Black Country Enterprise Zone

Black Country
Region
The Black Country in the 1870s
Flag
Etymology: Effects of industry or coal mining
The metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall highlighted within the West Midlands metropolitan county
Coordinates: 52°32′N 2°2′W / 52.533°N 2.033°W / 52.533; -2.033
Area
• Total	138 sq mi (360 km2)
Highest elevation	889 ft (271 m)
Population (2012)
• Total	1,146,800

The Black Country is a sub-region of the West Midlands in England, located to the west of Birmingham, and commonly refers to all or part of the three Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, and Walsall. During the Industrial Revolution, it became one of the most industrialised parts of Britain with coal mines, coking, iron foundries, glass factories, brickworks and steel mills producing a high level of air pollution.

The 14-mile (23 km) road between Wolverhampton and Birmingham was described as "one continuous town" in 1785. The first trace of "The Black Country" as an expression dates from the 1840s. The name is believed to come from the soot from the heavy industries that covered the area, although the 30-foot-thick (10 metre) coal seam close to the surface is another possible origin.

Although the heavy polluting industry that gave the region its name has long since disappeared, a sense of shared history and tradition in the area has kept the term in use. In addition, the regeneration of the area by local and national government has brought official recognition to the region and has, to some extent, defined its boundary.

The Black Country has no single set of defined boundaries. Some traditionalists have tended to define it as "the area where the coal seam comes to the surface – so West Bromwich, Coseley, Oldbury, Blackheath, Cradley Heath, Old Hill, Bilston, Dudley, Tipton, Wednesfield and parts of Halesowen, Wednesbury and Walsall but not Wolverhampton, Stourbridge and Smethwick or what used to be known as Warley". There are records from the 18th century of shallow coal mines in Wolverhampton, however. Others have included areas slightly outside the coal field which were associated with heavy industry. Today it commonly refers to the majority or all of the four metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton although it is said that "no two Black Country men or women will agree on where it starts or ends".