Providence Chapel, Black Country Living Museum of the pews. The Museum was in fact interested in saving the whole building and in November 1975 the building was dismantled and the larger parts transferred to the Museum site. There were however problems with certain bricks which could not be used again. As luck would have it, it was possible to dismantle another chapel in Wolverhampton Street, Dudley which dated from 1828-9. This provided the right kind of brick for the chapel. Reconstruction at the Museum began in June 1977 and took two years, the chapel was dedicated in 1979. The chapel is a simple, brick-built, rectangle with
Black Country Living Museum Pawnbrokers Shop Black Country Living Museum Pawnbrokers Shop The Pawnbroker's Shop that has been reconstructed at Black Country Living Museum is one of a pair of cottages built in the 1840s, from School Lane in Himley. For an overview of Pawnbroking please see The History of Pawnbroking. Pawnshops prospered in areas where the wages were low and unstable. In the Black Country in 1870 there were 160 pawnbrokers in the area, Walsall had 15 and Wednesbury had 48. For a housewife with a large family to look after it was a constant struggle to make ends meet. It was not uncommon for