The website of the
Black Country Society
Promoting interest in the past, present and future of our Black Country
Future Events
Our venue for talks (unless otherwise stated) is Bilston Town Hall.Bilston Town Hall, Church Street, Bilston. WV14 0AP.The Town Hall is fully accessible, there are free car parking facilities in the town centre. Thevenue is a 2 minute walk from Bilston Central Metro Stop and Bilston Bus Station.
Black Country Society Walk. Over and Under in Coseley
Led by Keith Hodgkins, Wednesday 9th July 2025, 6.45pm for a 7.00pm start. Meet at Coseley Railway Station car park, Gough Road’ Coseley’ WV14 8XP
The centre of Coseley sits on rising ground at 520 feet above sea level. This is barely noticeable in the motor age, but in the 1770s it caused the engineer James Brindley to lay out the Birmingham Canal on a wide sweeping loop which followed the 473-foot contour around the eastern side of the hill. In 1837 the Coseley tunnel was built to bypass the loop as part of Thomas Telford`s improvements to the BCN, which cut the canal mileage between Bloomfield and Deepfields by three miles. Then in 1852 the railway sliced through the hill in a steeply sided deep cutting. The walk will meander over the top of the hill alongside the top of the railway cutting and explore beneath through the 360-yard canal tunnel. The walk length is about two miles with a very steep, stepped descent onto the canal towpath.
Wilful Murder? – The Sinking of RMS Lusitania in 1915
A talk by Andrew Lound
Wednesday 23rd July 2025 – 7.30pm Bilston Town Hall Black Country Society Members: £3 Non-members: £5
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Andrew Lound will examine the conspiracies relating to the fate of the R.M.S. Lusitania. This Cunard ‘passenger’ liner was sunk by a German U-boat on 7 May 1915; an event that shocked the world and outraged neutral opinion. At the time, few people realised that ‘Lucy’ had been built to RN specifications and was used by the British government to transport war materials as well as civilians. It has even been suggested the liner was deliberately exposed to danger, in order to shock the U.S.A. into abandoning its policy of neutrality and join the Great War against Germany and its Allies. If the sinking of ‘Lucy’ was murder, who was the murderer?
Remnants of an Empire – Continuity in Roman and Anglo-Saxon England A talk by Charlotte Ball
​Wednesday 27th August 2025 – 7.30pm Bilston Town Hall Black Country Society Members: £3 Non-members: £5
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Dr. Charlotte Ball will challenge the myth that the fall of the Roman Empire led to the immediate start of the ‘Dark Ages’, like the flicking of an historical time switch! Instead, she will argue there was much continuity between Roman and Anglo-Saxon Britain. She will focus on how this can be seen in art, literature and people’s sense of identity. Recent research has also shown the departure of the Legions, in 410 AD, did not mark the abrupt end of Roman influence in either culture or civic organisation. It was the beginning of two centuries of transition and integration.
Talks later in 2025 in Bilston Town Hall at 7.30pm
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​‘Sweet Heritage’ – A History of Confectionary (with samples!) Emma Barran-Scott 24th September
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‘An Introduction to Black Country Dialect – Across Time and Space’. Esther Asprey 22nd October
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‘Beatrice Warde – Creative and Printing Pioneer’. Jessica Glaser 26th November​​​​
A date for the diary
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Black Country History Day 2025
8 November 2025
Black Country Living Museum, 10.00am to 4.30pm
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After Agenoria: Aspects of the Railway Revolution in the Black Country
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Organised as the Society's contribution to Railways 200,which marks the 200th anniversary of Railways in Britain
Another date for the diary
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Photo exhibition at Dudley Archives
October 14th to December 20th
From Agenoria to Beeching
The first and last days of steam in Dudley
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Organised by the Dudley Local Archives and Local History Service and the Black Country Society as a contribution to Railways 200,which marks the 200th anniversary of Railways in Britain
The exhibition will consist mainly of two sets of photographs – one illustrating the first days of steam railways in the Dudley area between 1830 and 1860, and the second illustrating the final days of steam in the area, from the late 1950s and early 1960s. The early material is from the Dudley Archive collection and will illustrate the Earl of Dudley’s Shut End (Kingswinford) railway and in particular the locomotive Agenoria, that ran between Ashwood Basin and Shut End in Pensnett from 1829 to 1864, together with some early pictures of Dudley station. The second set of photographs will be from the Terry Hyde Collection held by the Black Country Society. Terry Hyde is a Blackcountryman and during his early years, he and his best friend David Wilson became train spotters and managed to travel around the area and photograph some of the most unique images of engines and trains that were busy in the Black Country.