Black Country Museum

Upper School children visited the Black Country Museum in Dudley, West Midlands, to help them with their study of Victorian Britain. The Black Country Museum has a variety of exhibits which include original buildings and recreations of aspects of Victorian life. These exhibits include a Victorian street with all the high street shops, industrial premises like the blacksmith and glass maker, a recreation of a Victorian coal mine and many more. Here is a brief tour of the black Country Museum as seen through the eyes of the children from Four Dwellings Junior School.

The Victorian Blacksmith made many things by hand that are made by machine today. He made chains, nails, railings for fences and horse shoes. It is very hot in the blacksmiths'. He has to heat up a coal fire in his forge to very high temperatures to be able to bend and shape the metal into what he wants it to be. He uses a hammer and an angle iron to bend the heated metal into shape.

Canals were were important transportation link in Victorian times. There were no motorways and roads were bumpy so it took a long time to get things from one place to another. Goods were transported on canals in barges pulled by horses on the bank along o tow path.

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