Geology and Minerals

Black Country

The Black Country is a loosely defined area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton metropolitan boroughs. 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 birthplaces. Its name was first recorded in the 1840s, and derives either from the 30-foot-thick (9.1-metre) coal seam close to the surface or the production of coal, coke, iron, glass, bricks and steel which produced high levels of soot and air pollution.

Also on this shelf

See also

• ▸Ireland's Eye
• ▸2014 Iquique earthquake
• ▸Devils Postpile National Monument

Uncatalogued shelf

Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.