Older Press Releases
14th December 2010
Visitors Go Crackers over Museum’s Christmas Events
Tickets to The Black Country Living Museum's Christmas events have sold out in record time, despite an extra date having been added to meet demand. Almost 14,000 tickets have been snapped up at the Dudley destination with the Museum’s Traditional Christmas Evenings, Santa Hunts and Carols by Candlelight evenings selling out by December 13th, 2010.
Friday 10th December 2010, 6.30pm-9.30pm
Edwardian Christmas Stirs up Memories of Willenhall
Unwrap an evening of Edwardian entertainment at the Locksmith's House in Willenhall on Friday 10th December 2010. Leave the hustle and bustle of Christmas present behind and soak up the atmosphere of Christmas past instead.
November 2010
Turn Back the Clock for a Feast of Festive Entertainment
‘Tis the season to be jolly and The Black Country Living Museum's Traditional Christmas Evenings, held on Friday 17, Saturday 18, Monday 20, Tuesday 21 and Wednesday 22 December, are back – bigger and better than before! Due to popular demand an extra date has been added to this year’s event which will include festive food and crafts.
November 2010
An Evening with Professor Carl Chinn MBE
Renowned historian, broadcaster, newspaper columnist and author Professor Carl Chinn MBE, FRSA, PhD will be reminiscing about working class life in the Black Country when he gives a talk entitled ‘The Black Country: The Workshop of the World’ at the Black Country Living Museum’s Workers’ Institute on Thursday 25th November at 7pm.
October 2010
A Halloween Evening to Die For! Saturday 30 October – Sunday 31 October
Seasonal shivers are afoot at the Black Country Living Museum on Saturday 30 October and Sunday 31 October when psychics, mediums and storytellers gather to set pulses racing on the spookiest night of the year.
October 2010
Museum Drops Anchor for Titanic Recreation
Almost 100 years after the Titanic sank off the coast of Newfoundland, a 16-tonne full-size working replica anchor, belonging to the world’s most famous shipwreck, will be exhibited at the Black Country Living Museum in land-locked Dudley, from Monday 4 October until 1 September 2011.
Friday 1 and Saturday 2 October 2010
Comedy Evenings put a Smile on your Fizzog!
A new breed of Black Country comedian will be treading the boards at the Black Country Living Museum on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 October 2010.
Fizzog Theatre Company will be making a welcome return when they stage two Black Country Comedy Evenings in the Museum’s Workers’ Institute.
September 2010
Festival Marks 100 Year Anniversary
The Women Chainmakers' Festival Centenary Celebration Saturday 18 September, 2010
The award-winning Women Chainmakers’ Festival returns to the Black Country Living Museum for a special centenary celebration on Saturday 18th September, 2010. The festival, which won the prestigious Black Country Tourism Award for Best Festival in 2007, promises a sensational line-up of live music, street theatre, poetry and performance and will shine the spotlight on womens’ working rights.
September 2010
Comedy Night is Child’s Play for Fizzog
Award-winning community Theatre Company – Fizzog are back by popular demand for an unmissable evening of comedy. Fizzog’s Black Country Comedy Evening will be performed at the Black Country Living Museum’s Workers' Institute on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 October 2010.
September 2010
Festival Announces Headline Act
The Unthanks, one of the most innovative and critically acclaimed folk bands in modern history, will be this year’s headline act at the Centenary Celebration of the Women Chainmakers’ Festival which takes place on Saturday 18th September, 2010 at the Black Country Living Museum.
August 2010
New Exhibition puts Chain-making Link in the Frame
A new exhibition entitled The Black Country and the White Slaves of England opens at the Black Country Living Museum on Saturday 21 August, 2010 and turns the lens on the Women Chainmakers’ Strike of 1910. The exhibition captures one of history’s decisive moments in a series of 12 reproduction photographs – exactly one hundred years to the day since the strike began.
August 2010
Museum puts the Accent on Dialect!
Professor Henry Higgins may have helped Eliza Doolittle to lose her cockney accent but language experts at the Black Country Living Museum will ensure the region’s voice is in fine fettle with a series of dialect workshops on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 August and Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 August, 2010.
July 2010
Trade Union Heroines Remembered at Chainmakers’ Centenary Festival
Saturday 18 September The pioneering work of a formidable group of Black Country women will be honoured at the Women Chainmakers' Festival held at the Black Country Living Museum on Saturday September 18, 2010. The event celebrates the 1910 Women Chainmakers strike –100 years after the women, led by Mary Macarthur, marched for better pay and shaped industrial relations in Britain. The main speaker at the TUC organised event will be former cabinet minister the Right Honourable Tony Benn.
July 2010
Festival Showcases Rare Gems Sunday 25th July, 2010
One of the largest gatherings of AJS cars will make their motoring debut at the Black Country Living Museum’s Festival of Black Country Vehicles on Sunday 25th July, 2010. The cars, believed to be amongst just 33 still in existence in the world, will line up next to more than 150 historical Black Country vehicles spanning over one hundred years. These include Austin, Bean, Clyno, Jensen, Lomax, Quantum, Rickman, Star, Sunbeam, Swallow, Turner, Westfield and a rare Crescent Cyclecar.
June 2010
Museum gets in a Steam over Free Father’s Day Event!
Sunday 20th June, 2010
The Black Country Living Museum will be getting all steamed up for Father’s Day on Sunday 20th June, 2010 when steam power takes over the Museum. Dads of all ages can enjoy a visit to the award-winning Dudley Museum FREE OF CHARGE when accompanied by a paying son or daughter!
June 2010
Blue Peter’s Horrible History at Museum
BBC 1's flagship children’s programme, Blue Peter, have filmed ‘Gruesome Great Britain – The Victorians’ at the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, as part of CBBC’s Horrible Histories Week. The episode will be shown on Friday 4th June 2010 on BBC 1 at 4.35pm.
June 2010
Museum Celebrates Family Life with Half Price Evening
A perfect summer’s evening is on the menu at the Black Country Living Museum as part of National Family Week. On Saturday 5th June the Museum will throw open its doors after hours for half the usual admission price. A programme of family entertainment is lined up to celebrate the occasion and on the last weekend of half term, it has never been easier to spend quality time with the family.
May 2010
KIDS GIVE THE THUMBS UP TO BLACK COUNTRY TOURIST ATTRACTIONS
Black Country Living Museum and Dudley Zoo have been voted as two of the top ten tourist attractions in the West Midlands, by children and parents from the region.
May 2010
Museum Banks on a Taste of the Past
The Black Country Living Museum will be inviting visitors to taste a real Midlands pint during the month of May when Hansons Mild returns to the Black Country as guest ale at the Museum’s Bottle and Glass Inn. Banks’s Brewery and the Dudley Museum hope a taste of the past will bring visitors pouring in.
May 2010
Night at the Museum Selling Out Fast
Hundreds of people have rushed to snap up tickets to the Black Country Living Museum’s half price ‘Night at the Museum’ event on Saturday 15th May, 2010. With just one week left to purchase the remaining tickets bosses are urging people to book up now to avoid disappointment.
May 2010
Tugs pull in the Crowds at Museum
Tug boats are set to pull in the Bank Holiday crowds at the Black Country Living Museum where the bi-annual Tug Boat event takes place from Saturday 1 May – Monday 3 May, 2010.
April 2010
Half Price ‘Night at the Museum’
Saturday 15th May, 2010 Building on the success of last year's event The Black Country Living Museum will be throwing open its doors after hours on Saturday 15th May as part of the ‘Museums at Night’ event. The Black Country Living Museum aims to inspire and engage by opening its doors to late night visitors at half the usual daily admission price.
April 2010
Museum’s 7-millionth Milestone
Today, 5th April 2010, the Black Country Living Museum greeted its 7-millionth visitor since first opening its doors to the public in April 1978. The Twigg family from Coventry – Jon and Jayne Twigg and children Olivia 15, Louren 11 and Alfie aged 2 received a warm fanfare welcome and lifetime membership to the award-winning open-air museum near Dudley.
March 2010
Rededication of Springfield War Memorial
A Wolverhampton war memorial honouring soldiers who lost their lives in both world wars will be rededicated at a service held at the Black Country Living Museum on Saturday 27th March, 2010. The Museum is delighted to welcome Colonel Tony George MBE TD DL Deputy Lieutenant of the West Midlands, The Right Worshipful The Mayor of Wolverhampton, Councillor Surjan Singh Duhra and Mayoress Mrs Ranbir Duhra and The Worshipful The Mayor of Dudley, Councillor Pat Martin and Consort Mr William Martin.
March 2010
Cracking Drama takes the Scramble out of Easter Friday 2 April – Sunday 18 April
Brash, bolshie and back by popular demand - Fizzog Theatre Company perform their indomitable brand of street theatre whisking up a ‘living soap opera’ at the Black Country Living Museum from Friday 2nd April to Sunday 18th April. A packed programme of Easter activities ensure something for everyone and visitors to the Museum who wear an Easter bonnet will be admitted for half the normal admission price!
March 2010
Tarrant tunes in to Museum’s radio appeal
Radio broadcaster and television presenter Chris Tarrant tuned in to an urgent appeal from the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley for donations of pre 1939 vintage radios for their latest exhibition. The ex Capital Radio breakfast show host and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire presenter proved he was on the same wavelength as the Dudley attraction by posing for pictures with a 1934 Art Deco Murphy ‘24’ radio.
March 2010
Mum’s the Word for Free Event!
Sunday 14 March, 2010 Stuck for inspiration this Mother’s Day? Mums go FREE at the Black Country Living Museum on Sunday 14th March where mothers of all ages can enjoy a trip around the award-winning Dudley Museum FREE OF CHARGE when accompanied by a paying child!
March 2010
Make Smoking History!
The Black Country Living Museum has teamed up with Dudley NHS to make smoking a thing of the past. The museum which is setting up a tobacconist shop is hoping to find smoking memorabilia dating between 1935 and 1939 to deck out its shelves and Dudley NHS is hoping smokers will stub it out and consign their habit to history!
January 2010
Museum Unveils New Exhibition
The Black Country Living Museum has teamed up with Smethwick Heritage Trust to present a new exhibition entitled ‘Smethwick’, as part of the Museum’s permanent display ‘Heart of the Black Country – The Black Country and You’.
