About The Museum's Work
The story of the Black Country is distinctive because of the scale, drama, intensity and multiplicity of the industrial might that was unleashed here. Lying in the long shadow of Britain’s second city, Birmingham, the Black Country has, through its manufactures and its people established its own very particular identity. The industrial landscape was entirely new at the time and the scene – ‘black by day and red by night’ – horrified and fascinated contemporaries.
Our mission at the Museum is ‘to engage hearts and minds through the best use of our collections to inspire the widest possible audience about the story of the Black Country – the world’s first industrial landscape’.
Since the 1970s, we’ve done this by preserving the nucleus of a Black Country industrial landscape (coal mines, Scheduled limekilns and an arm of the Midlands canal network) and by adding over 60 representative buildings, bridges and street furniture. There are also extensive collections of equipment, tools, products and catalogues representing the wide range of industrial activities carried out across the region. Every day life is captured through the collections of domestic furnishings, retail businesses and community life objects. To find out more about these collections, go to Our Collections.
2011 Annual Review
The Black Country Living Museum is pleased to present its annual review for the year ended 31 March 2011, setting out its major achievements, performance, public benefit and future plans.
“At the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, we recognise the need for what has been called a ‘third place’, a place which is neither work nor home; where people can engage in a stimulating, intellectual and physical environment and where the boundaries between learning and leisure, education and entertainment are blurred, where people are excited and have fun, and on occasions, challenged. Such a place very much includes the Black Country Living Museum.”Andrew Lovett Chief Executive & Museum Director
Read More Here (PDF - 3.9MB)
