Black Country History Day

2026 marks the 100th anniversary of the British General Strike
This event provides an opportunity to reflect on the role and impact of protest and dissent in the Black Country.

Today’s history day looks firstly at how the Black Country Living Museum has represented the activities of protest groups including trade unions, women chain makers and the suffragettes.

Other presentations look at political and religious protest in early and mid-nineteenth century Dudley, the Miners’ Strike of 1864 and, in the twentieth century, the complex protest background to the 1964 Election in Smethwick.

The final session is a presentation of protest songs in the Black Country in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 

£30 PER PERSON

Event Schedule

10.00am: Tea and Coffee

10.15am: Introduction, Dr Malcolm Dick, Chairman, Black Country Society

10.20am: Protest in the Black Country Living Museum Collections, Dr Simon Briercliffe and Ciara Costello

11.20am: Tea and coffee

11.40am: Protest and power in mid-nineteenth-century Dudley, Dr Judith Davies

12.30pm: Lunch

1.30pm: ‘The Black Country Outrages! – Intimidation and industrial terrorism in the 1864 miners’ strike’, Quintin Watt

2.20pm: 'Agitation, resistance, and voting: protest in early 1960s Smethwick', Dr Marc Collinson

3.10pm: Tea and Coffee

3.30pm: Black Country re-forged and re-sounded: an exploration of songs of protest and praise from the West Midlands, Caroline Price and Stream of Sound

4.30pm: Final Questions and Remarks, Malcolm Dick