Finishing touches from the 40s and 60s needed

Black Country Living Museum is seeking help from the public to complete the interpretation of its cast-iron houses, two popular buildings in the Museum’s collection that have been relocated and will be reopened later this year to tell stories from the 1940s and 1960s.

As part of the Museum’s new development its cast-iron houses will be redressed in two different styles reflecting the changes between the early years of the Second World War and the modernity of the 1960s. It is the first time the Museum will be bringing the era of the 1960s to life in a domestic setting.

The different time periods will showcase the lives of two different families who lived in the cast-iron houses during these time periods. The Museum is now seeking donations of a range of domestic items dating from the 1940s and 1960s to add the finishing touches to bring the houses to life, including furniture, packaging, clothing and bedding, kitchenware, and toys and games. Plus, in a nod to the modern era, the Museum is also looking to collect a late 1960s Philips television, where the family would have watched West Bromwich Albion win the FA cup in 1968!

The 1940s house will tell stories of the early years of the Second World War, including rationing and the “dig for victory” campaign. The 1960s house will include the bedrooms of two teenage boys, adorned with football memorabilia and Clint Eastwood posters. Visitors will also have a chance to hear music playing from the boys’ favourite bands, including the Who, the Beatles, and Cream.

The houses were originally built by Dudley Council in the 1920s in response to a shortage of housing at the end of World War One. They are made from cast-iron panels, two feet square in size, and bolted together.

First translocated and rebuilt at the top of the Museum’s site in 1991, they became a firm visitor favourite. They have now been carefully de-constructed and rebuilt again in a new home further down in the site, next to the Museum’s new 1940s-60s high street. It is the first time that visitors will be able to explore both houses, as originally only the downstairs of one house was on display.

The houses originally stood in Birmingham Road and Ernest Road on the Brewery Fields Estate, not far from the Museum. Due to a shortage of building materials and labour after the war experiments were made with various types of non-traditional construction methods. Dudley Council opted for cast-iron panels, with the Eclipse Foundry in Dudley securing the contract. By the time the second set of cast-iron houses was completed, the construction costs were higher than brick-built houses, so no more were built.

Have you got any 1940s – 1960s domestic memorabilia? The Museum would love to hear from you. The team can be contacted via email on collections@bclm.com or via telephone on 0121 521 5600.