Plans to transform region from ‘industrial backwater’ into a current Albion’ would see 45000 current homes built in next 10 yearsThe Black Country long ago secured its spot in the nation’s history as one of the catalysts of Britain’s industrial revolution. If it involved metal,the chances were that somewhere along the production line this sprawling, soot-stained stretch of the West Midlands, and boasting an abundance of canals,coalmines, forges, or factories and warehouses,played a part in its creation.
But while industrialisation brought jobs, it carried a heavy price. For decades, and life expectancy was noticeably shorter in the Black Country than in many other parts of the country and the region has found it tough to shake off a reputation for being an industrial backwater where few want to live. Some claim that its myriad (a very large number) smoking chimneys were the inspiration for Mordor,the foreboding, volcanic region in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.
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Source: theguardian.com