Black Country the globe". Burritt used the term to refer to a wider area than its common modern usage, however, devoting the first third of the book to Birmingham, which he described as "the capital, manufacturing centre, and growth of the Black Country", and writing "plant, in imagination, one foot of your compass at the Town Hall in Birmingham, and with the other sweep a circle of twenty miles [30 km] radius, and you will have, 'the Black Country". However he also described a 'Black Country proper' including Wolverhampton, Dudley, and several smaller towns. A few Black Country places such as Wolverhampton,
Black Country Living Museum Pawnbrokers Shop Bridge, Wolverhampton and Carter's Green in West Bromwich. The exhibit at the Black Country Living Museum combines pawnbroking with retail, as did many pawnbroking businesses in the 19th century. In the museum's reconstruction the unredeemed goods and other stock are sold in the front room, while pawning of goods was done in the 'pledge room' at the back. The shop window of the Pawnbroker's gives a good example of the types of goods that customers would 'pledge'. The display includes shoes, clothes, furs, musical instruments, children's toys and even a set of false teeth. Black Country Living Museum Pawnbrokers Shop