54-659: The Racecourse Colliery is an exhibit located at the Black Country Living Museum . The Black Country Living Museum has more than 40 old mine shafts on its site, which have largely been lost, in-filled, collapsed, stabilised or capped. One of the original surviving shafts has been used to create the Racecourse Colliery exhibit. It was originally the shaft of one of the Earl of Dudley's small pits, Coneygree Colliery Pit No 126, which operated between 1860 and 1902. After
108-476: A change for those who might never go on holiday. The collection of historic rides includes a helter skelter and the Ark, the latest thing in high-speed rides when introduced in the 1920s. It was updated over the years but not converted into a waltzer. It remains one of the few "fourlift" Arks in the country. Work began on the boat dock in 1976 and the museum aimed to recreate a typical dock that would have been found on
162-408: A file. The tools had to be kept sharp in order to get fast results. If a pit did not have a blacksmith the picks would be regularly taken along to the nearest local blacksmith for sharpening. The forge would also be used for making or repairing wrought iron equipment or tub bodies. Rattle chain (Black Country term for flat winding chain ) would have been repaired by the blacksmith. The chain was wound on
216-597: A flat paint used for internal walls. The motorcycle shop is based on the business of A. Hartill & Sons which was located in Mount Pleasant, Bilston . The window displays six locally made motor bikes dating from 1929 to 1934. Next door is Alfred Preedy & Sons tobacconist shop, established in Dudley in 1868. James Gripton's radio shop is from the 1920s and this reconstruction, set in 1939, contains 'new' and second radios. The brick tunnel and cart entrance provide access to
270-410: A hot drink in the hovel, eat their 'snap'(lunch usually in a tin or cloth covered bowl) or fry bacon and egg on a shovel over the fire. In some pits with a good boss, a barrel of beer may be provided to take underground. The Blacksmith's Shop was for keeping the miners' picks sharp, they had to be kept sharp to cut the coal . Tools were sharpened by heating and hammering rather than sharpening with
324-474: A late 1930s kitchen with an electric cooker made by Revo of Tipton . There is a radio workshop behind Gripton's and then the stairs lead to two first floor living rooms and two bedrooms which are all set in the late 1930s and furnished with original 1930s style furniture and wall paper. The Cradley Heath Workers' Institute was built with surplus funds raised in 1910 during the strike for a minimum wage by women chain makers. The Arts and Crafts style building
378-601: A narrow reel similar to camera film, not on a drum, and rattled as it wound. Metal tyres for wooden wheels were heated on the forge and the shrunk onto the wooden wheels. 52°31′18″N 2°04′36″W / 52.52167°N 2.07667°W / 52.52167; -2.07667 Black Country Living Museum The Black Country Living Museum (formerly the Black Country Museum ) is an open-air museum of rebuilt historic buildings in Dudley , West Midlands , England. It
432-425: A news room with a digital interpretation of the background to the strike and a large hall which is used for a wide range of activities including theatre performances and concerts. The 1930s fairground located behind the school represents a travelling fairground that would have brought entertainment to people in the early 1900s. Such fairs set up on waste ground and for a few days provided thrills, entertainment and
486-460: A resident manager instead, one manager would look after a number of pits. One of the manager's jobs was to make sure that all the mine plans were kept up-to-date, these plans would have been kept in the office. There are no safety lamps in the office; many Black Country pits did not use them as working lights because the shallow workings enabled some of the volatile gases to escape to the surface. Mines like this were known as 'naked lamp' mines, i.e.
540-441: A working public house set out as it would have been in 1910. The village postbox stood on the corner of Baker Street and Blandford Street, London in 1865. It was designed by architect J W Penfold and made by Cochrane, Grove and Company. The Carter's Yard from Ogley Hay Road Burntwood, Cannock was built around 1900. It was dismantled and brought to the museum in the 1990s. Old Birmingham Road links St James's School with
594-470: Is a replica of the one that used to stand at the Amblecote Colliery Pit No.12. At the bottom of the shaft was the on-setter, the man whose job it was to load the coal tubs into the cages. When the cage was loaded he would shout or signal (via the bell fixed to the head frame) to the man at the top the shaft, the banks man. He in turn would signal to the engine operator to raise the cage. At the top
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#1732848679877648-454: Is a small corrugated building which houses the engine and fan. This was installed to provide adequate ventilation in a mine. The engine is from Amblecote Fireclay Pit c1860 and was made by J. C. Stark of Torquay. It was found dismantled in the Orangery at Shugborough . The fan sucks the air from the pit. The upright part is called the evaze and is designed to dissipate the air. The Headframe
702-512: Is affiliated to the British Motorcycle Charitable Trust . The museum does not have an extensive collection of Black Country bicycles, but there are examples by manufacturers such as Harry Albino and Star . Unusual vehicles in the fleet include a 1924 Guy - Morris fire engine, a Model T Ford van used by Willenhall firm Brevitt's and a Bean of Tipton flatbed truck. In addition to the wide range of displayed collections,
756-420: Is housed at the rear of the engine house. Apart from using the winding engine to raise and lower the miners and the coal tubs, the winding engine would also have been used to remove water from the pit. This was done by a process called tanking. After 1864 all coal miners had to have two head frames and two shafts to provide an extra way out of the workings in an emergency. The second shaft would be situated over
810-506: Is located in the centre of the Black Country , 10 miles west of Birmingham . The museum occupies 10.5 hectares (26 acres) of former industrial land partly reclaimed from a former railway goods yard, disused lime kilns , canal arm and former coal pits. The museum opened to the public in 1978, and has since added over 50 shops, houses and other industrial buildings from around the metropolitan boroughs of Dudley , Sandwell and Walsall and
864-494: Is of a design patented in 1932 made by E.W. Proctor of Huddersfield . In the 1930s many of Joseph Hobbs's customers worked in factories or shops. Four buildings were rescued from Birmingham Street, Oldbury and date to about 1860. The block is dominated by the green painted fascia of Humphrey Brothers, builders' merchants, who occupied the premises from 1921. It has a replica shop front from about 1932. Humphreys sold fireplaces, sanitaryware and building supplies including Walpamur,
918-547: Is operational and the skill of making chain by hand can be watched daily. An Oliver hammer was a treadle-operated hammer that forged bolts by forcing red hot lengths of iron into a die . The machine shop contained several Oliver hammers used to forge special parts to order. It was founded by Onan Lowe and taken over by T. W. Lench Ltd. On the low ground at the northern end of the site, houses, shops, workshops and public buildings have been dismantled and rebuilt brick by brick to create an early 20th-century village. Activities in
972-540: The Titanic . The site's coal mining heritage is shown by an underground drift and colliery surface buildings. The museum has a working replica of a Newcomen atmospheric engine . Thomas Newcomen 's invention was first successfully put to use in Tipton in 1712. The museum's reconstruction was based on a print engraved by Thomas Barney, filemaker of Wolverhampton, in 1719. Electric trams and trolleybuses transport visitors from
1026-733: The Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN). Docks like the one at the museum would have been formed from recycled wooden boats. They were used to build wooden boats or maintain iron and composite boats. Adjacent to the museum is the Dudley Tunnel . Visitors can take a 45-minute skipper-guided trip into the tunnel through the historic limestone mines and caverns on a boat operated by the Dudley Canal Trust. The museum's boat display consists of boats that it owns, are on loan or have mooring agreements. The museum owns: Other boats at
1080-636: The Cradley Heath Workers' Institute . Here buildings have been set in the 1930s to tell the story of the years leading up to the Second World War . Museum staff in St James's School demonstrate lessons and school life from the turn of the 20th century. The school building opened in Eve Hill, Dudley in 1842 for pupils aged 5–11. It was decided to transfer the building to the museum in 1989 and relocation
1134-507: The 1850s, were relocated from Woodsetton and were the homes of colliers, farm workers and ironworkers. The anchor maker's house from Lawrence Lane in Old Hill was the first to be relocated to the museum and is an example of late-Victorian housing. Public buildings include Providence Chapel from Darby End/Hand near Netherton , one of the first buildings to be rebuilt, and the Bottle and Glass Inn,
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#17328486798771188-635: The 1880s from 17 Chapel Street, Halesowen . It houses equipment from the Halesowen workshop operated by Sidney Tether in the 1940s. It is in use on a regular basis by the resident nail maker who demonstrates the skill of forging nails by hand. The brass foundry was built in 1869 in Shaw Street, Walsall and closed after the Second World War but re-opened in 1964 by James Powell and used until his death in 1973. The building and its equipment were relocated to
1242-412: The 20th century. The reconstruction at Black Country Living Museum has been called Racecourse Colliery because the land on which it stands was originally the Earl of Dudley 's private racecourse, which was closed when the railway line from Dudley to Wolverhampton was built in 1852. This pit features a Manager's Office and a Weighbridge Office that sit side by side. Many of the small pits did not have
1296-601: The Black Country town of Kingswinford is home to Westfield cars. The museum collection includes a 1903 Sunbeam, a 1912 Star and a 1931 AJS as well as examples of later vehicles such as the Kieft, Frisky and Westfield Topaz. There are approximately 40 motorcycles in the museum's collection, all of which were made in the Black Country. A large proportion were manufactured by Sunbeam and AJS , but there are also examples by firms such as Wearwell Cycle Company and Rockson. The museum
1350-482: The Black Country's two former trolley bus networks, and one which has been painted to resemble a local trolleybus. Unlike Birmingham's tram service, Birmingham Corporation Trolley Buses never operated in the Black Country. The Resident Fleet is listed below; Wolverhampton was home to some early manufacturers of motor cars, such as Sunbeam , Clyno , AJS and Star . Frisky cars were also made in Wolverhampton, while
1404-485: The City of Wolverhampton (collectively known as the Black Country ); mainly in a specially built village. Most buildings were relocated from their original sites to form a base from where demonstrators portray life spanning 300 years of history, with a focus on 1850–1950. The museum continues to evolve, as further buildings and other exhibits are added. The museum is close to the site where Dud Dudley first experimented with
1458-455: The Museum of Wolverhampton's Elephant & Castle pub, Dudley's Burgin's Newsagents, a hairdressers, an NHS clinic, West Bromwich Gas Showroom and Dudley's Woodside Library, and a butchers all dating from the 1940s to the 1960s. The new plans will see the museum space increase by one third. The plans were due to be completed in 2022. It is expected that 60 jobs would be created directly as a result of
1512-581: The Racecourse Colliery are either replicas of known mining landmarks, or have been devised on the basis of photographs and existing knowledge of old Black Country pits. The exception to this is the Weighbridge House which is a historic building, relocated from Rolfe Street in Smethwick , where it stood in the Birmingham Canal Navigation's wharf yard. It was probably built in the early years of
1566-439: The banks man would take the truck from the cage, push it along the rails to the land sale wharf. The rails are laid on a slope above the wharf and loaded up with coal. The miners' Hovel is the workmen's mess room and the place where miners could dry their wet pit clothes at the end of the day. A fire was kept lit in the hovel and wet clothes left hanging in there overnight were usually dry again by morning. The men could also brew
1620-401: The boiler which is little more than a covered pan and the steam generated passes through a valve into the brass cylinder above it. The cylinder is more than two metres long and 52 centimetres in diameter. The steam in the cylinder is condensed by injecting cold water and the vacuum beneath the piston pulls the inner end of the beam down causing the pump to move. Lime working and processing
1674-460: The buildings are demonstrated by staff in period costume. The village preserves a cross section of social and industrial history. The village shops include Gregory's General Store , Emile Doo's chemist shop , a sweet shop and cake shop with a bakery at the back. There is a hardware and ironmongers shop from Pipers Row in Wolverhampton. and a pawnbroker's shop that was relocated to the museum in 1991. Brook Street back-to-back houses , built in
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1728-531: The centuries-old industry that produced lead crystal glass and the Joseph Chance glass works between Oldbury and Smethwick. The museum site contained 42 disused mine shafts, most of which had been filled in. Two are preserved, one at the Racecourse Colliery and Brook Shaft. In 1712, Thomas Newcomen built the world's first successful steam engine which was used for pumping water from coal mines on Lord Dudley's estates. In 1986, after ten years of research,
1782-576: The entrance to the village where thirty domestic and industrial buildings have been relocated close to the canal basin. The museum is one of three in the UK with working trolleybuses. The route to the village passes the Cast Iron Houses and a 1930s fairground. A narrowboat operated by Dudley Canal Trust makes trips on the Dudley Canal and into the Dudley Tunnel . On 16 February 2012, the museum's collection
1836-455: The expansion. The nearest railway station is Tipton railway station served by local Wolverhampton to Walsall via Birmingham Trains. The station is approximately 2 minutes journey by bus on the 229 service although the bus stops a short walk from the station in Owen Street. Egg-ended boiler There have been a vast number of designs of steam boiler , particularly towards the end of
1890-549: The life of Laurel and Hardy , shot some of its scenes on the museum's 1930s Street. On 15 June 2017 it was announced that the museum had been awarded £9.8 million from the National Lottery towards their £21.7m project BCLM: Forging Ahead, which will allow the museum to tell the story of the Black Country up to the closure of the Baggeridge Coal Mine in 1968. Plans include the translocation, recreation or replication at
1944-411: The lowest point of the pit so that all the water would gather there in a sump. The winding engine would lower a tank into the sump, a special valve enabled the tank to fill with water, the tank was then raised and someone on the surface pulled a lever one the tank to discharge the water from the pit. There is one of these tanks lying at the side of the miner's hovel . To the side of the brick engine shed
1998-410: The miners would have to make do with tallow candles set in a lump of clay. Mines were run on a day-to-day basis by the butty , this position can be compared to the modern-day contactor who would agree to sell coal to the mine owner at a fixed price. The butty would also hire and fire the men as required and at a pit like this, between six and 30 men could be employed. Every morning before the start of
2052-409: The museum completed the construction of a full-scale working replica of the engine. The "fire engine" is housed in a brick building from which a wooden beam projects through one wall. Rods hang from the outer end of the beam and operate pumps at the bottom of the mine shaft which raise the water to the surface. The engine has a boiler, a cylinder and piston and operating valves. A coal fire heats water in
2106-446: The museum has extensive research collections held in store. These include historic objects, archival material and library books, all of which can be viewed by appointment. The museum has been used as a set for many film and television productions, particularly the first season of Rosie & Jim and the BBC dramas WPC 56 and Peaky Blinders . Stan & Ollie , a feature film on
2160-615: The museum in 1986. It can be seen in operation when the brass caster demonstrates traditional skills in casting horse brasses, pot hooks and other small items. The rolling mill installed at the Birchley Works in Oldbury in 1923 ceased to operate in 1976 and it was moved to Lord Ward's Canal Arm. The museum operates it from time to time using volunteers. The Anchor Forge was rescued from Isiah Preston's in Cradley Heath . The steam-hammer
2214-472: The museum is a replica based on the one that used to stand at Amblecote Colliery No.2 Pit. At the back of the building is the large drum which holds the wire rope that runs over the wheel at the top of the head frame and lifts the cage. This drum is rotated by a Steam engine inside the engine house. The steam to power the engine would have come from the Egg-ended boiler in front of the engine house. Heating all
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2268-491: The museum: The size of the museum site provides the opportunity to demonstrate many of the road transport exhibits which were both used and made in the Black Country. The museum operates a trolleybus service on certain days, unlike the tram which is usually operated seven days a week. The route is one of the few double deck trolley bus services left in the world, as most of the world's trolley buses are single deckers. The museum's fleet numbers three resident trolleybuses from
2322-612: The pit was abandoned, all the surface landmarks were removed and the shaft itself was eventually filled in. Work started on the creation of the Racecourse Colliery exhibit in 1979 and, with the exception of the head frame, all work was carried out on Sundays by volunteers from the Birmingham Enterprise Club and the Friends of the Black Country Museum Mining Group. The colliery was re-created following exactly
2376-429: The same sequence as the creation of an actual working Black Country pit. The shaft was re-opened to a depth of 64 feet (its original depth was between 100 and 120 feet). The lining brickwork was also repaired. The coal obtainable from this pit is Bottom Coal- about 100 ft down. Close to this exhibit another original shaft was used to create Racecourse Colliery Number Two Pit, also referred to as Brook Shaft. Here coal
2430-407: The shift the butty would go down with his safety lamp and check the workings for gases and to see if any more pit props were required. At 6.30 in the morning the miners started work. They were lowered down the shaft in a cage (by the head frame). These cages were also used to bring up coal as it was mined. A Winding engine housed in a brick building would operate the cage. The winding house at
2484-491: The technique of smelting iron with coal instead of wood charcoal and making iron in modest quantities for industrial use. Abraham Darby later refined the process using coke to produce a better quality product in greater quantities. Dudley has a claim to be "the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution ", the Black Country is famous for its wide range of midsteel-based products from nails to the anchor and anchor chain for
2538-477: The three surviving kilns dates from the late 18th century. The trap shop was built in 1913 in Rookery Street, Wednesfield . It was offered to the museum in 1982. Sidebotham's Steel Trap Works was not rebuilt in its entirety and the original structure was shortened. The exhibit, set around 1930, contains the office, trap shop and the machine shop. The nail shop is a replica of a back-yard workshop, built in
2592-403: The water in the boiler to convert it to steam took a long time so the fire beneath the boiler was kept lit all the time. The engine operator kept the fire stoked during the day, but at about 3pm when the shift ended the fire would be banked up and left overnight. The museum does not use this boiler to raise steam when it operates the colliery winder, instead a smaller Vertical boiler is used which
2646-735: Was awarded designated status by Arts Council England , a mark of distinction celebrating its unique national and international importance. The museum is run by the Black Country Living Museum Trust , a registered charity under English law. By the main entrance in the old Rolfe Street Baths from Smethwick (1888) are displays of local artefacts encompassing some of the many products which were made by Black Country industry, cast iron hollow ware , animal traps, vehicles, chain, anchors, enamels, weighing scales, laundry irons, nails, locks and fire clay products. The exhibition includes more fragile items such as glassware, reflecting
2700-407: Was carried out on the site from medieval times. Evidence of quarries and underground remains, the canal, and preserved lime kilns are parts of a scheduled ancient monument which has features from the medieval, Industrial Revolution and 20th century. Standing alongside canal arm are the lime kilns , built by the Earl of Dudley to process limestone quarried from Wren's Nest workings. The earliest of
2754-419: Was completed by October 1990, with the exhibit opening the following year. Hobbs & Sons fish and chip shop and H Morrall's gentlemen's outfitters have been returned to 1935 condition. The shops come from Hall Street, Dudley and date from the late-18th century and refaced with bright red pressed brickwork in 1889. The tiled interior of Hobbs features restored hand-painted tiled wall panels. The frying range
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#17328486798772808-458: Was designed by architect, Albert Thomas Butler , and opened on 10 June 1912. It became a centre for educational meetings, social gatherings and trade union activities in Cradley Heath . Re-erected at the museum it is a monument to Mary Macarthur and her campaign to establish a national minimum wage in the "sweated trades" where people worked long hours for poverty wages typically in appalling conditions. The building contains reconstructed offices,
2862-524: Was installed second hand in the 1920s to forge parts for ships' anchors and the other equipment including furnace and boiler also came from Prestons. The building was saved from Johnson's Rolling Mill site in West Bromwich . The chain maker's shop represents one of the many workshops that made small and medium size chain. By the mid-1800s the chain industry was mostly associated with Cradley , Cradley Heath , Old Hill , Quarry Bank and Netherton . It
2916-525: Was worked at 30 ft and has 8 ft of Bottom Coal showing. Moulds from this shaft were used to create the 'coal' for the museum's underground drift mine experience, 'Into the Thick'. Other principal coal seams in the South Staffordshire Coalfield include Brooch, Flying Reed, Upper Heathen, Stinking (sulphur), New Mine, Fireclay and the famous Thick Coal. The buildings and other features of
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