The Village and Old Trades
On the low ground at the northern end of the Museum, houses, shops, workshops and public buildings have been rebuilt to create a single early 20th-century village, peopled by staff in period costume. This village is intended to preserve a cross section of the social and industrial history of the Black Country.
Some of these buildings are still used in their original function, such as St. James's School, the Brass Foundry, the Bottle and Glass pub, T. Cook's sweet shop, the Darby Hand Methodist Chapel and the 'chippy'. Others are faithful replicas of their last use, with goods in the windows. Still others are only shells of the originals, such as the bath house.
The Brook Street Back to Back Houses from Woodsetton date from the 1850s, and were originally home to colliers, farm workers and ironworkers. Behind the 1880s Chainmaker's House from Lawrence Lane in Old Hill is a traditional backyard chainshop from Claremont Street. At the centre of the village, opposite the pub and chapel, stands the Hardware and Ironmonger's Shop from Piper's Row in Wolverhampton.
Read more about this topic: Black Country Living Museum
Famous quotes containing the words village and/or trades:
“While yet it is cold January, and snow and ice are thick and solid, the prudent landlord comes from the village to get ice to cool his summer drink; impressively, even pathetically, wise, to foresee the heat and thirst of July now in January,—wearing a thick coat and mittens! when so many things are not provided for. It may be that he lays up no treasures in this world which will cool his summer drink in the next.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is the best of all trades to make songs, and the second best to sing them.”
—Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953)