Black Country Living Museum

The Black Country Living Museum (formerly The Black Country Museum) is an open-air museum of rebuilt historic buildings in Dudley in the West Midlands of England. It is located in the centre of the Black Country, 10 miles west of Birmingham. The museum occupies of former industrial land partly reclaimed from a former railway goods yard, disused lime kilns, canal arm and former coal pits. The Museum opened to the public in 1978, and has since added over 50 shops, houses and other industrial buildings from around the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton (collectively known as the Black Country); mainly in a specially built village. Most buildings were relocated from their original sites to form a base from where demonstrators portray life spanning 300 years of history, with a focus on 1850-1950. The museum is constantly improving as new exhibits, especially buildings, are being added.