Black Country Living Museum

August 27, 2013 - We visited the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley (West Midlands of England) with the Chadwicks and the Glotts.  The museum is in the heart of the Black Country (obviously) which makes the claim to be the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.  It is close to the site where Thomas Dudley first mastered the technique of smelting iron with coal instead of wood charcoal and making iron enough for industrial use.  There are also many mine shafts on site.  So, as you can read...we got an education on this trip.

They have relocated and preserved many buildings from the surrounding boroughs and made a little village with many shops like glass makers/engravers, a sweet shop, a chemist, an ironmongers shop, etc.  There is also a little chapel, an old school house and a hardware store.

In the village, near the chapel, they had some outside toys for the kids.  The boys had fun with each of these.

There are electric trams and trolleybuses that transport people around the property.

One of the areas was watching nails being made, chains being made, etc.  The Black Country is also known for their anchors out of iron.

There was a 1930's fairground located behind the schoolhouse.  It had many rides like the helter skelter.  Charlie and Philip tried out many of them.  I think their favorite was the Cake Walk that they tried out with Daddy.

Our last stop of the day was the canal boat into the Dudley Tunnel.  It was originally built in 1775 and was used to help with the transport of limestone extracted from the mines. "Visitors to the adjacent Black Country Living Museum, which opened in 1978, may take a battery-powered narrowboat trip either through the tunnel or partway through the tunnel and the adjacent mines; and, also, try legging the boat."

Here is Daniel Chadwick "legging" the boat.