Step back into the 1990s, when factory floors were busy, workshops were thriving and local shops and businesses were part of everyday life across the Black Country and beyond.
From factories and engineering firms to trade counters, shops and workplaces, these photographs capture the people and places that gave the region its character. Alongside the working scenes are familiar faces, local businesses and moments that offer a glimpse of a decade of change.
From Wolverhampton and Dudley to Walsall, Cannock and beyond, take a trip down memory lane and see how many people, places and businesses you recognise.
Do you remember any of them? Perhaps you worked there, shopped there or had a family connection. Share your memories and stories in the comments.
- Take a nostalgic journey around Walsall as it looked in the early 1960s.
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5. Stepping into success and building their own futures
Proudly displaying their certificates in May 1992, these determined local women had just successfully completed a pioneering 12-week 'Women into Business' course run by the Sandwell Women's Enterprise Development Agency. Designed to help aspiring female entrepreneurs take the plunge into self-employment, the two-day-a-week training covered key essentials including finance, bookkeeping, marketing, and confidence building. Pictured celebrating their achievements are May Adams, Zanttanniqua, Kerry Skett, Eve Lissemore, and Barbara Long in the back row, joined by Baljinder Mahal, Lesley Donnelly, Donna Eden, and Donna Bissell in the front. Did you or anyone you know take part in local business enterprise courses like this back in the 1990s? | Express & Star archive
6. Expanding horizons after twenty-five years of growth
A worker reaches for stock high on the neatly organised shelving units inside a bustling commercial warehouse in August 1990. Celebrating a quarter-century of steady expansion, local firm Harper & Beardmore Ltd marked the milestone with a major re-launch to offer an even broader range of services, moving operations into expanded, modernised premises to keep pace with demand. Did you ever work in stock control or warehouse distribution during the industrial boom of the 1990s? | Express & Star archives
7. Triumph over tragedy to keep a family trade alive
Sonia Sharma demonstrates industrial textile machinery during a VIP visit in September 1992. Following the tragic passing of their father, Sonia, her sister Anita, and brothers Anil and Ajay rallied together to keep the family firm, Sharma Saki, running on the A1 Industrial Estate in Lewisham Road, Smethwick. Sandwell Council leader Mrs Evelyn Matthews visited the factory to praise the young siblings, who successfully balanced running a thriving textile business alongside their higher education studies and professional training. Do you remember visiting or working on the industrial estates around Smethwick in the early 1990s? | Express & Star archive
8. Cutting-edge technology transformed former wasteland into an industrial powerhouse
A plant operator monitors high-speed precision slitting machinery in May 1990 at the Steelstock site in Warley. Built on land that was once derelict railway sidings and wasteland, the facility featured what was then Europe's most advanced steel processing equipment. The majority of the machinery was British-made and computer-controlled, custom-designed specifically for the Warley plant following extensive worldwide research to keep the Black Country at the forefront of heavy manufacturing. Did you or someone in your family work in heavy steel processing or manufacturing during the 1990s? | Express & Star archive