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The Black Country Living Museum (formerly The Black Country Museum) is an open-air museum of rebuilt historic buildings in Dudley in the West Midlands of England.〔(Black Country Living Museum ), accessed 14 February 2011〕 It is close to Dudley Castle in the centre of the Black Country conurbation. The museum occupies of former industrial land partly reclaimed from a former railway goods yard, disused lime kilns and former coal pits. It was opened in 1978, since when many more exhibits have been added. The museum preserves some important buildings from around the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton; mainly in a specially built village. Most buildings were relocated from their original sites to form a base from where demonstrators portray life in the period from the 1850s to the 1950s. The museum is constantly changing as new exhibits, especially buildings, are being added. ==Background== The museum is close to the site where Thomas Dudley first mastered the technique of smelting iron with coal instead of wood charcoal and making iron enough for industrial use. Having a claim to be ''the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution'', the Black Country is famous for its wide range of midsteel-based products from nails to the anchor and anchor chain for the Titanic. The site's coal mining heritage is shown by an underground drift and colliery surface buildings. The museum has a working replica of a Newcomen atmospheric engine. Thomas Newcomen's invention was first successfully put to use in Tipton in 1712.〔(Brief History of Tipton ), accessed 2 April 2012〕 The museum's reconstruction was based on a print engraved by Thomas Barney, filemaker of Wolverhampton, in 1719. Electric trams and trolleybuses transport visitors from the entrance to the village where thirty domestic and industrial buildings have been relocated close to the canal basin. The museum is one of three in the UK with working trolleybuses. The route to the village passes the Cast Iron Houses and a 1930s fairground. A narrowboat operated by Dudley Canal Trust makes trips on the Dudley Canal and into the Dudley Tunnel. On 16 February 2012, the museum's collection was awarded designated status by Arts Council England (ACE), a mark of distinction celebrating its unique national and international importance. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Black Country Living Museum」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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