Paying the price for industrialisation: the experience of a Black Country town, Oldbury, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Sullivan, Janet Christine (2014). Paying the price for industrialisation: the experience of a Black Country town, Oldbury, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the development and effects of industrialisation on the landscape and people of Oldbury, a nineteenth-century Black Country town. During the Industrial Revolution, the Black Country made a significant contribution to the British economy through its extractive, metal-working and chemical industries. Oldbury has received virtually no attention from historians, yet its experience of industrialisation was distinctive since it industrialised rapidly during a thirty-year period, compared to the much longer time span of the region’s other towns. The thesis provides an in-depth study of the economic and social experiences of a Black Country town before 1900. In particular, it enables investigation of the experience of public health, Nonconformity, local élites and other themes which have received limited attention, such as pollution and occupational illnesses.
This micro-history is based on extensive archival research in local and national repositories. It applies various methodologies to examine this information, including the creation of databases, GIS analysis of mapping and demographics, and prosopography. The research draws upon a number of disciplinary approaches for the study of archaeology, geology, geography and environmental studies, public health, religion, sociology and mental health.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):