Black Country Living Museum Black Country Living Museum The Black Country Living Museum (formerly The Black Country Museum) is an open-air museum of rebuilt historic buildings in Dudley, West Midlands, England. It is located in the centre of the Black Country, 10 miles west of Birmingham. The museum occupies of former industrial land partly reclaimed from a former railway goods yard, disused lime kilns, canal arm and former coal pits. The museum opened to the public in 1978, and has since added over 50 shops, houses and other industrial buildings from around the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall and the City of
Black Country Living Museum Pawnbrokers Shop of their items and the cost of the ticket. Pawnbrokers in the Black Country needed to be where the people were. Some of these businesses started in Public Houses, which were frequently visited and saved customers a trip into town. Other Pawnbrokers operated out of converted houses in prominent positions like corner shops. The pair of cottages from School Lane in Himley originally operated as a corner shop. The setting of the display was designed to represent a small scale business. The shop takes its name from a well known Black Country pawnbroker, Joseph Wiltshire, who owned shops in Great