New tartan has a bostin heritage

A tartan which represents the Black Country is going on sale to the public.

The Halesowen and Black Country official tartans will be available in ties and scarves at The Public arts centre in West Bromwich.

They were designed by former Halesowen man Philip Tibbetts, who has set up his own company called Heartland Heritagewear.

Philip, aged 24 and now living in Preston, has had a long-standing interest in the local history of the area and distinctly remembers being taught about it at primary school in Halesowen. Living away in St Andrews for university made him realise how special the area was and he started to create designs using his extensive local knowledge in combination with his graphic design skills.

Once his symbols were designed he got them officially registered as tartan. The plaid, which has been accepted by the Scottish Tartans World Register, is mostly black with yellow, white and red lines.

The white represents the heavy metal of industry and the red comes from Elihu Burritt's famous description of the Black Country - black by day and red by night.

Philip has now teamed up with Donato Esposito, founder of the successful brand of Bostin T-shirts.

He said: "Tartan as a pattern was never originally exclusively Scottish, indeed the oldest tartan in the world is Northumbrian.

"In the Black Country we have the great ability of being able to take external cultural ideas and make our own spin on that - take curries, for example.

"Debenhams last year produced findings that showed that the greatest number of kilt hires it had in the UK were in Birmingham, further exemplifying our laidback nature and successfully blending different cultures into something new, distinct and exciting."

The Public has ordered two ties and two scarves in each colour to sell in its shop. The ties are on sale for £19.95 and the scarves for £25.95.New products are planned to be introduced in the coming months. See www.heartlandheritagewear.com for details.