Black Country facts for kids

Quick facts for kids

Black Country

Region

The Black Country in the 1870s

Flag

Etymology: Effects of industry or coal mining

The metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall highlighted within the West Midlands metropolitan county

Area

• Total

138 sq mi (360 km²)

Highest elevation

889 ft (271 m)

The Black Country is a region of the West Midlands in England, west of Birmingham, and commonly refers to all or part of the four Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

Images for kids

South Staffordshire in 1911. The Black Country lies to the west and north-west of the city of Birmingham.
Mining the thick coal seam at one of the Earl of Dudley's pits in the 1870s
The Oak House, West Bromwich. A Yeoman Farmer's house dating from the late 16th or early 17th century, it represents a rare surviving building from the pre-industrial Black Country.
A Black Country scene from the 1870s including coal mines, mineral railways, furnaces and factories.
An 18th century enamelled snuff box made in Bilston, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The ironworks of W. Barrows and Sons, Tipton. Canals were of crucial importance in the development of Black Country industry.
Glass cones where glass was made and worked were once a common sight in Dudley and Stourbridge. This example, now a museum, is situated near Stourbridge
Chain making, once a major Black Country industry, as demonstrated at the Black Country Living Museum.
A dark seam of coal is clearly visible on the sides of Doultons Clay Pit, in Saltwells Wood to the south of Netherton
Black Country Tartan designed in 2008 by Philip Tibbetts from Halesowen