New high street set to open at Black Country Living Museum

Visitors to the museum will be able to meet new historic characters, listen to vinyl in Stanton’s Music Shop and enjoy flavours of the past from the Marsh & Baxter shop and Burgin’s Newsagents from this Saturday (July 8).

Museum bosses say the opening of the new Forging Ahead development will expand the attraction’s storytelling and create an even bigger stage for visitors to immerse themselves in history.

The five new shops – Burgin’s Newsagents from Dudley, Laurie Thomas Hairdressers from Tipton, Marsh & Baxter of Brierley Hill, Stanton’s Music Shop from Dudley, and West Bromwich Building Society (Cape Hill branch), plus the frontage of Wednesbury’s E. Minett’s Ladieswear, represent different areas of the Black Country and have been brought to life with invaluable support from people across the Black Country who have shared memories and donated items, from pots of Brylcreem to personal safes.

The new shops at the Black Country Living Museum's 1940s-60s High Street; left - Marsh & Baxter; top right - Burgin’s Newsagents; bottom right - Stanton’s Music Shop (Image: Black Country Living Museum)

Each building has multiple stories to tell of ordinary people and objects that impacted people’s daily lives, as well as wider societal changes, such as the impact of post-war prosperity, migration and ‘the rise of the teenager’.

New historic characters include Jane Burgin and her daughter-in-law Cynthia, who together ran Burgin’s Newsagents in Wolverhampton Street, Dudley, in an era when businesses were commonly dominated by men.

Visitors will also meet Laurie Thomas, of Tipton’s Laurie Thomas Hairdressers, who was often found entertaining customers with his swanee whistle, harmonica and tales of his imaginary pet monkey.

The museum is also welcoming back its popular fairground, with new period rides and stalls.

Burgin’s Newsagents was previously located in Wolverhampton Street

Dudley Laurie Thomas Hairdressers was based in Tipton

Marsh & Baxter had a shop in Brierley Hill High Street

Stanton’s Music Shop was located in Castle Street, Dudley

West Bromwich Building Society was based in Cape Hill

E. Minett’s Ladieswear (frontage) was located in Wednesbury