It is a debate that has been raging for generations – and now a House of Commons motion is to be tabled demanding official recognition of the Black Country.
Calls for the area to be on Ordnance Survey maps failed but regained momentum at the end of last year with the Black Country Chamber of Commerce leading the drive after the death of tycooon Don Richardson.
Members wanted the Black Country included on OS maps in honour of the businessman who helped build Merry Hill in Dudley.
Today Stourbridge Labou MP Lynda Waltho said she tabled a Commons motion calling for the Ordnance Survey Mapping Organisation to put the area on maps officially by naming it.
She said it would help the chamber campaign to promote the area as well as indicate the importance of an area 1.2 million people live and where the industrial revolution
She said: “The current maps show Dudley, Stourbridge, Halesowen, Birmingham and Wolverhampton but not the Black Country.
“The recent campaign to get funding for the Black Country Urban Park put us firmly on the mental map of the funders and we have recently been allocated £25 million of Government funds for the Black Country Learning Challenge so the policy makers recognise us – now it’s about time the region was recognised officially by the map makers.”
Hansard, the official record of the proceedings of Parliament, should also recognise the Black Country as a region, she said.
She added that she was intensely irritated that Hansard always printed the name of the Black Country in lower case letters whenever an MP or peer referred to it, but the West Midlands got capital letters.
“I am hoping that as soon as the OS map makers are persuaded to locate the Black Country officially, it can be recognised as such in the official record too.”
The motion is backed by Dudley North MP Ian Austin, Warley MP John Spellar, Walsall North MP David Winnick, and West Bromwich West MP Adrian Bailey.
What do you think? Post your comments below and tell us where the boundaries of the Black Country should be.
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26 Comments
I’m really proud to come from the Black Country and will stay here till my dying day.
However putting it on the Ordance Survey Map is absurd it’s not part of a postal address and the actual boundary for the black country is stuff of legend. There are some laces that are definately in it but there are grey areas for example is all of Stourbridge in the black country such as Pedmore?
Wolverhampton is not as far as I’m concerned in the Black country but Sedgley is Just about.
If it does have to be on the Map shouldn’t it be clearly defined.
As for me I’m from Lye now Living in Pensnett so I’m definately from the Black Country and still in the Black Country.
Regards
Craig
Too true Craig……ask anyone from around here where the Black Country is and you’ll get a different answer every time. If the folk who live in it don’t know where it is what chance have the map makers got? Personally i prefer the mystery…don’t you?
I was born in Tipton but have lived most of my life in Wolverhampton. I would say that Wolverhampton is not in the Black Country, it never has been - they spake differunt.
Yes but you know Bilstons in Wolverhampton and thats part of the Black Country ay it, but is Penn? So is Willenhall, but would you say Aldridge is? I wouldnt think so…It would be great to recognise the Black Country in the OS maps and in Parliament, but as has already been said, the actual defining lines are difficult to state arent they. Maybe we should just call, for practical reasons, the areas mentioned above the Black Country, just dont let any pesky Brummies in!!
I Refuse to get into the debate.
It is not here in the Black Country where the debate needs to happen - it is elsewhere in the UK who think Brummies are Black Country and Black Country are Brummies, etc and spake the same lingo.
The Black Country ceased to exist when the open cast mining, after which it was named, was worked out.
Less efforts should be directed to an obsolete and irrelevent name for a vague area and more effort on the real and existing Cities and towns of the South Staffordshire connurbation…. which is what is should really be called.
totally agree spanish wolf! let it be a mystery of where the borders are but definately NO BRUMMIES!I was born and bred in wednesfield and now live in stourbridge and am proud of being a Black Countyite.
VERY SLIPPERY GROUND ! FOR EXAMPLE IS STOURBRIDGE ALL PART OF IT ?
AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED CONSECRATION ONLY CAME AFTER THE CONQUEST BY THE EMPIRE OF DUDLEY AND THE SIGNS THEN APPEARED COMING OUT OF WEST HAGLEY.A LOT OF PEOPLE IN STOURBRIDGE STILL HAVE THEIR HEART REALLY IN WORCESTERSHIRE AS RIVAL TO KIDDERMINSTER : IT’S ALL LINKED TO CIDER,CRICKET AND ACCENTS WHICH CHANGE VERY QUICK ROUND THAT END.ON THE OTHER HAND LYE YES 100% SURE BLACK COUNTRY LIKE CRADLEY HEATH AND BRIERLEY HILL.EVEN DUDLEY TOWN IS A MIXTURE WITH CRICKET AND HAVING BEEN IN WORCESTERSHIRE …….
THERE ARE LOTS OF AREA LIKE THIS.FOR EXAMPLE CENRAL WOLVERHAMPTON BLACK COUNTRY OR NOT ?
Surely it is time that we forgot about “The Black Country” and got back to having Staffordshire and Warwickshire as postal addresses and get rid of the horrible West Midlands tag, most of our counties are now lovely green areas and the Shires sum them up great!!!
This is a stupid idea, a cynical way of trying to redefine our identities.
I used to be very proud to be from the Black Country, but these days it is used by local government as a way of trying to lump disparate communities together into an artificial conurbation.
I am from Dudley, and proud of it. People from Wolverhampton and Walsall have every reason to be proud of where they are from. But they are different towns, with their own identity, and that is the way it should be.
Whitehall tried to bunch us all together in the unloved West Midlands, that failed, so now they are trying to create another artificial identity.
Yes Fev, you’re right – if somebody has to pin a county on me (West Midlands ceased to exist in 1986) I would rather say I’m from Worcestershire, which has an historic basis, rather than something dreamt up by civil servants in the 1970s.
Incidentally, the term Black Country was used long before there was any industrial pollution: in its royal charter, Henry VIII referred to “Rowley Regis in the Blacke Countrye”.
Sorry if I’m sounding a bit emotional about all this, but I am very proud of where I am from, the HISTORIC Black Country, and that has nothing to do with 1970s local government boundaries.
Old folk “rumour” has it that the black country is whatever is in between and around the hills of dudley and wednesbury,it is said that queen victoria travelled through tipton on a train and orderd the curtains shut because she “did not want to see this black country” so how can Carl Chin and all the other so called black country experts even say that cheslyn hay, pedmore,wolverhampton,and all the other outside towns be in the black country, did she must have had some powerfull binoculars to see cheslyn hay!
Glad to be born and bread in the black country and proud of it!
We should stop these petty squabbles about exactly where and when the Black Country was. The Government has plans to create a Greater Birmingham City Region as part of EU dictat and the four bouroughs of Walsall, Wolves, Dudley and Sandwell should stand together and promote a strong, contemporary regional identity that can compete with that of Birmingham.
By arguing about where subjective boundaries lie we are our own worst enemies. long live the post-industrial Black Country!
no.5,YOMM SPAKIN RUBBISH BRUMMIES DOHW SPAKE LIKE US,THEY SPEAK SLOWER AND DOPEY,WE TALK ABIT FASTER THE TRUE BLACK COUNTRY LOT TIPTON,DUDLEY,CRADLEY,WEDNESBURY,MY GRANDAD TOLD ME DAD YA COULD’NT SEE TIPTON FROM DUDLEY CASTLE WITH THE SMOG, THATS THE TRUE MAP OF THE BLACK COUNTRY.
Ah! the smog. I have first hand experience. I used to have to sit on the nearside step of my father’s van and guide him… when I was a boy. This was in Wton so are you saying Wton is in the Black Country?
Henry viii did mention the black country but the modern phrase was coined by people not from the area who referrd to it being black by day(soil n smog) and red by night(furnaces,foundries) due to the industry of coal,iron n steel etc,This incorporates wolverhampton,dudley,walsall,sandwell.It is quite clear that many people have no idea of the history of the area.Their was mining in other pats of wolves not just wednesfield and bilston and their are still shafts under the town centre.there was also mining in walsall.The black country was at its height in10th century so what people look at now has long disappeared.It was said in the 19century that when one looked at wolverhampton all you could see was ‘coal mines and furnaces,the soil was black the air was black and even the people were black.’ the 4 boroughs all make up the black country.Learn your history then we can all benefit.
excuse my typing the black country was at its height in the 19th century
All the above and NO mention of DARLASTON. The centre of the Black Country with its manufacturing qualities in the past more so than most of those mentioned.
Amalgamated (by government degree !!) with Walsall and so called “Ugley Walsall my home town. Travelling once a year to DARLASTON, I found it impossible to find the landmdarks clearly remembered from years ago. Now none existant.
Where the hell is DARLASTON. The very centre of he BLACK COUNTRY with its past history of maunfacturing more so than any others mentioned.
Now part of “Ugley Walsall, my home town”
I m read this mail being Humanbeing point of view no rite or wrong, being in responsible I could mention like my country to be on the map MYANMAR (BURMA) MUst be on map. most needed country on the live map.. so many things happening out there.
I remember reading years ago & I can’t think who said it, but they claimed the Black Country wasn’t a place, but a state of mind.
Good-evening all!
An official recognition of the “Black Country”,
would be wonderful indeed!Finding -out the exact
definition,not to mention the exact dimensions,
to the very last inch,would lay to rest for ever
the sqabbles about what part of one,s home town
does,or does,nt belong in the B.C!After all,it
has been around for so long,being at the very
cradle of the industrial revolution,that made
Britain the nation it is today!Alas!Many an
industry has long gone to the dogs,name but a few
like the motoring industry .The B.C has always been
a major part of the industrial hart of the west
Midlands,be proud for a change,I always will be,
up to my last breath!
F.J.Bartling,Hilversum,Holland,once a lad from
Dudley,and proud still!
Brian like i said for people to learn their history.I said the blackcountry incoporates the 4 boroughs of wolves,walsall,sandwell and dudley.Now the last time i looked places like Darlaston,Wednesbury ,Tipton etc., are in those boroughs? Like i said it wasn’t called the black country because of the coal seam but becuae of the effect of the industry which included coal,iron,steel etc., Due to this the soil and air(smog) was black by day and red by night -hence the black country. So if you are in these 4 boroughs them you are part of the black country.It was stated in 1860 that the black country was so called due to the effect of the industry and it engulfed an area up to 15 miles west of Birmingham !
Jimmy Mac, I think you need to learn your history. For one, Wolverhampton has not been a borough since it was granted city status in 2001.
The term Black Country pre-dated the Industrial Revolution, so how can it have taken its name from it? Time travel?
Sure the description of the region being “black by day and red by night” came later, but that is something different.
The four local authorities you refer to were not created not during the Industrial Revolution, but in 1974, so why are we using those as our definition?
The Black Country has much to be proud of, but I don’t honestly think industrial pollution should be the source of our identity.
Why aren’t people more proud of our towns and cities, rather than wanting to be lumped together in some local government sub-region? Dudley, Wolverhampton and Walsall are bigger in population than Newcastle, Nottingham or Swansea, so why do we need to be lumped together? You can’t imagine the people of Blackburn, Bolton or Burnley wanting wanting to be described on a map as the Cotton Country.
It is one thing to be proud of Black Country heritage. It is somethng else to define our identity by some artificial sub-region arbitarily defined by government officials and then given an historic name.
Boster you didnt read my posts properly and its squabbling like this that keeps us down.i have already made reference to Henry v111 and Rowley.As to Wolves not being a borough anymore - The black country is technically no more because the industrues have virtually gone and those left have been cleaned up. So we have no more smog anymore which is part of how the region got its name in the 19th century.
People are proud of their own towns but when Birmingham is no longer considered the 2nd city and loses out to Manchester how do you think smaller towns in the area can hope to survive and prosper.The only way is to band together under the common goal of the 4 boroughs of the black country.Dudle wolves and walsall are only bigger than newcastle if you do lump em together.unite and stop the useless squabbling !
No, no, no Jimmy. Dudley, population 305,000 is bigger than Newcastle-upon-Tyne (pop 259,000), and Walsall (253,000) and Wolverhampton (251,000) are of comparable size. Similarly, Nottingham has a population of 278,700, while Swansea is a mere tiddler at 225,000. (There are different ways of measuring the size of towns and cities - some define it by the civic boundaries, others by the catchment of the centre, but the result is pretty much the same, whichever you use).
We should be shouting this from the rooftops, and demanding to be treated on an equal footing to these other cities, instead of diluting our identity by merging into some spurious conurbation that has very little to do with our identity, and more to do with government officials lumping us together for the convenience of its quangos.
Bilston is definately in the Black Country - people sometimes don’t realise it had its own council and was an independent town until Wolverhampton took it over along with Wednesfield. I think some areas of Wolverhampton itself are not in the Black Country, especially areas such as Bradmore, Pendeford and Oxley. Walsall Borough contains a number of areas that aren’t proper Black Country as well - such as Aldrige, Brownhills and Pelsall.
But despite the blurring of the Black Country’s historic borders and the modern definition of the four Metropolitan Boroughs as The Black Country, the area’s name should definately feature on maps. This would be a great way of showing the Black Country’s importance and identity, as well as its heritage.