Walks in the Midlands Countryside
Walks in the Midlands Countryside

Author: Brian Conduit

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 9781850589716

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In 1865 Elihu Burritt, a notable American peace and anti-slavery activist, was appointed the United States consul in Birmingham, at the time a rapidly growing manufacturing city and centre of a major industrial area. He travelling extensively throughout the Midlands, not just in Birmingham and the heavily industrialised Black Country but also in the rural areas that lay beyond the industrial belt in Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Shropshire. Burritt was full of enthusiasm for everything he saw and his obvious love for the area shines through in the book that he subsequently wrote about his journeys. That book, published in 1868, was entitled Walks in the Black Country and its Green Borderland. These 20 walks take you through areas of the Midlands which, 150 years since Burritt walked this way, still contain some of the most varied, beautiful and interesting landscapes and some of the finest old towns and villages in the country.

Gibbo-In My Life
Gibbo-In My Life

Author: Paul André Gibbons

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2012-05

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1475902735

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Crafted with enormous appeal, GIBBO is a moving account that sweeps the reader into the world of a young lad born in the Black Country of England, a place rich in history and steeped in the glory of medieval times, the story enhanced by Gibbo's remembrances of his beloved football tribe, West Bromwich Albion, and his desire to bring English footy to America. Gibbo's writer weaves a poignant life story that will stay around forever, transferring to paper an admixture of gusto, humour, and sadness from a broad yam-yam dialect that cannot be obscured by favourite son, Paul André Gibbons, one of the Southeast USA's most popular Coerver soccer coaches. Through tears of remembrance, Gibbo relives the pain of loss that sends him spiraling into despondency as childhood dreams are dashed on the rocks of bereavement. He takes to the soccer ball that is his bastion, to the game that identifies him, learning that there is eventually a reprieve and he must make the exchange of beauty for ashes if he is to move on in life. Follow Gibbo as he coaches and teaches soccer in the Black Country of England, in America, and with his soccer camps the world over, including Coaching for Conservation in Botswana, Africa. Far more emotional than Gibbo's trials and triumphs in the world of soccer is the thought of his grandchildren a continent away, growing older and taller by the day, and he is not there to see it happen. He learns a man's worth is not measured in dollars and cents or in British pound but in a job well done whether in Europe, South Asia, Africa, or the USA, and that the icing on his cake is an annual trip to The Black Country of England to strengthen the ties that bind.

Still Telling It As It Was (More Memories of the Black Country)
Still Telling It As It Was (More Memories of the Black Country)

Author: Kathleen Hann

Publisher: Trafford Publishing

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 1412055350

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The second part of Kathleen Hann's autobiography, Still Telling It As It Was, sees us through her early married life in the Black Country from 1951 to her move to Telford in 1969. With her husband Peter, just demobbed, they face financial hardship due to low wages and high housing costs. Bringing up three children at the time, Kathleen shows her love, care, mettle and great skills with "make do and mend" which have been passed on by her mother. Unwittingly renting a room to a prostitute and her pimp, buying a war bombed house, and getting a failing public house back on its feet are just a few of the trials and tribulations which Kathleen and Peter face in this story. Tales of terribly hard physical labour for both of them, which left permanent physical and mental scars, are retold with chilling accuracy. The progress of her son's major illness is also described with great passion and dignity, especially considering the way she was treated by the some of the medical profession at the time. There are lighter notes though – the DIY chimney sweeping saga, the Golden Child who stuffed her knickers down the drains, and Kathleen's own very short fuse to an exploding temper – these all bring very different and sometimes highly amusing insights into this very closely knit and loving family. A vital document for any social historian, or a grippingly real story of hardship in the Black Country of the 1950s and 60s, this book is a prime candidate for anyone's must read list.

The Little Book of the Black Country
The Little Book of the Black Country

Author: Michael Pearson

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2013-10-01

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 0750951788

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Did You Know? Butcher Keith Boxley of Wombourne made the longest continuous sausage in 1988. It was 21.12km in length! The first general strike in the Black Country took place in 1842. The widespread public unrest was regarded nationally as the first ever general strike. Hell Lane in Sedgley was described as the ‘most unruly place’ in the Black Country. A woman who lived in the lane was said to have been a witch and could turn herself into a white rabbit to spy on her neighbours. The Little Book of the Black Country is a funny, fact-packed compendium of frivolous, fantastic, and simply strange information. Here we find out about the region’s most unusual crimes and punishments, eccentric inhabitants, quirky history, famous figures and literally hundreds of wacky facts. From royal visits and local celebrities, to the riotous Wednesbury protests and a particularly notorious reverend, this is a myriad of data on the Black Country, gathered together by author and local historian Michael Pearson. A handy reference and quirky guide, this engaging little book can be dipped into time and again to reveal something you never knew, making it essential reading for visitors and locals alike.

Pandaemonium 1660–1886
Pandaemonium 1660–1886

Author: Humphrey Jennings

Publisher: Icon Books Ltd

Published: 2012-10-04

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1848315864

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Collecting texts taken from letters, diaries, literature, scientific journals and reports, Pandæmonium gathers a beguiling narrative as it traces the development of the machine age in Britain. Covering the years between 1660 and 1886, it offers a rich tapestry of human experience, from eyewitness reports of the Luddite Riots and the Peterloo Massacre to more intimate accounts of child labour, Utopian communities, the desecration of the natural world, ground-breaking scientific experiments, and the coming of the railways. Humphrey Jennings, co-founder of the Mass Observation movement of the 1930s and acclaimed documentary film-maker, assembled an enthralling narrative of this key period in Britain's national consciousness. The result is a highly original artistic achievement in its own right. Thanks to the efforts of his daughter, Marie-Louise Jennings, Pandæmonium was originally published in 1985, and in 2012 it was the inspiration behind Danny Boyle's electrifying Opening Ceremony for the London Olympic Games. Frank Cottrell Boyce, who wrote the scenario for the ceremony, contributes a revealing new foreword for this edition.

My Black Country
My Black Country

Author: Alice Randall

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2024-04-09

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 166801842X

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Alice Randall, award-winning professor, songwriter, and author with a “lively, engaging, and often wise” (The New York Times Book Review) voice, offers a lyrical, introspective, and unforgettable account of her past and her search for the first family of Black country music. Country music had brought Randall and her activist mother together and even gave Randall a singular distinction in American music history: she is the first Black woman to cowrite a number one country hit, Trisha Yearwood’s “XXX’s and OOO’s”. Randall found inspiration and comfort in the sounds and history of the first family of Black country music: DeFord Bailey, Lil Hardin, Ray Charles, Charley Pride, and Herb Jeffries who, together, made up a community of Black Americans rising through hard times to create simple beauty, true joy, and sometimes profound eccentricity. What emerges in My Black Country is a celebration of the most American of music genres and the radical joy in realizing the power of Black influence on American culture. As country music goes through a fresh renaissance today, with a new wave of Black artists enjoying success, My Black Country is the perfect gift for longtime country fans and a vibrant introduction to a new generation of listeners who previously were not invited to give the genre a chance.