Hello! Our day started with a 40 minute bus ride to Black Country, an area that was once the place of core industrialization. The coal, steel, brick, and iron industries thrived in this area and the small town still consists of the original buildings to encapsulate the old-time feel, with even workers dressing to portray the time period. It was very neat to walk into the shops and old houses in the town that consist of original items and/or are designed to fit the time period of when Black Country was in its prime.
When we first arrived, we saw some of the equipment once used for mining. Unfortunately, the actual mines are getting worked on right now, so we could not go in them. We did, though, get to see a large bucket that would help to bring the workers up and down from the mine. If there was ever a drill where they needed to get many people out at once, they would fit 24 people in total, with some standing around it on the rim.This shocked me because the bucket looked like it would only fit about five people inside of it. As an industry itself, mining was not the safest. The workers were constantly surrounded by safety hazards that came from the use of dynamite, underground collapsion, and exposure to toxic dust. We even learned that sometimes the workers would never see the light of day because they would go down into the mines before sunrise and come out after sunset. Additionally, there were kids as young as 6 years old that had to help work the mines’ trap-doors.
After looking around the grounds some more, our group went into an old school house. This weekend is 60s themed in the entire Black Country area, so we got a pretend lesson that was meant to be like one that took place in 1965 for young children. Our “teacher” went around to check people’s hands, making sure we were all clean, and everyone who had on nail polish had to stand at the front of the room and were “shamed” by the class. She said that she had already told us to stop drawing on our nails with markers! We also practiced our spelling and multiplication as a class. She even had some audience participation for practicing “Hickory Dickory Dock”, including a grown man who had to wear a mouse puppet and make mouse noises!
Following our lesson, a few of us went to Hobbs & Sons, which is known for their fish and chips. This was my first fish and chips of the trip and it did not disappoint! It was very flavorful and the fries were delicious as well. There was a lot more of Black Country to explore after so we walked around and stopped into lots of the shops. In one shop, we got to see a man who was demonstrating the making of pills from back during the Industrial Revolution time period. We then stopped into a bakery with a bunch of desserts based on older-recipes and I got a linzer cookie- it was tasty!
Before we headed back to the bus to come back, we walked through a bunch of thrift stands with ‘60s items such as clothes, vinyls, bags, decorations, and more. I was lucky to find the cutest black purse for just £2. I am glad I will have something I can use frequently that will remind me of this day. To finish up this day, I went to an Italian restaurant with a couple of other girls and had a delicious bowl of bolognese and a piece of chocolate cake.