Programme
Following the popularity of previous events, the Black Country Society, together with the University of Birmingham, is organising this seventh day school which is designed for anyone interested in the history of the area. The Black Country Society promotes interest in the past, present and future of the Black Country.
10.00am Introduction, Malcolm Dick
10.10am ‘A trivial and uninteresting occupation?’ The Black Country nail trade in context , Guy Sjogren
11.10am Break
11.30am ‘It’s all a Gas’. The development and provision of household technology in the Black Country 1800-1939, David Eveleigh
12.30am Lunch
1.20pm A. T. Butler 1872-1952 A Black Country Architect, Andy Foster
2.20pm Break
2.40pm Nonconformity in the Black Country 1750-1900, Jennifer Davies
3.40pm Questions to the presenters and discussion, chaired by Malcolm Dick
4.00pm Finish
Biographies
Dr Jennifer Davies has taught at the University of Wolverhampton and recently completed the MA in West Midlands History at the University of Birmingham. Her talk is based on research she conducted for this degree. She is currently investigating religious change in Staffordshire during the sixteenth century for a research degree at the University of Birmingham.
David Eveleigh is Director of Collections, Learning and Research at the Black Country Living Museum after working at Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery and the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Museums Association, he has published over twenty books and is a leading authority on the history of household fittings.
Andy Foster wrote the Pevsner Architectural Guide for Birmingham and is completing a new Pevsner Guide: Birmingham and the Black Country. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, Chair of the Friends of Birmingham Central Library and a member of the Lichfield Diocesan Advisory Committee and the Birmingham Archdiocese Historic Churches Commission.
Guy Sjogren is descended from a line of Birmingham nail manufacturers and Swedish metallurgists. After completing the MA in West Midlands History at the University of Birmingham he is currently researching for a PhD on the rise and decline of the cut-nail trade in the West Midlands in the nineteenth century.
Dr Malcolm Dick lives in the Black Country and directs the Centre for West Midlands History at the University of Birmingham
Further information