Black Country Living Museum

With visitors arriving today we decided a trip to the adjacent Black Country Living Museum might be a good means of entertaining them.  Neither of us had visited the museum the last time we moored here so it would be “killing two birds with one stone”.

However before our visitors arrived I decided to check the boat sliding rear hatch.  It’s been making a rumbling noise when opened and closed.  The worst case scenario was a failing bearing but after examining the brass running strip I thought the problem might be a build up of compressed “crud” on the surface of the brass making it uneven.  A little like corrugations on the dirt road.  My solution was to clean the surface of the brass with some of Jan’s “Pink” cleaning paste.  The “Pink” did a great job in removing the line of black “crud” and now the hatch runs without a rumble.

    

Our visitors arrived and we headed off to the canal side entrance to the museum only to find it closed.  Apparently the Dudley Canal Trust was holding a private function and that access point was closed to the public.  We had to retrace our route and then walk around the road to the main entrance.  It rained continuously during our visit, so not the best day.  However the more scary thing was recognising items from my childhood.  They are now in a museum!

Hopefully the photos will be their own explanation

I remember seeing similar to these

But not this

The attractions in the 1930’s fair were quite familiar.  But then NZ was a bit behind the times

Oh yes, I do remember doing my lines writing with a steel nib pen and an inkwell.  The biro had been invented but were weren’t allowed to use one.

Girls to the right and boys to the left.  We’d chant our times tables with the teacher beating the rhythm using his cane.  I can still chant them.

 

My NZ childhood didn’t look anything like this.