Older News
AMBASSADOR PRAISES MUSEUM
by BCLM
The UK Ambassador of China, Her Excellency Madam Fu Ying, visited the Museum during a recent trip to Britain and told guests at the launch of the Birmingham China Business Forum that she had been impressed by the Black Country Living Museum.
"I felt that China was a bit like that - you see a lot of cottage factories like those displayed in the Black Country Museum."
The Ambassador's visit was timed to coincide with the Birmingham China Business Forum, which aims to promote trade between Birmingham and China.
MINISTER ON MUSEUM FACT-FINDING MISSION
by BCLM
Tourism Minister Shaun Woodward MP and Ian Austin MP for Dudley North went on a detailed tour of Dudley's top tourist attractions on Monday 18th June 2007 and visited the award-winning Black Country Living Museum, Dudley Zoo and Dudley Canal Tunnel. The visit, part of a fact-finding mission on tourism and regeneration in the West Midlands, followed parliamentary questions asked by Mr Austin. Mr Austin invited the Minister for Tourism to come to Dudley and to visit Dudley's tourist attractions and see the contribution they are making to the regeneration of Dudley Town Centre. The Minister for Tourism took a guided tour of the Museum's canalside village, enjoyed a ride on a 1948 Guy Vixen Bus and enjoyed a portion of the Museum's world-famous fish and chips, cooked 1930s style in beef dripping.
Ian N. Walden, O.B.E. Director of the Black Country Living Museum said: "We are delighted that the Minister visited the Black Country Living Museum. We believe that it is essential for MP's to understand the significant positive effect good attractions have on both the economy and reputation of a town."
Ian Austin MP said: "Tourism makes a huge contribution to our economy and this visit shows the government is listening to our excellent tourist attractions such as the Zoo and the Black Country Living Museum. I want him to see the contribution they make and I hope the government will continue to help support the industry so that our region's economy will continue to grow and gear itself up for the 2012 Olympics. Dudley town centre should be at the heart of tourism in Dudley. The heritage will play a vital role in the regeneration of Dudley town centre. With the Castle hosting concerts for international acts like Katherine Jenkins; the Lottery bid to transform the caves and the planned developments at the Black Country Living Museum - this really is an exciting time for the town".
And All that Jazz!
by BCLM
The Black Country Living Museum, Dudley, joined forces with Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club of Birmingham Breakfast to host Jazz at the Museum on Thursday 12th July, 2007. The exclusive jazz extravaganza was a first for the Museum and bought together a medley of musicians from the UK and across the world.
Swinging into town as part of the 22nd Birmingham International Jazz Festival were a lively line up of performers including accomplished jazz musician Val Wiseman, the Miskolc Dixieland Band from Hungary, the New Orleans Jump Band from Sotogrande, Spain and local group Dennis Mowatt's Dixie Syncopators.
The Museum was an extraordinary venue for this showcase of worldwide talent and visitors enjoyed an unforgettable evening of memories and jazz, promising to put the Black Country Living Museum firmly on the musical map.
Live Soap Opera at the Black Country Living Museum
by BCLM
Soap addicts got an extra fix at the Black Country Living Museum when the Museum's answer to the Duckworth's and the Tilsley's moved in for an episode of street drama - Corrie style, from the 4th - 31st August 2007. The Black Country Living Museum's resident soap stars - the Froggat's and the Cotterill's shone the spotlight on working class life during the 1920s when they performed the second part of their Theatre in Education play 'Sweating for Bread'. Highly acclaimed theatre company - Fizzog was awarded a £32,000 grant from the Arts Council England to bring their special brand of community theatre to primary schools and the Black Counry Living Museum. Their tour began in the region's schools with a show designed especially for Key Stage 2 children - depicting the daily and working lives of four Black Country youngsters - Millie Froggat, Florrie Froggat, Lizzie Cotterill and Victoria Mary Cotterill, in the late 1800s. Highlighting such issues as child labour and social conditions, the company provided a memorable and entertaining insight into the history and culture of the region. Museum visitors caught up with the characters a quarter of a century later when Millie, Florrie, Lizzie and Victoria had grown up and moved into the Station Road Back to Backs at the Black Country Living Museum. Humour, intrigue, love and loss interwove into this tale with a twist and brought to life the relationships, hopes and aspirations of two ordinary Black Country families.
Family Link to Region’s Chainmaking Past
by BCLM
Trevor Woodall's mother was the last Chainmaker in Britain. He reflects on her life and on the chainmaking skills that now only exist at the Black Country Living Museum.
We think we’ve got it tough but back in 1913 Lucy Woodall, the last woman chainmaker in the Black Country and the last artisan chainmaker in the world, worked a twelve hour day, six days a week and hammered out one link per minute for two and half pence an hour!
“The conditions were very poor,” explains her son, 78 year old Trevor Woodall from Old Hill, Cradley Heath. “There was no health and safety and children worked the bellows. Some of them would get badly hurt. The women chainmakers always wore spats on their ankles but because they were made out of old material they would go up in flames. My mother often came home with burns.”
There were 5,000 chainmakers in the Black Country and more than 2,000 worked in Cradley Heath, of these 1000 were women. Unusually Lucy chose to work in the profession, ignoring the advice of her headmistress who wanted her to take up needlepoint. According to an article in the Express and Star dated 12th August, 2004, Lucy said: “it was what I wanted and the money was needed at home. So I signed up for an apprenticeship.”
Lucy was taken on at Horton’s chain factory in Park Street, Old Hill when she was 13 years of age, learning the trade from the people she worked with. Finishing her apprenticeship in 1915 Lucy moved to Elizabeth Perry’s chain shop where she made cavalry chain for the war effort. Two years later she went to William Stevens’ and later, in the early 1920s, to Harry Stevens in Oak Street, Old Hill where she worked for the next 35 years.
Trevor said: “My mother lived in a two up, two down and we didn't have an indoor bathroom. When I was born mum made a cot out of the cupboard drawer and put me in there!
“When I was older we would go shopping to Old Hill and I always wondered why we went in the evening. The street was full of people selling their wares and at 9 o’clock at night they would sell great joints of meat at giveaway prices.
“I’d look in on the chain shop on my way to school. I'd lean over the stable door as I was never allowed inside until I was older because it was so dangerous. Life was tough for the chainmakers but there was a tremendous camaraderie between the women. They used to sing a song called 'Rosemary Lane'. They'd wrap a hammer shaft in a sweat cloth so that it resembled a child. The shaft was the body and the hammer the head and they would rock 'the baby' as they sang. ”
In 1932 Lucy’s husband Jack contracted pneumonia and died and she became the sole breadwinner, supporting herself and 2 year old Trevor.
“The day after my father’s death a ‘mean’s test’ man came knocking at the door. He said there was too much money coming into the house! When my mother explained that she couldn’t talk to him that day as my father had just died, he said ‘I won’t need to come back again as that’s evened things up”
“Despite her job my mother always wore her wedding ring and like most of the women in those days wore a broad band wedding ring. Her first job of the day would be to wrap a piece of cloth around her finger – as though she had an injury, to protect the ring. All the women did this.”
For much of the time Lucy made chain for agriculture and in 1950 the Express and Star ran a feature on Lucy as an ‘Earner of Dollars’ as she forged cattle chain for the Canadian and American markets. She even made chain bound for Africa, for use in Lion traps.
“One day my mother came home really worried. She had discovered she was making chains for the slave trade and said 'I don’t want to do it any more'. I told her that she didn’t have any choice and would just have to get on with it.”
In 1957 Harry Stevens was bought by Samuel Woodhouse, where Lucy continued to work until 1961. In 1961 Sheila Riley of the Express and Star visited Woodhouse. She wrote, “Sparks are flying everywhere. Hot chains lie on the floors. The clang of the hammers, the roar, the sparks and the ever present danger that a careless blow could cause a lot of damage doesn’t make this workshop the most pleasant of places. But Mrs Woodall and her colleagues love the work. They have done it all their lives like their mothers and fathers before them.”
Lucy retired in 1969 but boredom soon sent her back to the forge to work part-time. As a mark of respect the Black Country Society made her an Honorary Vice President. She finally gave up chainmaking in 1973, 60 years after she first picked up her hammer.
Trevor said: “It's sad that so much industry has disappeared but I'm glad chainmaking no longer needs such hard physical work. The women chainmakers paid a high price. I can survive more than most which is something I inherited from my mother, that and her determination!”
Visitors to the Black Country Living Museum will soon be able to read all about the life of Lucy Woodall in a new exhibition to be launched as part of the Worker's Institute in spring 2008.
The Women Chainmaker's Festival takes place at The Black Country Living Museum on Saturday 15th September. Headline acts include Tony Benn and Billy Bragg. Tickets cost £11.95 for adults, £9.75 for senior citizens, £6.50 for children.