Black Country Country". Today the term commonly refers to the majority or all of the four metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton although it is said that "no two Black Country men or women will agree on where it starts or ends". Official use of the name came in 1987 with the Black Country Development Corporation, an urban development corporation covering the metropolitan boroughs of Sandwell and Walsall, which was disbanded in 1998. The Black Country Consortium (founded in 1999) and the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (founded in 2011) both define the Black Country as the four metropolitan boroughs
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