History… Maps for the National Plan 28 Dec 2017 Over December I was the very fortunate recipient of a book advent calendar from my lovely wife. I could rhapsodise about some of the books but to avoid losing the…
Black Country Slavery and the Black Country: lords and ladies 22 Aug 2017 This post, and possibly the next couple, is about the Black Country and the slave trade. Historians have had a busy few weeks lately, with the flag controversy, debates about…
Black Country… That particular articulation of social relations which we are at the moment naming as… Doulton Brook 5 Dec 20167 Apr 2017 A break from the Irish this week. I've been mostly reading Doreen Massey this week - if you're not familiar with her she's an urban geographer of major importance, who…
Black Country… Black Country Irish: Red-headed Kilcoign 19 Sep 201628 May 2018 Irish Rows If there’s one thing you learn researching the Irish in the Victorian city, it’s that 19th century newspaper editors love an Irish Row. Roger Swift wrote whole papers…
Black Country… Black Country Irish: N. Hingley Ltd., Netherton 22 Aug 201627 Apr 2018 Identities can be a complicated thing. Each of us have several - I don't mean like Norman Bates, I mean that each of us are different things in different ways,…
History… Coming over here, taking our jobs… 25 Jul 201627 Apr 2018 Crowds of miserable Irish darken all our towns. The wild Milesian features, looking false ingenuity, restlessness, unreason, misery and mockery, salute you on all highways and byways... He is the sorest evil this…
Black Country… A Black Country Brexit 27 Jun 201628 May 2018 I was going to post another bit about the navvies of Elan Valley today, but it seems a bit strange to be discussing late-Victorian municipal water schemes when we're living through…
Housing… The Other immigrants of Carribee Island: Wolverhampton’s Jewish community 1 1 Feb 20161 Feb 2016 My PhD research focuses on a small section of Wolverhampton town centre in the nineteenth century that was well-known - perhaps notorious, even - for it's substantial Irish immigrant population.…
Black Country… “Slums” of the Black Country 21 Dec 201528 May 2018 We've come to the end of this series on some of the distinct areas of the Black Country that found themselves with a special stigma in the nineteenth century. Based on the Birmingham…
Black Country… “Slums” of the Black Country: Waste Bank, Lye 7 Dec 201521 Dec 2015 The South Staffordshire coalfield defines the Black Country for many purposes, but as a culturally-defined region, its borders are highly porous. Wolverhampton is in or out, depending on who you ask;…
