The Black Country Museum was………………….FANTASTIC. !

A complete village moved brick by brick and rebuilt on 26 acres, with shops, foundries, forges and the people actually get paid to work here, although they have to fund their clothes from the Edwardian era to the 1930’s.

 We knocked on house doors that were on “the sneck”( know what that means?), ajar, and lady sitting by her black lead grate with roaring fire would ask us in and then tell us who lived in the house and what work they did.  Some were very poor and some were a little more up market, but all had a toilet “out back”. There was so much to see and do.

Riding on trams and old busses etc. what a hoot the tram was

 We went and had a school lesson from 1912.  Jim, our travelling chum was told “ You, boy at the back, remove your cap at once. “   very amusing !!!!.  The school children re-living what it would have been like to be taught in this era, were a bit bemused to start with.  There is so much here, that I would urge anyone interested to go and have a day there and for lunch, make sure that you have the fish and chips cooked in dripping.  And I have to say, Chris and Mike in Yorkshire, they even bettered yours “ up there “. And they take some beating, I can tell you.  We had them 2 days running. !!!!!!  it was a good thing that the Wolverhampton flight was coming up, as we were able to work off all those calories.

The canal from Dudley to Wolverhampton was a bit grim,but then that’s typical of canals around towns and cities, that do not have any interest in their waterway system.

An M.O.T, CENTRE right by the side of the canal, and guess what BW were dragging out of the bridge-hole????   Tyres etc.  If a boat prop picks these up, they make a right mess, I can tell you.and it takes ages to get it all off the prop.

We did pick up some rubbish ourselves, but it was only plastic washing line and a plastic bags.