Black Country workers fashioned the anchors and chains for the Lusitania and Titanic.  Across rivers in India, Africa and South America spanned railways and bridges made in the Black Country.  Ironwork from the Black Country graced the gates of the Royal House of Siam  and post boxes from the Black Country were in some of the world`s most remote places like the Himalayas.   Today the term Black Country commonly refers to the majority of the 4 metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton and Black Country Day is 14th July. 

    "We have our own day" said Ian Henery, the  Poet in Residence of WCR FM, which broadcasts on 101.8 FM and online from Wolverhampton.  "We also have our own festival, flag and anthem.  We should be proud of our heritage."   The flag for the Black Country was adopted on 14th July 2012 by popular vote and designed by Gracie Sheppard of Redhill School in Stourbridge.  The design was the winner of a competition run by the Black County Living Museum.  

  "The Black Country Flag is a community flag proclaiming the unique identity of this distinctive area of the West Midlands" explained Ian Henery.       The flag features a chain to represent the manufacturing heritage of the area whilst the upright triangular shape in the background recalls the iconic glass cones and iron furnaces that featured in the architectural landscape of the area.     The red and black colours recall the famous description of the Black Country by Elihu Burrit, an American diplomat, journalist and writer who travelled widely in Europe that it was "black by day and red by night" owing to the smoke and fires of industry.  

  The Black Country

  I record the present  for the  future,

Human lives pass but their stories remain;

Lit, like colours in stained glass window panes,

As I witness the  Black Country culture.

Scene of Industrial Revolution,

Soot from forges caused air pollution,

No longer black but a place to nurture.    

    As I write, remember  smells from the past,

And relive what it was like in a mine

Or the rattle along the tramway line,

History preserved, memories to last.

Workshops and forges that won world-wide fame

And quality of the Black Country name,

Our proud flag flying from its lofty mast.  

  The Black Country - cauldron of a new age

And the world`s first industrial landscape:

Step into the past, the future escape,

An old railway line to history`s page.

On the narrow boats, travel back in time,

Dudley Canal Tunnel, caverns of lime,

When the Black Country was on the world stage.  

  Once pictured  as "black by day, red by night",

Factory chimneys poured out their black smoke,

Smelting iron with coal, nails, chains and coke,

Described by a diplomat from the States

As coal was mined on Lord Dudley`s estates:

Foundries aglow, dreams burning bright.  

  Tolkien lived here and wrote Lord of the Rings,

Mordor based on this land of foundries;

In Elvish, Mor-Dor means "The Black Country",

The cradle of our manufacturing.

No Mordor on the Staffordshire Coal Seam

Or Elves in Dudley for literary dreams,

But workshops for glass, nails and chain making.  

  Silent sentinels, the winding gears,

Overlooking the Museum`s coal mines;

Passports to the past along along railway lines,

Let me describe the sights from yesteryear.

Narrow boats ferry limestone from caverns, 

Hardworking men relax in the taverns

With Black Country songs, cards and great beer.  

  Chain making workshops along the  dry docks,

Underground drift mine, go "into the thick";

Soot and coal dust is smeared across the bricks

With craftsmen in tool shops repairing clocks.

Canals for mineral exploitation,

Workshops for lead glass crystal production

And Willenhall`s experience in locks.

    The Black Country - its a place for the soul

And legislation will turn it from black

Into  a green country on  tourist track;

Not defined on maps but the seams of coal,

30 feet thick and close to the surface.

Black Country was dialect and sense of place,

An identity and a common goal.  

  This poem is done, its history!

My Grandpa was a miner in the dark;

His legacy lives on, a tiny spark,

This is an eulogy for his story.

Working class people, candles in the night:

The Black Country, what a fantastic sight,

A heritage for Black Country glory.    

Ian Henery