The Black Country Part 3

“The really big marker for me was when i joined the Black Country Society in 1973. That gave me a whole new impetus to start looking at the area in a more serious way. I was always conscious of the Black Country Society and always bought their magazine, but in 1967 when the society was formed i was only 16. In that fabolous photograph of the committee in 1972 you can see that the average age was about 30. It’s incredible really when you think now of local societies, the average age is about 70. That’s an immense social change and i just don’t understand it. Young people don’t seem to be interested in joining things anymore”.

View east from Beacon Hill, Sedgley,Bilston Steel Works in the distance,1979

“The other thing for me was the tremendous pride i had that my dad was involved in that sort of thing - the traditional industries of the locality. I mean, that was seriously hard work, hard work which i would never know. One of the other driving forces of your parents was that they were trying to make sure you didn’t have to go into a job like that yourself. They wanted to get you a good education so that you didn’t have to work in places like that becuase they knew how hard it really was.

My mum worked for many years in a local corner shop, one of the many local corner shops. Interestingly, my dad never quite approved of my mum working, you know becuase of the old masculinity thing of husband being the breadwinner.

So it was the whole environment of the Black Country that influenced me, particularly transport - the canals and the railways - which were a cause of endless fascination and then when i got a bit older in my late teens, pubs also came into the equation. There was a whole new type of culture - architectural styles and a way of life - for me to get interested i. I think in the early 70’s i was becoming much more conscious of stuff that was disappearing. In my early 20’s i realised that pubs were such an important part of our landscape and they were disappearing fast. And even the ones that weren’t disappearing were being wrecked and modernised out of existance”.

Hales Foundry,Tipton,1930’s

The Black Country - Culture

“The late 60’s was such an interesting period. Everything started in this period with this movement towardsthe ‘open air museum’ concept with Ironbridge, Beamish and the Black Country Museum and the growing interest in industrial archaelogy. The world was changing so much at that time. Until the start of the 60’s, the industrial world was pretty much as it had been before the Second World War.

I have tried to record those changes through photographs down the year. My main emphasis is on the streets, the buildings and spaces as they are about to change, or as they are threatened with change. When you are looking at the photographs after perhaps 10, 20 or 30 years or longer from when they were taken, they start to form a fantastic archive of a totally changing world”.

Bilston Steelworks,Highfields Road,Coseley,1976,Photo from Keith Hodgkins

“I think it’s inevitable that there will always be nostalgia and that there will be some romanticism looking back, becuase that’s part of the human condition. It’s not a bad thing, but of course what we have got to remember is how things were in the past in terms of living conditions. Even going back to my early life there were some terrible housing conditions in the Black Country. The worst of the ‘back-to-backs weren’t cleared until the 1970’s , which doesn’t seem that long ago really,

i mean, really dreadful housing conditions that obviously had to be dealt with. Working conditions were awful, sometimes dangerous. Health and safety is something we all go on about these days, saying there’s too much of it and that some of it seems a bit silly. But when you think back even to the recent past, there was often appalling working conditions in some of the industries and injuries and even deaths were a regular occurence.”

Factory Locks,Tipton,1975, Photo: Keith Hodgkins

“There is a wealth of fascination in what otherwise might seem like a boring street.”

Santosk K.Dary in a studio photograph taken on Soho Road, Handsworth,Birmingham,1966

Santosh K. Dary

The Indian Girl from the Ghetto

“I was a little Indian girl when i came with my family from India to live in the West Midlands, England, in 1966.

Large numbers of people had come from commwealth countries to help ease the labour shortage in postwar Britain. There was no strategy for people to live in harmony and understanding, which led to deep problems in all walks of life.

Many British people did not want to live side-bt-side with migrants. This resulted in divided communities. Landlords would not let houses to the newly-arrived, forcing families to live in overcrowded conditions in small bedsits. Churches closed their doors so as not to upset their white congregations and colour bars were a common feature in public places. Racism became an everyday experience for migrants.

I grew up in these tensions. I would walk the long way to the junior school i attended in Handsworth, Birmingham, to avoid certain streets. My mother was at home looking after my baby brother, while my father worked 14 - hour nightshifts at the local steel foundry. My sister, six years older than me, went to a nearby secondary school.

The streets were as hostile as the school playground and i tried not to linger too long anywhere. Gangs of local children went looking for prey. I was dubbed the ‘Indian girl from the Ghetto’. They would mock me, pull my pigtails and use rope or pieces of cloth to make fun of me. They spoke English and i only understood Punjabi and a few English words. But the tone was unkind and unfriendly. I would lower my head and quicken my pace.

From 1966 to 1970, i remained in the same clas with the same group of children who were all predominatley Black and Asian backgrounds. Only the teachers changed. I left primary school with a few nursery rhymes i had learned and a failed 11-plus test. What followed me to secondary school was a recommendation to be formally statemented for special learning needs, as i was deemed to be delayed in comprehension. The process was abandoned in 1972 as i started to speak and understand the English language.

The impact this had on my confidence and self-worth remained with me throughout many decades of my life”.

Roger Noons Black Country Lad

“Corngreaves Road was long and convoluted; our end was near to the Four Ways. In addition to dwellings, there were one or two pubs and shops, and factories, either accessed from the road or one of it’s side streets. My father was a welder who workedat Fellows Brother. There were a number of chain shops in the area, in particular Woodhouses, with a factory in Cokeland Place.

The test was situated opposite. It’s main structure was a trench with fastenings at each end. Chains were fixed and pulled until either the load bearing was confirmed, or a link would break. A small structure nearby housed the equipment, kept records, and dealt with visitors. In a sense, it was the equivalent of a weighbridge. Locals would be aware of the days during which testing was carried out, but not so visitors who, when they heard the crack, believed the end of the world was nigh.

Most men either walked to work or rode cycles. Motorised transport was in transition. When I was a boy, milk was delivered by horse and cart. Mr White had a dairy near where Corngreaves Roat meets Grainger’s Lane. He would visit each day expect Sunday and ladle from churn to jug. Eventually he retired when Midland Countries began to deliver bottled milk. They, of course, used electric floats. Our bread was delivered from Collins Bakery by van, and the coal would come on a lorry. There were occasionally itinerant traders on foot, although door-to-door selling was rare in Cradley Heath becuase of it’s market.

Being handy for the High Street had advantages. Some of our neighbours worked in shops, in particular Moyle and Adams and Marsh and Baxte, so that was grocer’s and butcher’s covered; useful in the days of rationing to know what was arriving when and where. My fatheralways kept fowl, so we had eggs. In addition, my mother was a trained dressmaker and tailoress, so anyone who could lay their hands on a remnant of material could be suppliedwith a garment. Bartering was common in those days.

Cradley Heath was a thriving centre. There were two markets, grocers, tailors, butchers, haberdashers, coal merchants, gas and electric showrooms and novelties such as the music shop operated by the Misses Foley, with one of whom i suffered piano lessons. As the fifities came, so did shops dealing electric goods”.

Left page: W L Byers and Co Ltd, Chainmakers,Cradley Heath

Steve Moore

Incomers

“Smethwick Rolfe Street, Smethwick Galton Bridge, Sandwell and Dudley, Dudley Port, Tipton, Coseley...

A new millennium and possibly a new job in a new millennium city. It is after rush hour. I am heading away from the big city and into the Black Country. The blinds have not been drawn down. All through my journey southfrom Yorkshire through the East Midlands and now the West Midlands - the accents, age groups and attitudes have been changing.

At Sandwell and Dudley a group of older teenage girls get into my carriage, sprawling themselves vibrantly about the six seats in front of me: two pairs facing each other, with another two across the aisle. Some of the time they aren’t speaking english. The older White woman sitting diagonally opposite tries to catch my eye.

I do not say, “What joy to see the young people so full of life!” Instead i avoid eye contact. I am an outsider and potential incomer. I stay strictly in observer mode. I have never been to Wolverhampton before; as someone more interested in politics than football the only thing i know about the place is that Enoch Powell was once their MP. I have never been through Smethwick; the only thing i vaguely remember is an infamous by-election in the 60’s where the race card was played to curry favour with a fearful white majority.

I have never been to the Black Country before, but i recall the story of Queen Victoria’s entourage being so concerned about protecting her from the sight of billowing black smoke and a ravaged landscape between Birmingham and Wolverhampton that they ordered the window blinds of her railway carriage be lowered.

The singing rhymes of what i later realise must have been Punjabi are punctuated by sudden staccato burts of Anglo-Asian slang. Both are fantastic to my ears, as yam-yam will be in the years to come”.

Martin Parr Black Country Stories

Many of the industries that once made the Black Country great have indeed declined but numerous small factories and manufacturing businesses remain in good health. A degree of regeneration has come about due to the many immigrant communities that have made the Black Country their home. The region is populated with with so many different communities - Polish, Sikh and Somali to name but a few - all bringing an energetic work ethic, a strong sense of family and culture and, in many cases, a profound religous faith.

A box of archive prints, specific to each geographical area, has been given to Sandwell Metropolitian Borough Council; Walsall and Wolverhampton Council who all supportedthis project, leaving a permanent record of Martin’s work in the area for generations to come.

“When Emma Chetcuti of Multistory sent me an email overfour years ago,inviting me to work in the Black Country,little did i know what profound repercussions it would have on my working life as a pohotographer.I didn’t really know much about the Black Country, other than it’s reputation as a densly populated,post-industrial area; a region in decline.I had passed it manytimes as i travelled up the M5,on my way north.My ignorance was one reason why i was keen to explore,and to try and look beyond the stereotypes”.

- Martin Parr

Health and Fitness, Village Urban Resort, Dudley

Pride Kickboxing, Chuckery Working Men’s Club, Walsall

Daniel Horton with his Staffordshire Bull Terriers, St George’s day, West Bromwich

St George’s Day Parade (the biggest in the UK), West Bromwich

The Royal Wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William, at home, Westbourne Street, Walsall

Royal Wedding breakfast special at Gingham’s Cafe, Bilston

“These aspects of Black Country life, of course, were gifts for me as a photographer. I explored workplaces, temples, churches, shops, clubs and societies. Wary of neglecting the day-to-day experience, I also photographed in the Merry Hill Shopping Centre, in shops such as Tesco and in leisure facilities such as gyms, sports centres and spas”.

Vaisakhi, Guru Nanak Gurdwara, a Sikh temple, Smethwick

“Perhaps the most striking feature of the Black Country, for me, was the friendliness and openness of the community. Virtually no-one turned down a request for a portrait. People were so welcoming and seemed only too glad to share their stories. One person would pass me onto someone else, or onto another story”.

Guru Nanak Gurdwara Sikh temple, Smethwick

Wedding at Shri Venkatsewara (Balaji) temple, Tividale

Wedding, Guru Nanak Sikh temple, Caldmore, Walsall

Mark Cooper, Ocean Seafood, Stourbridge

“I could have gone on forever, but, at some point, you have to sit down and try and make sense of all this accumulated material.”

Davey Crochatt, his mother Jean Crochatt, and Sooty the dog, West Bromwich

Arthur Crip and Kirsten Dolores, Tipton

“I remember very well the opening of the Sandwell exhibition. We invited the many people who appeared in the photographs to come early and have a preview of the show before the main crowd arrived. It was very rewarding and exciting to see their reactions. Many had never visited ‘The Public’ before, let alone seen an exhibition that they themselves featured in.

Alongside the photographic project, we realised that it was essential to gather oral histories from some of the fascinating people I had met whilst out shooting - from pigeon fanciers to members of the Polish community celebrating their traditional Easter. The oral histories were also archived, as part of the legacy of the project.”

Left: Harbhajan Singh, Willenhall Market

“My hope is that the abridged version of my four-year journey through the Black Country will enable the sense of community and diversity and the spirit of the place to rub off on the viewer.”

- Martin Parr

Frederick Abraham, Welder, employed at Steelways for 38 years, Wolverhampton

Lee Cox, Moulder, Kirkpatrick’s Ironworks, Walsall

“Importantly, the Black Country work also inspired me to return to making films, as one of the most effective ways of capturing the Black Country stories I was coming across. In the first year of shooting in 2010, I visited the wonderful Teddy Gray’s sweet factory in Dudley. Standing in the factory, with it’s lingering aroma of Teddy Gray’s famous herbal tablets, I watched the workers as they started to roll out rock for their regular Dudley Zoo order. The whole process was hypnotic, as the letters, were assembled and the rock rolled back and fourth, with perfect co-ordination between the team members. I knew immediatley that the only way to do this remarkable factory justice was to make the film.

Six months later we did just that. The film of Teddy Gray’s sweet factory was soon followed by three others: ‘Mark goes to Magnolia; Tudor Crystal; and Turkey and Tinsel’. So a pattern was starting to emerge as I continued to shoot my way around the Black Country. The photographic archive and oral histories were now supplemented by a number of films, each producing distinctive, and yet complementary, narratives.”

Making Rock, Teddy Gray’s sweet factory, Dudley

Following page: Colin Oden, glass blower, Tudor Crystal, glass factory, Dudley

Mr and Mrs Jons, married for 68 years, Walsall