Black Country Country" by the Reverend William Gresley, who was then a prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral. He introduces the area as "that dismal region of mines and forges, commonly called 'the Black Country'", implying that the term was already in use. Gresley's opening paragraph stated "The scene of this story lies in that part of Staffordshire to which the constant exhumation of its mineral resources has long since given the well-known name of the Black Country", implying that the original Black Country may not have included Dudley which was in Worcestershire. He also stated that the 'Black Country was twenty miles in
Black Country Living Museum built with surplus funds raised in 1910 during the strike for a minimum wage by women chain makers. The Arts and Crafts style building was designed by architect, Albert Thomas Butler, and opened on 10 June 1912. It became a centre for educational meetings, social gatherings and trade union activities in Cradley Heath. Re-erected at the museum it is a monument to Mary Macarthur and her campaign to establish a national minimum wage in the "sweated trades" where people worked long hours for poverty wages typically in appalling conditions. The building contains reconstructed offices, a news room with a digital