New street unveiled at Black Country Living Museum

A set of 1930s-style shops were today unveiled at the Black Country Living Museum.

The £10 million Oldbury Buildings development is an exact reconstruction of four smoke-blackened units that originally stood in Birmingham Street, Oldbury. They house a builder and decorator, a motorcycle dealer, tobacconist and radio salesman.

Work began on the structures in January last year, and they have been carefully moved brick by brick to the museum in Dudley.

Historian Carl Chinn today unveiled the new shops.

Director Andrew Lovett, said the completion of the £10m scheme would mark the end of major building projects at the museum for two years after external funding dried up.

The transfer of the derelict block, dating from between 1850 and 1875, was arranged by the museum in 2005.

Each brick was numbered and then transported to the museum site. Once the exteriors were complete, the intricate work of fitting the interiors began.

As much of the original period detail had been lost, research was carried out to to build up a picture of how they might have looked in the lead-up to the Second World War.

As well as the four shops, there are domestic rooms on the floor above.

They contain typical floral wallpaper, a three-piece suite and a 1930s-style tiled kitchen fireplace.

Humphrey Brothers, the builders and decorators, was in Birmingham Street from 1921 until 1960. In the 1930s they sold famous brand names of paint and wallpaper, and fireplaces.

Motorcycle dealer Hartill and Sons contains a display of locally made motorcyclest.

Alfred Preedy and Sons, the tobacconists, was a renowned business dating back to 1868, while radio salesman James Gripton cashed in on a new era of technology.