The website of the
Black Country Society
Promoting interest in the past, present and future of our Black Country
Committee members
Dr Malcolm Dick (Chair)
Dr Malcolm Dick was born in Lichfield and lives in Rowley Regis. He has been Chairman of the Black Country Society since 2020 and was previously a trustee of the Black Country Living Museum. Malcolm is Honorary Associate Professor in Regional and Local History and formerly Director of the Centre for West Midlands History at the University of Birmingham where he convened an MA in regional history and still supervises PhDs. He directed lottery-funded history projects, including Revolutionary Players (2002-04) which created an online archive of West Midlands history during the industrial revolution.
Malcolm has edited Midland History, is editor-in-chief of History West Midlands Ltd, editor of the University of Hertfordshire Press West Midlands Publications imprint and has written about the Lunar Society and Birmingham and Black Country history. He was awarded an OBE in 2019 for ‘outstanding services to history in the West Midlands’.
Kathy Knight (Treasurer and Vice Chair)
Kathy was born in West Bromwich and has lived in the Black Country in Oakham Dudley, Tipton, Brierley Hill and finally Stourbridge which has been her home for the last 37 years.
Her interest in history started at school and has remained with her ever since. Kathy’s interest in family history started at a young age with conversations she had with her grandmother about her family. This developed more seriously when she took a 2 year course at Birmingham University which covered family and social history the end result being that she became a competent genealogist. She researches family histories for family and friends and has an interest in WW1 soldiers.Kathy is now retired but has experienced a varied working life, including being a Special Constable with West Midlands Police serving at Stourbridge for 7 years. She spent the last 11 years as the manager of Bournville Almshouses. The Almshouses participated in the annual Heritage Open Day Kathy enjoyed having the opportunity to give a presentation to visitors regarding The Almshouses and her benefactor Richard Cadbury.
Kathy took over as treasurer to the Black Country society in 2022.
Geoff Taylor-Smith
Geoff Taylor-Smith was born and educated in Lancashire, and after graduating from the University of Birmingham taught history in secondary schools in the Midlands and Sussex. He later became deputy director of children’s services in Worcestershire and settled in Stourbridge. He has a strong interest in local history and recently completed an M.A. in West Midlands history. He has been a member of the Black Country Society for many years.
Keith Robinson
Keith Robinson grew up in Princes End and Wednesbury before his family moved out of the area. Having spent 4 years volunteering in village development work in India, teaching and then working for the National Trust in the Midlands he is now retired. Keith has written a number of books about the Black Country: 'Iron, Coal and Roses: A study of a 19th century Black Country family of Ironmasters.' 'Eldon Street: the history of Victorian Darlaston and the Black Country told through the lives of ordinary people.' 'Voices from the Wednesbury Workhouse and the Parish Poor, 1750-1900.' 'Wednesbury Rugby Union Football Club, 1921-2021: A Centenary History.' He has also recently written, 'The Black Country Miners: A Struggle for Justice' and 'Tube Town Tales' - a study of one of Wednesbury's major industries. Both books are currently available to order via the website. Since his recent move to Huddersfield, Keith now heads the Black Country Society Ambassadors group. If you would like to be part of this, please contact the Society.
Emma Purshouse (Blackcountryman editor)
Emma Purshouse was born in Wolverhampton, and was the first poet laureate for the city. She is a freelance writer, performer and highly experienced workshop facilitator. Emma is also a poetry slam champion and performs regularly at spoken word nights and festivals far and wide, often using dialect in her work. Her appearances include, The Cheltenham Literature Festival, Ledbury Poetry Festival, Solfest, Latitude, Shambala and WOMAD. In the past, she has undertaken poetry residencies for Wolverhampton Libraries, The New Vic Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent and The International Festival of Glass in Stourbridge. She has also worked for a number of Black Country arts organisations on various community centred projects, creating poetry, plays and local history books. Working with poetry collective Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists Emma organizes and promotes a variety of spoken word events.
Chris Baker
Chris Baker was born and brought up in Pensnett in the Black Country, and as an undergraduate studied Engineering at St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, from where he gained his MA and PhD. After spending some time working for British Rail in Derby, he moved back into academia – firstly to the University of Nottingham, and then to the University of Birmingham, where he taught fluid mechanics to several generations of Civil Engineering students. His research interests are in the fields of wind engineering, environmental fluid mechanics and railway aerodynamics.
He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Institution of Highways and Transport, the Higher Education Academy and the Royal Meteorological Society. He retired in December 2017 but continues to work on various aspects of railway aerodynamics, wind engineering and pollution and pathogen transport as Emeritus Professor of Environmental Fluid Mechanics at the University of Birmingham, as well as on aspects of Black Country and Lichfield history. He has been an Anglican clergyman since 1988 and has been attached to the parish of St. Michael-on-Greenhill in Lichfield since 1998.
Ian Bott
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Ian Bott was born in Wednesbury in 1962 and educated at St John’s Junior School and Wodensborough High School. He still lives in the town. From 1978 to 1990 he worked as a horologist, later working in security at various Black Country venues and, for the last twenty-six years as a visitor assistant at the Walsall Leather Museum He first served on the committee of the Society in the 1990s and became involved in its publishing activities. He contributed to the “Britain in Old Photographs” series with “Wednesbury in Old Photographs”, the first of his seven books. He rejoined the committee in 2017 and currently helps with the Walks programme.
Andrew Homer
A former Secretary of the Black Country Society, Andrew Homer now finds himself living a few miles outside of Tavistock. A bit too far to travel for meetings, but still able to contribute to the Committee through the magic of Zoom.He was born in Stourbridge and family connections with the Black Country include glassmakers on his mother’s side and Cradley Heath chainmakers on his father’s side. Over the years he has pursued an interest in writing books. Gradually these have developed from books on local ‘ghosts and hauntings’ to local history. Recent history titles include ‘A – Z of the Black Country’ and ‘Secret Black Country’ for Amberley Publishing and, if he dares to mention it, ‘A – Z of Birmingham’ for the same publisher!
Steve Pottinger
Steve Pottinger is responsible for the Society’s book store and sales. He grew up in Willenhall, and – after moving around the country a great deal – is back living in the town. He is a freelance writer, performer, and workshop facilitator, has led on several oral history projects supported by National Lottery Heritage Fund, and is part of Wolverhampton poetry collective Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists.
Rhi Edwards
Rhi Edwards was born in Bromsgrove but now lives in Stourbridge. Rhi is the Creative and Programming Lead at Dudley Canal and Caverns. Previously, Rhi has worked at Stourbridge Glass Museum and the Black Country Living Museum. Her interest in history began in school and has continued into her adult education. She graduated from Leicester University with a History BA and from Sheffield University with an MA in Modern History. Rhi has been a member of the committee since May 2025 and works on our digital accounts including social media posts on BCS events, books and updates.
Piotr Kardynał
Piotr KardynaÅ‚ was born in Katowice (Poland), at the age of four he swapped the coal and heavy industry of his native Silesia for the closest thing he could find in England, growing up in Walsall. Piotr works for the Sandwell based CIC Europeans Welfare Association as the Community Building and Policy Lead; part of his work involves cultural and heritage projects championing our region’s history and identity. He has an academic background in history graduating with a BA from the University of Manchester and a joint MA in Global History at the Freie Universität and Humboldt-Universität in Berlin. Piotr supports the society in the areas of communication and engagement.
Vicky Roden
Vicky Roden was born and grew up in Walsall where she lived for thirty four years before moving all the way to the other end of the 4 bus route to Rowley Regis.
An artist who graduated from Birmingham School of Art in 2013 local heritage has been the cornerstone of her practice throughout her career. This has led to projects examining the differences in dialect between areas (Where’s Our Spake Gone? (2014)), creating the Black Country Crown Jewels as part of Multistory’s Blast! Festival (The Sandwell Honours (2019)) and a joyous line of tourist tat to celebrate Wednesbury (Tat’N’Tranklements (2023)). She has spoken about the joy of the dialect for Wolverhampton Museum and Art Gallery and recently completed a major project inspired by Walsall’s Hand of Glory which looked at human remains in museum collections.
She is part of the team campaigning to preserve Walsall Leather Museum in its current home, discussing the issue on local radio and TV.She is currently working with EWA on their Yam From Here project delivering workshops centred around the Chance Brothers Glassworks in Smethwick and is working on ways to combine archive material with digital game technology.