Black Country
The Black Country is an area of England's Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall Metropolitan Boroughs, with the City of Wolverhampton sometimes included. The towns of Dudley and Tipton are generally considered to be the centre.
Black Country | |
|---|---|
Region | |
The Black Country in the 1870s | |
| Etymology: Effects of industry or coal mining | |
The metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton highlighted within the West Midlands metropolitan county | |
| Coordinates: 52°32′N 2°2′W | |
| Country | England |
| County | West Midlands |
| Historic counties | Staffordshire Worcestershire |
| Area | |
| • Total | 138 sq mi (360 km2) |
| Highest elevation | 889 ft (271 m) |
| Population (2012) | |
| • Total | 1,146,800 |
| Demonym | Yam Yam (colloquial) |
The 14-mile (23 km) road between Wolverhampton and Birmingham was described as "one continuous town" in 1785. The area was one of the Industrial Revolution's birth places. Either the 30-foot-thick coal seam close to the surface or the mix of coalworks, cokeworks, ironworks, glassworks, brickworks and steelworks (which produced high levels of soot and air pollution in the air at the time) led to the area's name, which was first recorded in the 1840s.
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