File:Black Country Living Museum -Fairground, Tram Depot, Underground Mine and Newcomen Engine (6054245716).jpg

This is the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, West Midlands.

The museum was established in 1975, and the first buildings moved here in 1976. Since then a 26 acre site has been developed, with the unique conditions of living and working in the Black Country from the mid 19th century to early 20th century.

It is off Tipton Road in Dudley.

Taken from Tram 49.

From Tram 49 in this view you can see: the Fairground (with helter skeltor), Tram Depot, Underground Mine and the Newcomen Engine.

This is the <a href="http://www.bclm.co.uk/map6.htm" rel="noreferrer nofollow">Underground Mine</a>. You can't take photos down the mine, so this is all I have of it. Anway was very dark down there. We were given a hard hat and torch (with dim light like a 1850 candle).

"Mind yer 'ed!". Take a trip with 'Lija Wedge' into the world of the Black Country coalminer in the 1850s.

The Black Country was famous for the Staffordshire Thick Coal, which lay beneath much of the area. The coal occurred in seams of up to 10 metres thick, far bigger than anywhere else in Britain and the extraction of this coal led to problems of subsidence as the ground dropped to fill the holes left.

"Into the Thick" is an underground experience created by the Black Country Living Museum to show how miners worked the Thick Coal and other seams in the Black Country in about 1850. It is a drift mine with a sloping tunnel down which you can walk into a maze of roadways and working areas so that you can experience the underground conditions in a safe yet realistic way.

Audio visual techniques and advanced electronics bring to life the conditions of the workers in the Black Country mines and parties of visitors spend 35 minutes underground with their guide.

This is the <a href="http://www.bclm.co.uk/map15.htm" rel="noreferrer nofollow">Fairground</a>.

I only saw it close up from Tram 49. Other times, I saw it from a distance.

Fairgrounds were as much a part of Black Country life as rolling mills, mines and trams. The collection of rides and amusements at the Museum accurately portray the Black Country travelling fairs of the first decades of the last century.

The small traditional fairground might have been operated by one of the many well-known travelling families who were based in the region. Fair couple

The round stalls, swings, mirrors and coconut sheet are all authentic examples which would have been set up by fairground proprietors when the fair came to town for a few days.

Dating from around 1910, the Brooklyn Cakewalk is one of the few remaining in use, and along with the Swingboats and Helter-Skelter creates a really nostalgic experience.

The Ark was the latest thing in high-speed rides when introduced in the 1920s and the magnificent paintwork and silent running of the 1930’s Lakin built four lift Speedway Ark make a superb centrepiece to the historic fairground.