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Daytrip: Black Country Museum:
Acres of living history. This is what the Black Country Living Museum is. Acres of what once was, a truly fascinating place and a testament to the idea that we are completely obsessed with modernism to the point that we as a people ignore the past. This museum is quite literally a reconstruction of various lifestyles dating back to the 1920's. The West Midlands in England was a centre for industrialism, and was coined at this time the "Black Country" due to the rise of thick smog that tainted the sky above the ares from the many ironworking factories.
The area that is labelled as the Black Country includes but is not limited to such towns as Walsall, Wolverhampton, Dudley & Sandwell. But many other places have industrial fame to their name, such as Stourbridge where I stayed which was the home of glassmaking and the very origins of Stuart Crystal Glass. Just the idea that the sky itself was awash with black smoke because of all this work completely reinforces the idea that this area of England owned industry at the time.
The living conditions, of course, were horrific, among the many ventures in the makeshift "Black Country" village you can go down into a charcoal stiflingly hot black mine that would have been used for coal mining. Darkness absolutely consumes you as you head down, to imagine spending more than 12 hours down there a day mining in a dusty death ridden environment, well ... it is unfathomable. The scope that these people went to, young boys to the age of eight working in back garden workshops. Smashing metal with some primal looking instrument. I couldn't handle it, but then I am a fairly refined young fellow.
It is important to keep the world educated of these families that literally were the salt of the Earth, without them England would be a vastly different place. So the sacrfice of those people's lungs and internal organs to the elements they exposed them to ... well it wasn't a waste.
Highlights of the town for me were the fairground, which sparks such an element of "fun" into the spirit as soon as you see it. Its quite depressing, really, heading into the mine and imagining such awful lifestyles and then seeing the cottages that you could walk across in less than ten seconds. So when the fairground comes into vision, its such a joyous moment. And the shouts and screams of children enjoying the still operating rides, it embellishes the idea that a simple carousel will always be a great form of entertainment.
Another highlight, the traditional fish and chips which tasted like a Godly fishy ambrosia (that sounded better in my head), the perfect swill of amber liquid from the local pub serving local ales. The crisp wind that smacked you with cold pins and needles on the canal side. However the original 1920's reconstructed cinema was my favourite, showing a very early Western Short with Mickey Rooney as a child ... although he didn't grow much taller anyway. It was magical to be in a building that once portrayed humour, horror, romance, drama through the medium of film to people more than 70 years ago, those people sat in the same seat I did, taking away the same emotions as I did. Its a very romantic look at the medium that is film, but I am a major advocate that film will always and has always been relevant.
I was just so eclipsed by admiration that curators and builders had taken buildings that once existed through the vast area that is the "Black Country" and brought them back to life for a whole host of new comers. New generations, the sweet store, the hardware store, the pub, the cinema, its all just very surreal. A museum where you don't just observe what history was like you walk through it you buy products from the time you speak to guides who are in character its a most spectacular illusion to lose yourself in.
Another beautiful thing about it is the fact that the elegant ruins of Dudley Castle overlook the rebuilt town, and cast its aged, ancient presence on the land. An operating industry in the shadow of regality from a lost class system and a time of ruling Kings and Queens. A working class marvel in the shadow of something that represents such prestige, such ... money and ... aristocracy. Gosh, is that ironic? A museum celebrating the working class in the shadow of a symbol of wealth? Or we could turn the tables and claim that the Black Country Museum operates still today, offering valid services and products to its visitors. Whereas Dudley Castle is but a ruin, a magnificent ruin, but a ruin all the same. Heh.
Which ever way you look at i, it just highlight the diverse history and chapters that have played on the pages of this country.
Remarkable.
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