Explore our Industrial Quarter

Discover how industry changed in the 1950s

Our 1950s Industrial Quarter is made up of three buildings, these buildings highlight how industry in the Black Country changed through the decades, with stories in living memory about the advancements in industrial development, migration stories, and how and why wages became very competitive.

See brickmaking demonstrations at our recreation of Cricket Field Brickworks. Marvel over the impressive sight of gravity die-casting at one of the original buildings relocated from J.H. Lavender’s Aluminium Foundry. Discover the story of the legend ‘Sledge’ who’s name appears on handmade hammers at our recreation of Joe H. Smith & Sons Ltd.

Established in 1978, Black Country Living Museum is one of the UK’s leading open-air museums. Designated by Arts Council England for the quality and national significance of its collections, it attracted over 300,000 visitors in 2022.

Visitors can experience sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of the Black Country as they explore shops, houses and industrial workshops rebuilt in the Museum’s canalside village. From the Industrial Revolution to post-war prosperity, they will discover the history of a small region that made a big impact on the people, culture and industry of the world by meeting historical characters that bring back to life the people that made this place home, from metalworkers and miners to nurses and schoolteachers – and even a pub landlord or two.