Documenting the Workshop of the World

This Heritage Lottery-funded project began in February 2005 and reached its conclusion in mid 2008. Its objective was to digitise industry-related photographs and catalogue industrial archive collections from the four Black Country archive services. A website was created through the project in 2007 which allows access to the catalogues of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton archives.

More than 4,000 images have been scanned and catalogued since the project moved to Wolverhampton in August 2006. Large collections of material relating to local industry have also been catalogued: original records and documents for Bilston Steelworks and GKN Sankey are now available for viewing, thanks to the work of the project. The Sankey collection alone includes more than 1,000 items! Similar achievements have been made by the project at Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall.

The catalogues of the four Black Country archive services can be viewed on the Black Country History website