THE BLACK COUNTRY LIVING MUSEUM

The ‘Black Country Living Museum’ is different from a lot of other museums, because as it suggests in the name, it is actually a real life Victorian town. You can go into mines, visit canals and go into shops which contain authentic medicines and goods that were from the Victorian ages. I think that no words are good enough to describe the living feel and bustle of this living museum. It is a completely new experience.

Firstly, why is it called the ‘Black Country Living Museum’? Well, during industrial times, (19th century to early 20th century) much coal was mined in Dudley, so because of the amount of coal mined, the place became very sooty and grimy, hence its name the ‘Black Country’.

We started with a Victorian school called ‘St. James’s’ school, which was made in 1842. This was a church school that was free at the time, so that young children could get an education. This school was strict and expected children to hold the teachers with utmost respect. In the school, it was recorded that only one child had ever been caned. Most bad children were sent to the corner or made to stand up on their chair and wear a hat. This school could hold 300 children, and each class would have 100 children in it, but the school would not expect that many pupils to come. There were only 2 teachers, one male, one female, one ‘training’ teacher, which was a child of 13 years of age or above and 2 monitors which would help around the school. The classroom itself was quite stuffy, and would be quite cold, so in order to combat this situation, they either took it in turns to stand near the stove or they did running drills outside the school, as we do now in ‘P.E.’ On the contrary, in the summer the teachers sometimes taught outside. Because the classroom was so hot, some children fell asleep, so the outdoors kept them awake.
Children started school, aged 3, and most left when they were 12 so that they could help at home. If the child wanted to stay in the school, they could pursue a career in education. The children learnt to do their alphabet backwards and to learn their ‘£.S.D’, which was learning to do their sums in pounds, shillings, and pence.

After lunch, we went on a canal trip where we learnt the importance of the canals. Canals were the lifeline of Black Country industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Here the canal boats show how cargoes would have been carried to and from ironworks in the area. Impressively, some of the canal tunnels in the limestone hills are the longest in the country. Also, the museum has been awarded a ‘Blue Peter’ badge for these incredible tunnels. As our boat floated down through the dark tunnels, we learnt that the horses that drew the narrow boats could not go into the tunnels so that boats had to be ‘legged’ through, which was pretty tiring work. You lie back on your back on a wooden plank in the middle of the boat and with your legs facing outwards, you pushed against the tunnel wall, propelling your boat along. It took four hours to ‘leg’ the length of the whole underground system of canals. Inside the canals, we sometimes entered large caverns, in which we were treated to either a spectacular show, or a documentary to go with some models. On one face of rock, we saw many fossils, of trilobites (of which the average was 2” but the largest was 28”), shellfish and corals. On our way back, we encountered another canal boat so we had to back out of the tunnel and into a large open space, in which laid the ‘Murder Mine’ because of the skeleton which was found in there but which nobody has ever identified. In the final stretch, we had a chance to ‘leg’ the boat out ourselves. A few people tried and we actually got nowhere!

After this very shattering experience, it began to rain very finely. So, because of this, we visited Mr. Doo’s chemist. Here we learned where most of our medicines today come from. All of the items inside this shop were authentic, including a nice big bottle of ‘Horlicks’ and a bottle of ‘Vicks’, all still packed in their original covering. We learned how pills were made, and that the chemist was a ‘Poor man’s doctor’ since he charged nothing.

Leaving the chemist after a nice picture with a till in working order, we headed to the ‘General Store’ which was just opposite. This store sold everything, from shoes to lentils. You asked them, and they had it. If they didn’t have it, they would get it for you. It was you olden time ‘Tesco’.

The chain maker was next for our visit, so we set out in search for him, walking under a bridge to shelter us from the now torrential rain. We found him busy forging another link for his 30 link chain. His piece of metal was in the furnace and when he took it out, it was pulsating a eerie orange. With this piece of metal, he took a hammer and beat the piece of metal until in an oval shape, hitting the loose ends of the metal together and over each other, making a sort of knot. After doing this, he placed his piece of metal into the furnace again to make it even hotter so that he could beat it even more. After doing this, he took his hammer again and beat it. He then heated up the metal again, and then, taking it out, he used a ‘Foot Hammer’ to make the round shape. After doing this, we could see a perfect oval chain link.

Our group then moved onto the first ever successful steam engine. In 1712, Thomas Newcomen built what was to be the first successful steam engine in the world, used for pumping water from coal mines. In 1986, after more than ten years of research, the Museum completed the construction of a full scale working replica of that 1712 engine.

For the highlight of the day, we went into a vast coal mine, wearing helmets, and equipped with torches of course. Inside this mine, it was dank, smelly and, of course, pitch black. To be honest it was quite scary, especially seeing all of the looming models with no eyes. Even though this was the case, it really was an excellent way of portraying the conditions in which young boys had to work. The first job we came to was to open the door for miners to be able to pass through, which was done by a young boy or one new to the job. Seeing him curled up in a foetus position really unnerved me. We then moved on to a very low cave (5 feet) in which we saw 3 types of people, one of whom was inspecting the coal and putting the large rocks into a cart. Another figure was digging underneath the coal. This was a dangerous job and you needed to be highly trained. The last type was a job in which you had to make the wooden struts which helped keep up the overhanging rock, made by the person who was mining underneath. After moving on from this, and going into a larger tunnel, we saw a method in which to blow the rock from a wall off. You dug a slanted downward tube into which you put gun powder. You sealed the hole and put in a piece of tar rope. Then you lit this and yelled for cover. This method effectively destroyed the rock so that some of it could be mined. Through this tunnel we moved and eventually we saw 3 men having their break. They really needed the break since it was tiring work to mine the rock. We saw a man undercutting the rock again, and also a man who was working right at the top of the roof, which was a very dangerous job. After this, the tour ended, and to my relief we saw daylight!

I thought that this trip was very educational and fun. I believe that I have learnt a lot, and I’m sure that my friends have too. It was a very thrilling experience and I would love to go there again.

By Huai Phen (1R)