Black Country

For the area of Belgium, see Pays Noir.

Black Country
Region
The Black Country in the 1870s Iron trade of Great Britain
The Black Country in the 1870s Iron trade of Great Britain
Flag of Black Country
Flag
Etymology: Effects of industry or coal mining
The metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton highlighted within the West Midlands metropolitan county
The metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton highlighted within the West Midlands metropolitan county
Coordinates: 52°32′N 2°2′W / 52.533°N 2.033°W / 52.533; -2.033
CountryEngland
CountyWest Midlands
Historic countiesStaffordshire
Worcestershire
Area
 • Total
138 sq mi (360 km2)
Highest elevation
889 ft (271 m)
Population
 (2012)
 • Total
1,146,800[1]
DemonymYam Yam (colloquial)

The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands.[2] 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.[3]

The 14-mile (23 km) road between Wolverhampton and Birmingham was described as "one continuous town" in 1785.[4] The area was one of the Industrial Revolution's birthplaces. Either the 30-foot-thick coal seam close to the surface[5] 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.[6]

  1. ^ "Introduction to the Black Country" (PDF). Walsall MBC. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 May 2020. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  2. ^ "What or where is the Black Country?". Blackcountrysociety.co.uk. Archived from the original on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 13 January 2012.
  3. ^ "What and where is the Black Country?". BBC. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  4. ^ Jones, Peter M. (2009). Industrial Enlightenment: Science, technology and culture in Birmingham and the West Midlands, 1760–1820. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-7190-7770-8.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference distinctly was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Jones, Peter M. (2009). "Birmingham and the West Midlands". Industrial Enlightenment: Science, technology and culture in Birmingham and the West Midlands, 1760–1820. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-7190-7770-8. The notion of the Black Country, that is to say, a rectangle of territory bounded by Walsall to the north and Smethwick, Halesowen and Stourbridge to the south, is also an anachronism, since the expression cannot be traced back beyond the 1840s