Part 1 - Black Country Museum

Hello. Let's start this post with cup of coffee. 

I drove down to the West Midlands on Thursday night, arriving at about 9pm. The plan was to visit the Black Country Museum at Dudley, so by getting as close as I could the night before meant I would not be rushed in the morning. Traffic is lighter in the evening, to make the journey easier. The West Midlands has changed a lot since I was last there. Road layouts are all different to what I remember, new roads, new roundabouts, concentration is needed to avoid getting in the wrong lane. I don't have a sat nav, and make notes from a map which I can glance at to check road numbers and where the next turn is. I do have a sat nav on the car dashboard but don't use it as such. The map is on screen as a back up to the paper map. 

The Museum opens at 10am and people were arriving and queueing to get in. I was a bit early so followed them in when the queue had died down a bit.  

The first thing I saw when I walked out from the pay desk was this bus. They accept cash by the way, and I paid the £3.50 for the parking at the same time. It is a massive site and this bus runs up and down the length of it for visitors who are not so mobile, and those who want the experience of travelling in a vintage bus. 

It brought back memories. I used to drive one just like this. A few months after I got my HGV licence, I did some training and got a PSV licence as well. I did some work for a local bus company doing school runs, day trips, and shoppers buses. The chug chug chug of the engine brought it all back to me. No power steering, leaning forward, heave ho, putting all my weight onto the steering wheel as I pulled it round. 

First I had a look at the coal mine. Lots of interesting old relics to check out. 

Sheds and buildings to peer into, to get a flavour of how it used to be. It must have been a very hard life. 

This is the weighbridge where they bagged the coal up. 

There are several old tiny cottages to take a look at. They reminded me of the 1939 house which I wrote about somewhere on this blog. 

Every house had a range, for keeping the place warm, cooking, and drying clothes. 

Outside people kept pigs. Look at these two snoozing in the sunshine. Yes, they are real, with a very loud snore. 

Please join us and take tea in the parlour. 

They certainly looked very cosy. I quite fancy living in a small cottage myself. 

My Grandmother used to live in one, and the lavvy was just like this. A man in a small lorry came once in a while, to empty the bucket. I never did see how he did it because we were always told not to go down the garden while he was here. I remember getting splinters in my bum, and reading the newspaper squares hanging on the wall. If we wanted a pee in the night there was a piss pot under the bed. 

I'm going to break this visit into two or three posts, so if you come back later there will be more photo's from the Black Country Museum. 

Thanks for popping in. See ya later.  ilona