Rye’s Years 8 and 9 pupils visited the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley.
On arrival, we were met by our costumed guides who took us through the Industrial town that has been painstakingly rebuilt brick by brick from original buildings from the surrounding Black Country. We went into a Victorian pharmacy, a general store, a toll house and other cottages, the sweet shop, a steel trap maker, and a pub and were told the significance of each of these buildings in regards to their sole industry of mining.
At the Mine Show we were shown how they searched for the toxic gases released during mining; methane and carbon dioxide- first using children and candles, as well as canaries, before progressing to Davy lamps to prevent fatalities.
We also experienced what school would have been like in 1912. Mr Griffiths taught us some basic reading, writing and reckoning, and Mr Foster- who’d been caught spending his 2p attendance fee at the sweet shop- got the cane!
