Kettering was a rural district in Northamptonshire in England from 1894 to 1974.
111-531: It was formed under the Local Government Act 1972 based on Kettering rural sanitary district . It was named after but did not include Kettering itself. Burton Latimer became a separate urban district in 1923. In 1935 it was expanded greatly under the County Review Order , taking in part of Oxendon Rural District , the parishes of Gretton and Rockingham from Gretton Rural District , and
222-502: A "carve up", and demanding that the east/west split be retained. The resulting South Glamorgan was the only Welsh county council the Conservatives ever controlled (from 1977 to 1981). One of the effects of the Act was to confirm the area of Monmouthshire as part of Wales. Ambiguity as to the status of Monmouthshire had been introduced by legislation in the 16th and 17th centuries, and by
333-660: A Consultative Document in February 1971, at the same time as the English White Paper. The proposals were similar to the Labour proposals of 1968, except that the county boroughs were instead two-tier districts, and that Glamorgan was to be subdivided into West Glamorgan and East Glamorgan, making 7 counties and 36 districts. In the Bill as introduced Glamorgan had been split into three authorities: with East Glamorgan further subdivided into
444-514: A Mid Glamorgan covering the valleys and South Glamorgan. The decision to split East Glamorgan further left South Glamorgan with only two districts (one of which was the Conservative-controlled Cardiff , who had requested the split) and Mid Glamorgan one of the poorest areas in the country. The Labour-controlled Glamorgan County Council strongly opposed this move, placing adverts in newspapers calling for Glamorgan to be saved from
555-505: A civil parish council, its 'town council' which could act alone in some matters such as town twinning, whereas Welwyn Garden City did not and therefore had no separate representation. The Act introduced 'agency', where one local authority (usually a district) could act as an agent for another authority. For example, since road maintenance was split depending upon the type of road, both types of council had to retain engineering departments. A county council could delegate its road maintenance to
666-661: A division in the Lords on the inclusion of Weston-super-Mare in Avon, by 42 to 41. Two more metropolitan districts were created than were originally in the Bill: As passed, the Act would have included Charlwood and Horley in West Sussex , along with Gatwick Airport . This was reversed by the Charlwood and Horley Act 1974 , passed just before the Act came into force. Charlwood was made part of
777-405: A few smoky sparrows; and for miles on miles a black waste spreads around, where furnaces continually smoke, steam engines thud and hiss, and long chains clank, while blind gin horses walk their doleful round. From time to time you pass a cluster of deserted roofless cottages of dingiest brick, half swallowed up in sinking pits or inclining to every point of the compass, while the timbers point up like
888-826: A league". An alternative theory for the meaning of the name is proposed as having been caused by the darkening of the local soil due to the outcropping coal and the seam near the surface. It was however the American diplomat and travel writer Elihu Burritt who brought the term "the Black Country" into widespread common usage with the third, longest and most important of the travel books he wrote about Britain for American readers, his 1868 work Walks in The Black Country and its Green Borderland . Burritt had been appointed United States consul in Birmingham by Abraham Lincoln in 1864,
999-587: A material suitable for making the pots in which glass was melted. In 1642 at the start of the Civil War , Charles I failed to capture the two arsenals of Portsmouth and Hull, which although in cities loyal to Parliament were located in counties loyal to him. As he had failed to capture the arsenals, Charles did not possess any supply of swords, pikes, guns, or shot; all these the Black Country could and did provide. From Stourbridge came shot, from Dudley cannon. Numerous small forges which then existed on every brook in
1110-477: A much larger area than the previous county of London . A Local Government Commission for England was set up in 1958 to review local government arrangements throughout the country, and made some changes, such as merging two pairs of small administrative counties to form Huntingdon and Peterborough and Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely , and creating several contiguous county boroughs in the Black Country . Most of
1221-405: A perpetual twilight reigns during the day, and during the night fires on all sides light up the dark landscape with a fiery glow. The pleasant green of pastures is almost unknown, the streams, in which no fishes swim, are black and unwholesome; the natural dead flat is often broken by high hills of cinders and spoil from the mines; the few trees are stunted and blasted; no birds are to be seen, except
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#17328455838161332-479: A role that required him to report regularly on "facts bearing upon the productive capacities, industrial character and natural resources of communities embraced in their Consulate Districts" and as a result travelled widely from his home in Harborne , largely on foot, to explore the local area. Burritt's association with Birmingham dated back 20 years and he was highly sympathetic to the industrial and political culture of
1443-461: A system of single-tier unitary authorities for the whole of England, apart from three metropolitan areas of Merseyside , SELNEC (South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire, now known as Greater Manchester) and West Midlands ( Birmingham and the Black Country ), which were to have both a metropolitan council and district councils. This report was accepted by the Labour Party government of
1554-558: A toast given by a Mr Simpson, town clerk to Lichfield , addressing a Reformer's meeting on 24 November 1841, published in the Staffordshire Advertiser . He describes going into the "black country" of Staffordshire – Wolverhampton, Bilston and Tipton. In published literature, the first reference dates from 1846 and occurs in the novel Colton Green: A Tale of the Black Country by the Reverend William Gresley , who
1665-705: A wider area than its common modern usage, however, devoting the first third of the book to Birmingham, which he described as "the capital, manufacturing centre, and growth of the Black Country", and writing "plant, in imagination, one foot of your compass at the Town Hall in Birmingham, and with the other sweep a circle of twenty miles [30 km] radius, and you will have, 'the Black Country" (this area includes Coventry , Kidderminster and Lichfield ). A few Black Country places such as Wolverhampton, Bilston and Wednesfield are mentioned in Anglo-Saxon charters and chronicles and
1776-723: Is about twenty miles in length and five in bredth reaching from north to south". The phrase was used again, though as a description rather than a proper noun , by the Illustrated London News in an 1849 article on the opening of the South Staffordshire Railway . An 1851 guidebook to the London and North Western Railway included an entire chapter entitled "The Black Country", including an early description: In this Black Country, including West Bromwich, Dudley, Darlaston, Bilston, Wolverhampton and several minor villages,
1887-592: Is an area of England's West Midlands . It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs , with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton sometimes included. The towns of Dudley and Tipton are generally considered to be the centre. The 14-mile (23 km) road between Wolverhampton and Birmingham was described as "one continuous town" in 1785. The area
1998-404: Is the earliest documented working steam engine. An important milestone in the establishment of Black Country industry came when John Wilkinson set up an iron works at Bradley near Bilston. In 1757 he started making iron there by coke-smelting rather than using charcoal. His example was followed by others and iron making spread rapidly across the Black Country. Another important development of
2109-504: Is the fourth most deprived district in the West Midlands, and the 28th most deprived nationally. Walsall is the fifth most deprived district in the West Midlands region, and the 45th most deprived in the country. Dudley fares better, but still has pockets of deprivation. Overall, Dudley is the 100th most deprived district of the UK, but the second most affluent of the seven metropolitan districts of
2220-590: The Bentley Fault , to the north of which lies the Cannock Chase Coalfield . Around the exposed coalfield, separated by geological faults, lies a concealed coalfield where the coal lies at much greater depth. A mine was sunk between 1870 and 1874 over the eastern boundary of the then known coal field in Smethwick and coal was discovered at a depth of over 400 yards. In the last decade of the 19th century, coal
2331-702: The Merry Hill Shopping Centre and Waterfront commercial and leisure complex, while the Patent Shaft site was developed as an industrial estate. Unemployment in Brierley Hill peaked at more than 25% – around double the national average at the time – during the first half of the 1980s following the closure of Round Oak Steel Works, giving it one of the worst unemployment rates of any town in Britain. The Merry Hill development between 1985 and 1990 managed to reduce
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#17328455838162442-528: The Mole Valley district and Horley part of Reigate and Banstead . Gatwick Airport was still transferred. Although willing to compromise on exact boundaries, the government stood firm on the existence or abolition of county councils. The Isle of Wight (originally scheduled to be merged back into Hampshire as a district) was the only local campaign to succeed, and also the only county council in England to violate
2553-754: The Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Government of 1970–74 . The Act took the total number of councils in England from 1,245 to 412 (excluding parish councils ), and in Wales to 45. Its pattern of two-tier metropolitan and non-metropolitan county and district councils remains in use today in large parts of England, although
2664-456: The Patent Shaft steel plant at Wednesbury. Unemployment rose drastically across the country during this period as a result of Conservative Prime Minister Thatcher's economic policies; later, in an implicit acknowledgement of the social problems this had caused, these areas were designated as Enterprise Zones, and some redevelopment occurred. Round Oak and the surrounding farmland was developed as
2775-456: The Thick Coal , Heathen Coal , Stinking Coal , Bottom Coal and Singing Coal seams. Other seams also exist. The Thick Coal seam was also known as the "Thirty Foot" or "Ten Yard" seam and is made up of a number of beds that have come together to form one thick seam. Interspersed with the coal seams are deposits of iron ore and fireclay . The Black Country coal field is bounded on the north by
2886-770: The 1820s, and the Lye holloware industry is even more recent. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, coal and limestone were worked only on a modest scale for local consumption, but during the Industrial Revolution by the opening of canals, such as the Birmingham Canal Navigations , Stourbridge Canal and the Dudley Canal (the Dudley Canal Line No 1 and the Dudley Tunnel ) opened up the mineral wealth of
2997-601: The 18th century was the construction of canals to link the Black Country mines industries to the rest of the country. Between 1768 and 1772 a canal was constructed by James Brindley starting in Birmingham through the heart of the Black Country and eventually leading to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. In the middle of the 18th century, Bilston became well known for the craft of enamelling . Items produced included decorative containers such as patch-boxes, snuff boxes and bonbonnieres . The iron industry grew during
3108-449: The 19th century, peaking around 1850–1860. In 1863, there were 200 blast furnaces in the Black Country, of which 110 were in blast. Two years later it was recorded that there were 2,116 puddling furnaces, which converted pig-iron into wrought iron , in the Black Country. In 1864 the first Black Country plant capable of producing mild steel by the Bessemer process was constructed at
3219-456: The 250,000 minimum for education authorities. The government bowed to local demand for the island to retain its status in October 1972, moving an amendment in the Lords to remove it from Hampshire, Lord Sanford noting that "nowhere else is faced with problems of communication with its neighbours which are in any way comparable". Protests from Rutland and Herefordshire failed, although Rutland
3330-414: The 300th anniversary of the erection of the first Newcomen atmospheric engine . Following this it was agreed by the museum and Black Country society for 14 July to be recognised as Black Country Day to celebrate the area's role in the Industrial Revolution. The day was marked by Department for Communities and Local Government in 2013 and following calls to do more in 2014 more events were planned around
3441-564: The Act came into force at midnight on 1 April 1974. Elections to the new councils had already been held, in 1973, and the new authorities were already up and running as "shadow authorities", following the example set by the London Government Act 1963 . The Act specified the composition and names of the English and Welsh counties, and the composition of the metropolitan and Welsh districts. It did not specify any names of districts, nor indeed
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3552-443: The Black Country can be defined by using the special cultural and industrial characteristics of the area. Areas around the canals (the cut) which had mines extracting mineral resources and heavy industry refining these are included in this definition. Cultural parameters include unique or characteristic foods such as groaty pudding , grey peas and bacon, faggots , gammon or pork hocks and pork scratchings ; Black Country humour; and
3663-555: The Black Country changed from one of the most prosperous industrial working-class regions in the country, to one of the most deprived. As the heavy industry that had named the region faded away, in the 1970s a museum, called the Black Country Living Museum started to take shape on derelict land near to Dudley. Today this museum demonstrates Black Country crafts and industry from days gone by and includes many original buildings which have been transported and reconstructed at
3774-444: The Black Country dialect. The Black Country Society defines the Black Country's borders as the area on the thirty foot coal seam, regardless the depth of the seam. This definition includes West Bromwich and Oldbury, which had many deep pits, and Smethwick. The thick coal that underlies Smethwick was not mined until the 1870s and Smethwick has retained more Victorian character than most West Midland areas. Sandwell Park Colliery's pit
3885-691: The Black Country form part of the Birmingham metropolitan economy , the second largest in the UK. In 2011, the government announced the creation of the Black Country Enterprise Zone. The zone includes 5 sites in Wolverhampton and 14 in Darlaston . The i54 business park in Wolverhampton is the largest of the 19 sites; its tenants include Jaguar Land Rover . The largest site in Darlaston is that of
3996-561: The Black Country is no longer black. The area still maintains some manufacturing, but on a much smaller scale than historically. Chainmaking is still a viable industry in the Cradley Heath area where the majority of the chain for the Ministry of Defence and the Admiralty fleet is made in modern factories. Much but not all of the area now suffers from high unemployment and parts of it are amongst
4107-860: The East Cambridgeshire district. Section 265 of the Act allowed for the continuation of the local government arrangements for the Isles of Scilly. The Isles of Scilly Rural District Council became the Council of the Isles of Scilly , and certain services were to continue to be provided by Cornwall County Council as provided by order made by the Secretary of State , although the Isles were not technically in Cornwall before or after 1974. Rhuddlan Glyndŵr Delyn Alyn & Deeside Wrexham Maelor Carmarthen Dinefwr Black Country The Black Country
4218-414: The English counties were designated as metropolitan counties. The new English counties were based clearly on the traditional ones, albeit with several substantial changes. The thirteen historic counties of Wales were abandoned entirely for administrative purposes and eight new ones instituted. The Act substituted the new counties "for counties of any other description" for purposes of law. This realigned
4329-473: The Iron Trade of Great Britain , stated "The Black Country commences at Wolverhampton, extends a distance of sixteen miles to Stourbridge, eight miles to West Bromwich, penetrating the northern districts through Willenhall to Bentley, The Birchills, Walsall and Darlaston, Wednesbury, Smethwick and Dudley Port, West Bromwich and Hill Top, Brockmoor, Wordsley and Stourbridge. As the atmosphere becomes purer, we get to
4440-557: The Leeds or Wakefield districts. (Rothwell had been planned for Wakefield, but an amendment at report stage was proposed by local MP Albert Roberts and accepted by the government, then overturned by the Lords.) Instead, the Wakefield district gained the town of Ossett , which was originally placed in the Kirklees district, following an appeal by Ossett Labour Party. The government barely won
4551-619: The Local Government Bill into Parliament soon after the start of the 1971–1972 session. In the Commons it passed through Standing Committee D, who debated it in 51 sittings from 25 November 1971 to 20 March 1972. The Act abolished previous existing local government structures, and created a two-tier system of counties and districts everywhere. Some of the new counties were designated metropolitan counties , containing metropolitan boroughs instead. The allocation of functions differed between
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4662-532: The Middle Ages or even earlier; industrialisation had created new and very large urban areas like the West Midlands, Liverpool and Manchester which spanned traditional county boundaries and were now often bigger than and far from their traditional county towns. The Local Government Commission was wound up in 1966, and replaced with a Royal Commission (known as the Redcliffe-Maud commission ). In 1969 it recommended
4773-581: The Midlands Employers' Federation, a body founded by Dudley Docker , the Asquith Government's armaments programme was jeopardised, especially its procurement of naval equipment and other industrial essentials such as steel tubing, nuts and bolts, destroyer parts, etc. This was of national significance at a time when Britain and Germany were engaged in the Anglo-German naval arms race that preceded
4884-1077: The Old Park Works in Wednesbury . In 1882, another Bessemer-style steel works was constructed at Spring Vale in Bilston by the Staffordshire Steel and Ingot Iron Company, a development followed by the construction of an open-hearth steelworks at the Round Oak works of the Earl of Dudley in Brierley Hill , which produced its first steel in 1894. By the 19th century or early 20th century, many villages had their characteristic manufacture, but earlier occupations were less concentrated. Some of these concentrations are less ancient than sometimes supposed. For example, chain making in Cradley Heath seems only to have begun in about
4995-539: The Old Patent tube works of John Russell & Co. Ltd., and within weeks upwards of 40,000 workers across the Black Country had joined the dispute. Notable figures in the labour movement, including a key proponent of Syndicalism , Tom Mann , visited the area to support the workers and Jack Beard and Julia Varley of the Workers' Union were active in organising the strike. During this confrontation with employers represented by
5106-503: The Redcliffe-Maud report, and its findings that the division of functions between town and country had been harmful, but that some functions were better performed by smaller units. The White Paper set out the proposed division of functions between districts and counties, and also suggested a minimum population of 40,000 for districts. The government aimed to introduce a Bill in the 1971/72 session of Parliament for elections in 1973, so that
5217-566: The Royalists had among their adherents Dud Dudley, now a Colonel in the Royalist army, who had experience in iron making, and who claimed he could turn out "all sorts of bar iron fit for making of muskets, carbines, and iron for great bolts", both more cheaply, more speedily and more excellent than could be done in any other way. In 1712, a Newcomen Engine was constructed near Dudley and used to pump water from coal mines belonging to Lord Dudley. This
5328-531: The West Midlands, with Solihull coming top. It also benefits from tourism due to the popularity of the Black Country Living Museum , Dudley Zoo and Dudley Castle . As with many urban areas in the UK, there is also a significant ethnic minority population in parts: in Sandwell, 22.6 per cent of the population is from ethnic minorities, and in Wolverhampton the figure is 23.5 per cent. However, in Walsall 84.6 per cent of
5439-432: The accounts of the building of Henry VIII's Nonsuch Palace record that nails were supplied by Reynolde Warde of Dudley at a cost of 11s 4d per thousand. By the 1620s "Within ten miles [16 km] of Dudley Castle there were 20,000 smiths of all sorts". In the early 17th century, Dud Dudley , a natural son of the Baron of Dudley, experimented with making iron using coal rather than charcoal. Two patents were granted for
5550-471: The act was substantially different in Wales. The Redcliffe-Maud Commission had not considered Wales, which had been the subject of the Welsh Office proposals in the 1960s. A White Paper was published in 1967 on the subject of Wales, based on the findings of the 1962 report of the Local Government Commission for Wales . The White Paper proposed five counties, and thirty-six districts. The county boroughs of Swansea , Cardiff and Newport would be retained, but
5661-446: The anthem was raised in 2013 by James Stevens and Steven Edwards who wanted the region to have an official anthem to accompany the Black Country flag & Black Country Day. The heavy industry which once dominated the Black Country has now largely gone. The 20th century saw a decline in coal mining and the industry finally came to an end in 1968 with the closure of Baggeridge Colliery near Sedgley . Clean air legislation has meant that
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#17328455838165772-428: The area to exploitation. Advances in the use of coke for the production of iron enabled iron production (hitherto limited by the supply of charcoal ) to expand 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. Industrialisation led to
5883-572: The area's workforce had effectively eschewed trade unionism. The 20th century saw a decline in coal mining in the Black Country, with the last colliery in the region – Baggeridge Colliery near Sedgley – closing on 2 March 1968, marking the end of an era after some 300 years of mass coal mining in the region, though a small number of open cast mines remained in use for a few years afterwards. Other industries thrived, however. Manufacturers like Rubery Owen , Chance Bros , Wilkins and Mitchell , GKN , John Thompson (company) and many more prospered from
5994-408: The areas during the Bill's passage through Parliament were: In the Bill as published, the Dorset/Hampshire border was between Christchurch and Lymington. On 6 July 1972, a government amendment added Lymington to Dorset, which would have had the effect of having the entire Bournemouth conurbation in one county (although the town in Lymington itself does not form part of the built-up area, the borough
6105-443: The borders of the non-metropolitan districts in England – these were specified by Statutory Instrument after the passing of the Act. A Boundary Commission, provided for in the Act, had already begun work on dividing England into districts whilst the Bill was still going through Parliament. In England there were 45 counties and 332 districts (excluding Greater London and the Isles of Scilly), in Wales there were 8 and 37. Six of
6216-454: The boroughs, responded to Redcliffe-Maud by putting forward a scheme where England outside London would be divided into 13 provinces, with 132 main authorities below that. The AMC argued that the Redcliffe-Maud units would be too far removed from the people they served, and suggested units that in some places were much smaller in size. The Times gave the example of Kent, which under Redcliffe-Maud would have consisted of two unitary authorities,
6327-404: The boundaries of ceremonial and judicial counties used for lieutenancy , custodes rotulorum , shrievalty , commissions of the peace and magistrates' courts to the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. The Act also extended the rights of the Duchy of Lancaster to appoint Lord-Lieutenants for the shrunken Lancashire along with all of Greater Manchester and Merseyside . Before
6438-519: The coal seam comes to the surface – so West Bromwich , Coseley , Oldbury , Blackheath , Cradley Heath , Old Hill , Bilston , Dudley , Tipton , Wednesbury , and parts of Halesowen , Walsall and Smethwick or what used to be known as Warley ." There are records from the 18th century of shallow coal mines in Wolverhampton, however. Others have included areas slightly outside the coal field which were associated with heavy industry . Bilston-born Samuel Griffiths, in his 1876 Griffiths Guide to
6549-414: The coal seam is shallow, making the soil black at the surface. Some coal mining areas to the east and west of the geologically defined Black Country are therefore excluded by this definition because the coal here is too deep down and does not outcrop. The seam outcrop definition excludes areas in North Worcestershire and South Staffordshire. The first recorded use of the term "the Black Country" may be from
6660-430: The coalfield rather than the thick seam, running from Wolverhampton to Bloxwich, to West Bromwich, to Stourbridge and back to Wolverhampton again. A travelogue published in 1860 made the connection more explicit, calling the name "eminently descriptive, for blackness everywhere prevails; the ground is black, the atmosphere is black, and the underground is honeycombed by mining galleries stretching in utter blackness for many
6771-482: The coat-of-arms of the County Borough of Dudley. At a number of places, notably the Rowley Hills and at Barrow Hill , a hard igneous rock is found. The rock, known as dolerite, used to be quarried and used for road construction. In recent years the Black Country has seen the adoption of symbols and emblems with which to represent itself. The first of these to be registered was the Black Country tartan in 2009, designed by Philip Tibbetts from Halesowen. In 2008
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#17328455838166882-405: The commission's recommendations, such as its proposals to abolish Rutland or to reorganise Tyneside , were ignored in favour of the status quo. It was generally agreed that there were significant problems with the structure of local government. Despite mergers, there was still a proliferation of small district councils in rural areas, and in the major conurbations the borders had been set before
6993-426: The concept of unifying estuaries, through the creation of the county of Humberside on the Humber Estuary , and the inclusion of Harwich and Colchester in Suffolk to unify the Stour Estuary . The latter was removed from the Bill before it became law. Proposals from Plymouth for a Tamarside county were rejected. The Bill also provided names for the new counties for the first time. The main amendments made to
7104-457: The counties in which they were physically situated. The county areas were two-tier, with many municipal boroughs , urban districts and rural districts within them, each with its own council. Apart from the creation of new county boroughs, the most significant change since 1899 (and the establishment of metropolitan boroughs in the County of London ) had been the establishment in 1965 of Greater London and its 32 London boroughs , covering
7215-410: The country. Many of the new boundaries proposed by the Redcliffe-Maud report were retained in the White Paper. The proposals were in large part based on ideas of the County Councils Association, the Urban District Councils Association and the Rural District Councils Association. The White Paper outlined principles, including an acceptance of the minimum population of 250,000 for education authorities in
7326-434: The county boundaries found in the Bill). A further eighteen districts were added in the final proposals of November 1972, which were then ordered. The splits were as follows (in most cases the splits were not exact, and many other changes to the borders of the districts took place at this time) The new district in Suffolk was necessitated by the decision to keep Newmarket in Suffolk; which would otherwise have become part of
7437-443: The district council if it was confident that the district was competent. Some powers were specifically excluded from agency, such as education. The Act abolished various historic relics such as aldermen . The office previously known as sheriff was retitled high sheriff. Many existing boroughs that were too small to constitute a district, but too large to constitute a civil parish , were given charter trustees . Most provisions of
7548-413: The establishment of this device was associated with Richard Foley , son of a Dudley nailer, who built a slitting mill near Kinver in 1628. The slitting mill made it much simpler to produce nail rods from iron bar. Another development of the early 17th century was the introduction of glass making to the Stourbridge area. One attraction of the region for glass makers was the local deposits of fireclay ,
7659-402: The exception of Clwyd (which was named after the River Clwyd ) the names of the counties were taken from ancient British kingdoms. Welsh names were also used for many of the Welsh districts. There were no metropolitan counties and, unlike in England, the Secretary of State could not create future metropolitan counties there under the Act. After much comment, the proposals were introduced as
7770-416: The expansion of local railways and coal mine lines. The line running from Stourbridge to Walsall via Dudley Port and Wednesbury closed in the 1960s, but the Birmingham to Wolverhampton line via Tipton is still a major transport route. The anchors and chains for the ill-fated liner RMS Titanic were made in the Black Country at Netherton . Three anchors and accompanying chains were manufactured; and
7881-408: The first to explicitly distinguish the area from nearby Birmingham , noting that "On certain rare holidays these people wash their faces, clothe themselves in decent garments, and, since the opening of the South Staffordshire Railway, take advantage of cheap excursion trains, go down to Birmingham to amuse themselves and make purchases." The geologist Joseph Jukes made it clear in 1858 that he felt
7992-475: The forerunners of a number of Black Country towns and villages such as Cradley, Dudley, Smethwick, and Halesowen are included in the Domesday Book of 1086. At this early date, the area was mostly rural. A monastery was founded in Wolverhampton in the Anglo-Saxon period and a castle and priory was built at Dudley during the period of Norman rule. Another religious house, Premonstratensian Abbey of Halesowen ,
8103-449: The gradual cultural anglicisation of some eastern parts of the county. By the late 19th century the area was often treated in legislation as one with Wales, using the terminology "Wales and Monmouthshire", although it remained legally part of England. Apart from the new Glamorgan authorities, all the names of the new Welsh counties were in the Welsh language , with no English equivalent. With
8214-400: The handover date. Elections to county councils were held on 12 April, for metropolitan and Welsh districts on 10 May, and for non-metropolitan district councils on 7 June. Elected county councils had been established in England and Wales for the first time in 1888, covering areas known as administrative counties. Some large towns, known as county boroughs , were politically independent from
8325-407: The higher ground of Brierley Hill, nevertheless here also, as far as the eye can reach, on all sides, tall chimneys vomit forth great clouds of smoke". Today the term commonly refers to the majority of the four metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton although it is said that "no two Black Country men or women will agree on where it starts or ends". Official use of
8436-650: The idea of a flag for the region was first raised. After four years of campaigning a competition was successfully organised with the Black Country Living Museum . This resulted in the adoption of the Flag of the Black Country as designed by Gracie Sheppard of Redhill School in Stourbridge and was registered with the Flag Institute in July 2012. The flag was unveiled at the museum on 14 July 2012 as part of celebration in honour of
8547-518: The local area's unemployment dramatically, however. The Black Country Living Museum in Dudley recreates life in the Black Country in the early 20th century, and is a popular tourist attraction . On 17 February 2012 the museum's collection in its entirety was awarded Designation by Arts Council England (ACE). Designation is a mark of distinction that celebrates unique collections of national and international importance. The four metropolitan boroughs of
8658-408: The meaning of the term was self-explanatory to contemporary visitors, remarking that "It is commonly known in the neighbourhood as the 'Black Country', an epithet the appropriateness of which must be acknowledged by anyone who even passes through it on a railway". Jukes based his Black Country on the seat of the great iron manufacture, which for him was geographically determined by the ironstone tract of
8769-511: The metropolitan and the non-metropolitan areas (the so-called " shire counties ") – for example, education and social services were the responsibility of the shire counties, but in metropolitan areas was given to the districts. The distribution of powers was slightly different in Wales than in England, with libraries being a county responsibility in England—but in Wales districts could opt to become library authorities themselves. One key principle
8880-440: The metropolitan county councils were abolished in 1986, and both county and district councils have been replaced with unitary authorities in many areas since the 1990s. In Wales, too, the Act established a similar pattern of counties and districts , but these have since been entirely replaced with a system of unitary authorities . Elections were held to the new authorities in 1973, and they acted as "shadow authorities" until
8991-459: The most economically deprived communities in the UK. This is particularly true in parts of the metropolitan boroughs of Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton. According to the Government's 2007 Index of Deprivation (ID 2007), Sandwell is the third most deprived authority in the West Midlands region, after Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent , and the 14th most deprived of the UK's 354 districts. Wolverhampton
9102-669: The name came in 1987 with the Black Country Development Corporation , an urban development corporation covering the metropolitan boroughs of Sandwell and Walsall, which was disbanded in 1998. The Black Country Consortium (founded in 1999) and the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (founded in 2011) both define the Black Country as the four metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton, an approximate area of 138 square miles (360 km ). The borders of
9213-589: The new authorities could start exercising full powers on 1 April 1974. The White Paper made no commitments on regional or provincial government, since the Conservative government preferred to wait for the Crowther Commission to report. The proposals were substantially changed with the introduction of the Bill into Parliament in November 1971: The Bill as introduced also included two new major changes based on
9324-529: The north of Worcestershire turned out successive supplies of sword blades and pike heads. It was said that among the many causes of anger Charles had against Birmingham was that one of the best sword makers of the day, Robert Porter , who manufactured swords in Digbeth , Birmingham, refused at any price to supply swords for " that man of blood " (a Puritan nickname for King Charles), or any of his adherents. As an offset to this sword-cutler and men like him in Birmingham,
9435-630: The outbreak of the First World War . Following a ballot of the union membership, a settlement of the dispute was reached on 11 July after arbitration by government officials from the Board of Trade led by the Chief Industrial Commissioner Sir George Askwith, 1st Baron Askwith . One of the important consequences of the strike was the growth of organised labour across the Black Country, which was notable because until this point
9546-407: The parish of Mawsley from Brixworth Rural District . In 1974 it was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972 , with the bulk going to form part of the new Kettering district and the rest going to Corby . 52°27′N 0°45′W / 52.45°N 0.75°W / 52.45; -0.75 Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an act of
9657-427: The passing of the Act, there were a total of 1,210 councils in England (excluding Greater London councils and the Isles of Scilly). This was made up of 1,086 rural and urban districts (including non-county boroughs), 79 county boroughs and 45 counties. The Act reduced the total number of councils outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly to 377 (45 counties and 332 districts). Most of the new districts were groups of
9768-464: The pattern of urban development had become clear. For example, in the area that was to become the seven boroughs of the metropolitan county of West Midlands , local government was split between three administrative counties ( Staffordshire , Warwickshire , and Worcestershire ), and eight county boroughs ( Birmingham , Coventry , Dudley , Solihull , Walsall , Warley , West Bromwich , and Wolverhampton ). Many county boundaries reflected traditions of
9879-507: The population is described as white, while in Dudley 92 per cent of the population is white. Resistance to mass immigration in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s led to the slogan " Keep the Black Country white! ". The Black Country suffered its biggest economic blows in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when unemployment soared largely because of the closure of historic large factories including the Round Oak Steel Works at Brierley Hill and
9990-574: The post-war boom in Britain, with the West Midlands motor industry being a key driver of the economy. Wages rose faster than the national average, and unemployment remained low into the late 1970s. It was only in the late 1970s and 1980s, as global shocks and political change affected British industry, that the region began to become deindustrialised, with the years 1979-1982 witnessing the closure of large employers such as Bilston Steel Works , Round Oak, Patent Shaft Steelworks, Rubery Owen, Birmid Industries and others in quick succession. The population of
10101-506: The presence of iron ore and coal in a seam 30 feet (9 m) thick, the thickest seam in Great Britain, which outcropped in various places. The first recorded blast furnace in the Black Country was built at West Bromwich in the early 1560s. Many people had an agricultural smallholding and supplemented their income by working as nailers or smiths, an example of a phenomenon known to economic historians as proto-industrialisation . In 1583,
10212-463: The process: one in 1621 to Lord Dudley and one in 1638 to Dud Dudley and three others. In his work Metallum Martis , published in 1665, he claimed to have "made Iron to profit with Pit-cole". However, considerable doubt has been cast on this claim by later writers. An important development in the early 17th century was the introduction of the slitting mill to the Midlands area. In the Black Country,
10323-616: The region. Black Country Day takes place on 14 July each year. Originally in March, the day was later moved to 14 July—the anniversary of the invention of the Newcomen steam engine—and now coincides with a wider series of events throughout the month aimed at promoting Black Country Culture called the Black Country Festival. The Black Country Anthem was written by James Stevens and is performed by Black Country band The Empty Can. The idea for
10434-405: The ribs of a half decayed corpse. The majority of the natives of this Tartarian region are in full keeping with the scenery – savages, without the grace of savages, coarsely clad in filthy garments, with no change on weekends or Sundays, they converse in a language belarded with fearful and disgusting oaths, which can scarcely be recognised as the same as that of civilized England. This work was also
10545-664: The set weighed in at 100 tons . The centre anchor alone weighed 12 tons and was pulled through Netherton on its journey to the ship by 20 Shire horses . In 1913, the Black Country was the location of arguably one of the most important strikes in British trade union history when the workers employed in the area's steel tube trade came out for two months in a successful demand for a 23 shilling minimum weekly wage for unskilled workers, giving them pay parity with their counterparts in nearby Birmingham. This action commenced on 9 May in Wednesbury, at
10656-512: The site. The history of industry in the Black Country is connected directly to its underlying geology. Much of the region lies upon an exposed coalfield forming the southern part of the South Staffordshire Coalfield where mining has taken place since the Middle Ages. There are, in fact several coal seams, some of which were given names by the miners. The top, thin coal seam is known as Broach Coal . Beneath this lies successively
10767-406: The small county borough of Merthyr Tydfil would become a district. The proposed counties were as follows Implementation of reform in Wales was not immediate, pending decisions on the situation in England, and a new Secretary of State, George Thomas , announced changes to the proposals in November 1968. The large northern county of Gwynedd was to be split to form two counties (creating Gwynedd in
10878-454: The smaller having a population of 499,000 (as of 1968), while the AMC proposal would divide the same area into seven local authorities, ranging in population from 161,000 to 306,000. The incoming government's proposals for England were presented in a White Paper published in February 1971. The White Paper substantially trimmed the metropolitan areas, and proposed a two-tier structure for the rest of
10989-615: The south of the ridge, water flows into the Stour and thence to the Severn and the Bristol Channel. At Dudley and Wrens Nest, limestone was mined. This rock formation was formed in the Silurian period and contains many fossils. One particular fossilized creature, the trilobite Calymene blumenbachii , was so common that it became known as the "Dudley Bug" or "Dudley Locust" and was incorporated into
11100-563: The time despite considerable opposition, but the Conservative Party won the June 1970 general election on a manifesto that committed it to a two-tier structure. The new government made Peter Walker and Graham Page the ministers, and quickly dropped the Redcliffe-Maud report. They invited comments from interested parties regarding the previous government's proposals. The Association of Municipal Corporations, an advocacy group representing
11211-419: The town as well as being a friend to many of its leading citizens, so his portrait of the surrounding area was largely positive. He was the author of the famous early description of the Black Country as "black by day and red by night", adding appreciatively that it "cannot be matched, for vast and varied production, by any other space of equal radius on the surface of the globe". Burritt used the term to refer to
11322-399: The west and Clwyd in the east) with various alterations to the districts. The Redcliffe-Maud report led to a reconsideration of the plans, especially with respect to Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, and a March 1970 White Paper proposed three unitary authorities for South Wales, based on Cardiff, Swansea and Newport. After the 1970 general election , the new Conservative government published
11433-811: The whole areas of former districts, although 64 rural districts were split between new districts, and there were eleven urban districts or boroughs which saw their territory split between new districts: Teesside County Borough , Whitley Bay Municipal Borough, Ashton-in-Makerfield Urban District, Billinge and Winstanley Urban District , Golborne Urban District, Lakes Urban District , Queensbury and Shelf Urban District , Ramsbottom Urban District , Seaton Valley Urban District , Thurrock Urban District , and Turton Urban District . A list of non-metropolitan districts can be found at List of English districts . The Local Government Boundary Commission originally proposed 278 non-metropolitan districts in April 1972 (still working with
11544-456: Was able to secure its treatment as a single district despite not meeting the stated minimum population of 40,000 for districts. Several metropolitan boroughs fell under the 250,000 limit, including three of Tyne and Wear 's five boroughs ( North Tyneside , South Tyneside and Gateshead ), and the four metropolitan boroughs that had resulted from the splitting of the proposed Bury / Rochdale and Knowsley / St Helens boroughs. The background of
11655-565: Was discovered beyond the western boundary fault at Baggeridge at a depth of around 600 yards. A broken ridge runs across the Black Country in a north-westerly direction through Dudley, Wrens Nest and Sedgley, separating the Black Country into two regions. This ridge forms part of a major watershed of England with streams to the north taking water to the Tame and then via the Trent into the North Sea whilst to
11766-403: Was founded in the early 13th century. A number of Black Country villages developed into market towns and boroughs in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, notably Dudley, Walsall and Wolverhampton. Coal mining was carried out for several centuries in the Black Country, starting from medieval times, and metalworking was important in the Black Country area as early as the 16th century spurred on by
11877-741: Was large and contained villages which do). The House of Lords reversed this amendment in September, with the government losing the division 81 to 65. In October, the government brought up this issue again, proposing an amendment to put the western part of Lymington borough in Dorset. The amendment was withdrawn. The government lost divisions in the House of Lords at Report Stage on the exclusion of Wilmslow and Poynton from Greater Manchester and their retention in Cheshire, and also on whether Rothwell should form part of
11988-533: Was located in Smethwick and had 'thick coal' as shown in written accounts from 1878 and coal was also heavily mined in Hamstead , further east, whose workings extended well under what is now north Birmingham . Smethwick and Dudley Port were described as "a thousand swarming hives of metallurgical industries" by Samuel Griffiths in 1872. Another geological definition, the seam outcrop definition, only includes areas where
12099-512: Was one of the Industrial Revolution 's birthplaces. Either the 30-foot-thick coal seam close to the surface or the mix of coalworks , cokeworks , ironworks , glassworks , brickworks and steelworks (which produced high levels of soot and air pollution at the time) led to the area's name, which was first recorded in the 1840s. The Black Country has no single set of defined boundaries. Some traditionalists define it as "the area where
12210-626: Was that education authorities (non-metropolitan counties and metropolitan districts) were deemed to need a population base of 250,000 in order to be viable. Although called two-tier, the system was really three-tier, as it retained civil parish councils, although in Wales they were renamed community councils . Within districts some inconsistency prevailed. For example, in Welwyn Hatfield District in Hertfordshire, which comprised Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield and Old Welwyn, Hatfield retained
12321-478: Was then a prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral . Gresley's opening paragraph starts "On the border of the agricultural part of Staffordshire, just before you enter the dismal region of mines and forges, commonly called the 'Black Country', stands the pretty village of Oakthorpe", "commonly" implying that the term was already in use. He also writes that "the whole country is blackened with smoke by day, and glowing with fires by night", and that "the 'Black Country' ...
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