THE BLACK COUNTRY SOCIETY
Chairman: Professor Malcolm Dick OBE
Tel: 07958 622962 Email: [email protected]
Aims and ambitions:
The Black Country Society aims to promote and stimulate interest in the past, present and future of the Black Country with regard to historical, social, cultural and environmental matters; to promote a high standard of planning and environmental design and to secure the preservation, protection, development and improvement of features of historic interest in the Black Country.
Meetings, venue, times and dates:
Live meetings usually take place on the 4th Wednesday of the month, at Bilston Town Hall. Dates of the 2025 programme are attached below.
The BCS also offers online presentations through its Virtual Heritage Group, which anyone can access via a zoom link. This is sent out to members and ‘Friends’ of the society via the monthly email newsletter, The Black Country Bulletin.
Contacts:
[email protected]
https://www.blackcountrysociety.com
https://www.facebook.com/BlackCountrySociety
Presentations Programme – 2025
22 January
The Renovation of Bilston Town Hall.
Speaker: Keith Hodgkins
26 February
‘A Cause of Immense Benefit’ – Episodes from Black Country Canal History.
Speaker: Phil Clayton
26 March
AGM & ‘An Ecclesiastical Affair’ - An errant clergyman, scandal and libel in a Victorian Black Country Parish.
Speaker: Chris Baker – BCS Digital Officer
30 April
‘The West Midlands, the Slave Trade & Anti-slavery.’
Speaker: Malcolm Dick – BCS Chairman
28 May
‘From the Black Country to Brazil: a 19th century story of Hate, Hope and Upheaval.’
Speaker: Keith Robinson – BCS Vice-chairman
25 June
‘The Windrush Generation’ – A Walsall Connection.
Speaker: Jennifer Blake
23 July
‘Wilful Murder?’ – The Sinking of RMS Lusitania in 1915.
Speaker: Andrew Lound
27 August
‘Remnants of an Empire’ – Continuity in Roman and Anglo-Saxon England.
Speaker: Charlotte Ball
24 September
‘Sweet Heritage’ – A History of Confectionary (with samples!)
Speaker: Emma Barran-Scott
22 October
‘An Introduction to Black Country Dialect – Across Time and Space’.
Speaker: Esther Asprey
26 November
‘Beatrice Warde – Creative and Printing Pioneer’.
Speaker: Jessica Glaser
Unless stated otherwise, all presentations will take place at Bilston Town Hall, WV14 0AP, and commence at 7.30pm. Admission is Free to members and £5 for visitors.
