The Black Country Living Museum (formerly The Black Country Museum) is an open-air museum of rebuilt historic buildings, located in Dudley in the West Midlands of England. It is close to Dudley Castle in the centre of the Black Country conurbation. The museum occupies 105,000 square metres (26 acres) of former industrial land partly reclaimed from a former railway goods yard, disused lime kilns and former coal pits. It was first opened in 1978, and since then many more exhibits have been added to it.
The Museum preserves some important buildings from around the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton; mainly in a specially built village. Most of the buildings are original, relocated from their original sites. As a living museum, these form a base from which knowledgeable, local demonstrators portray life in the period from the 1850s to the 1950s.
The Museum is constantly changing as new exhibits, especially buildings in the village, are being added.
Read more about Black Country Living Museum: Museum - General Description, Exhibition Area, The Village and Old Trades, Recent Developments - The Old Birmingham Road, Designation Status, 1930s Fairground, The Transport Collection
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