: a story to hook a post on - there are three Walsall newspapers on the British Newspaper Archive. Of course, none … Continue reading Black Country Irish: Walsall in the 1850s
“Slums” of the Black Country
We've come to the end of this series on some of the distinct areas of the Black Country that found themselves with a special stigma in the nineteenth century. Based on the Birmingham Daily Post's 1866 series on the sanitary condition I've had a look around some of the broader issues of housing, sanitation, labour, demography and democracy … Continue reading “Slums” of the Black Country
“Slums” of the Black Country: Town End Bank, Walsall
Class distinction, democracy and proper drains. John Betjeman, In Westminster Abbey The protagonist of Betjeman's satirical poem unwittingly summarised the approach of mid-Victorian society to many issues. As we've seen, poor drainage is one of the emblematic signifiers of a unsanitary area, and was the consistent complaint of the Post's correspondent. It almost goes without saying that the areas poorly drained … Continue reading “Slums” of the Black Country: Town End Bank, Walsall
Coalpool cottages
I came across this lovely picture last week when scouting for @BlackCountryPic, posted on Flickr by Phil Broadbent. This is a row of cottages in Coal Pool, now a suburb on the northern side of Walsall, not far from the more substantial village of Rushall, taken in the 1930s. Coal Pool itself is a fairly old hamlet, … Continue reading Coalpool cottages
Local government in the Black Country
Having had a look at the authorities that built council housing in the Black Country, I ended up a touch confused. The history of civil governance in the Black Country is somewhat maze-life, so I'm laying it out here for my reference, more than anything. Pre-Norman The Black Country originally lay in the Saxon kingdom … Continue reading Local government in the Black Country
Block Capital
I'm very cheerful to be involved with the new Block Capital project that the Distinctly Black Country network are running. It's great to be getting back into doing some actual social research, and this ties in with my academic interest in Wolverhampton and the Black Country, and my personal interest in the rise and fall … Continue reading Block Capital