Black Country Black Country The Black Country is an area of the West Midlands, England, west of Birmingham and commonly refers to a region covering most of the four Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton. During the Industrial Revolution, it became one of the most industrialised parts of Britain with coal mines, coking, iron foundries, glass factories, brickworks and steel mills producing a high level of air pollution. The road between Wolverhampton and Birmingham was described as "one continuous town" in 1785. The first trace of "The Black Country" as an expression dates from the 1840s. The name is believed
Melbourne's Living Museum of the West River. Melbourne's Living Museum of the West Melbourne's Living Museum of the West is an ecomuseum and community social history museum in Melbourne's western suburb of Maribyrnong. It was established as part of Victoria's sesquicentenary (150 year anniversary) in 1984, along with the Children's Museum and the Museum of Chinese Australian History. Generally referred to as the "Living Museum of the West", or just "the Living Museum", it was established in 1984, specifically to address the perceived disadvantage of Melbourne's Western Region, which as well as being generally a working class, industrial area, was considered to lack many cultural facilities.