THE BLACK COUNTRY.—The coalfields of this region extend from Rugeley in South Staffordshire as far as the Clent Hills. The coals are of much the same character as in the previous region, except that gas and coking coals are generally absent. The total available content of this coalfield is estimated at 1,415,000,000 tons. The annual output of the whole of Staffordshire is about 14,000,000 tons. The region is one of great industrial activity. The iron ore which occurs in the Coal Measures was for long worked with charcoal from the Forest of Arden, which lies to the south, and, when coal replaced charcoal as the fuel required, the industry naturally remained where it was. But a certain amount of readjustment took place. Birmingham, for example, which is not on the coalfield, but is several miles distant from it, is now engaged in the manufacture of a great variety of miscellaneous articles, all of which are in great demand, but none of which is of great bulk in proportion to its value. Guns and ammunition, jewellery and electro-plated goods, clocks and watches, scientific instruments, railway carriages and wagons, glass, chemicals, brass bedsteads, and nails, are all manufactured and exported. Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, and several other towns actually on the coal field, have blast furnaces, and are engaged in the manufacture of heavy goods ; but their distance from the sea, which renders difficult the importation of foreign ore, and the gradual exhaustion of their local supplies, have led to a great decline in the production of iron. On the other hand, important industries have become
established in each of them. Dudley manufactures chains and cables, fenders and fire-irons. Nails and chains are made at Cradley, Lye, and elsewhere. Redditch is noted for needles, Walsall for locks, and West Bromwich for small arms.
Several other industries which obtain their fuel partly from the South Staffordshire coalfield, and partly from the much less im portant coalfields of Shropshire, may be mentioned here, although, strictly speaking, they do not belong to the Black Country. Droitwich is the centre of a large glass-making industry. It is not far from coal, and receives salt from the Keuper marls upon which it stands, while the fireclay, which is found in the valley of the Lye, near Stourbridge, is of great value for moulding the pots in which the glass is melted. Kidderminster is noted for the manufacture of carpets, and is said to owe its success to a popular belief in the peculiar properties of the waters of the River Stour for fixing dyes. Worcester, without any special advantages, took up the manufacture of china after the decline of its woollen industry.