Black Country people have fierce pride, comic says

People in the West Midlands have been marking Black Country Day by talking about what makes their area special.

The annual celebration, on 14 July, was first held in 2013 during the Black Country Festival, which runs throughout the month.

The Black Country generally refers to an area covering Sandwell, Dudley, Walsall and Wolverhampton, although local poet Emma Purshouse said: "You can ask in different areas of the region where it is and nobody can quite pin it down."

Comedian Jonny Cole said the area was defined by its "strong, homely, loving, warm, breed of people".

Speaking about the area, Cole said there was a "fierce pride" amongst people in the Black Country and added: "We're very much old-fashioned in a way that family still comes first."

He also said "we can laugh at ourselves before we laugh at anybody else" and he believed people in the Black Country have "learned how to smile and find the fun in a tragedy and find the humour in hard work and stuff like that".

The Black Country name is believed to have originated from the 19th Century and referred to the thick black smog rising from local foundries.

The date of 14 July was chosen to become Black Country Day because it coincides with the creation of the world's first successful steam engine, invented by Thomas Newcomen in Dudley in 1712.

Purshouse said while the Black Country was sometimes hard to define geographically, people shared a common identity.

"I think if you're from here you're passionate about it and you love knowing about your history, the big industries, the small industries," she said.

She also agreed with Cole and said: "I think also it's the humour of the place, it's a very specific humour I think we've got here."

She noted people from the Black Country often do not travel far once they have become settled and she spoke about her love of the area's phrases and words.

Purshouse said her favourite phrase was "bob howler", which describes an especially large moth.

She recalled hearing a woman on a campsite use it repeatedly and said: "It just sounds nice in the mouth when you say it."

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