Black Country Living Museum - The Village Centre - Baker's Shop and T. Cook’s Sweet Shop
This is the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, West Midlands.
The museum was established in 1975, and the first buildings moved here in 1976. Since then a 26 acre site has been developed, with the unique conditions of living and working in the Black Country from the mid 19th century to early 20th century.
It is off Tipton Road in Dudley.
This is The Village Centre at the Black Country Living Museum.
It has been built on the low ground at the northern end of the museum site which is surrounded on three sides by canals.
This is T. Cook’s Sweet Shop.
Like the baker’s shop next door, the sweet shop is a replica of one from Birmingham Street, Oldbury.
The exhibit takes the name of Thomas Cook who ran a small confectionary business at 21 Bond Street, Dudley between 1871 and 1901.
As was usual in the Black Country at this time, the business was run on a modest scale, the premises consisting of a small front room shop and a back room preparation area.
The business was a typical family run operation with Mr Cook as confectioner, his son Thomas as assistant confectioner and his son's wife Martha and their two children all helping out.
Martha would probably run the shop, while the two men made sufficient sweets to stock the shop and supply to other retailers.
The British nation is renowned for its very sweet tooth and tooth decay was recognised as a serious health problem just prior to World War I. In those days it was widely believed that sugar was a nourishing food and particularly the working class consumed large quantities.
Mr Cook ran a professional commercial scale business but many Black Country sweets makers worked part-time operating on a humbler scale making simple sweets by boiling up sugar in a saucepan over the grate in the brew ‘us. Their produce helped supplement the family income and was either sold on a market stall or from jars in the front room window of their homes.
The skill of sugar boiling has been revived in Mr Cook’s shop at the Museum where you can experience the tastes, the smells and the shapes of the Black Country ‘suck’ with many old favourites like pear drops, acid drops and troach sweets.
To the left is the Baker's Shop.
The shop which was on Birmingham Road, Oldbury, was Frederick Veal's Bakers.
The baker's shop is a replica of the one which stood in front of the bakery in Birmingham Road, Oldbury.
The original was probably built in about 1840 with the single storey shop front and extension added later in the 1870s.
The period setting of the shop interior is based on a photograph of 1910 when the name of the proprietor George Veal, confectioner, appeared in enamel lettering, known as 'opal letters' on the window along with famous chocolate manufacturers 'Cadburys' and 'Frys'.
The baker not only sold bread and cakes they also sold Johnston's British Wine. Customers sat on a bench behind the screen in the doorway and paid 3d for a glass of wine and a biscuit.
The range of bread and cakes sold in the shop are produced by a local bakery and are similar to those sold in the original shop.
Sadly we are prevented by modern food hygiene regulations from selling bread baked in the bakery’s traditional oven, the Museum’s lucky livestock benefit instead!!
Black Country Living Museum - The Village Centre - Baker's Shop and T. Cook’s Sweet Shop
This is the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, West Midlands.
The museum was established in 1975, and the first buildings moved here in 1976. Since then a 26 acre site has been developed, with the unique conditions of living and working in the Black Country from the mid 19th century to early 20th century.
It is off Tipton Road in Dudley.
This is The Village Centre at the Black Country Living Museum.
It has been built on the low ground at the northern end of the museum site which is surrounded on three sides by canals.
This is T. Cook’s Sweet Shop.
Like the baker’s shop next door, the sweet shop is a replica of one from Birmingham Street, Oldbury.
The exhibit takes the name of Thomas Cook who ran a small confectionary business at 21 Bond Street, Dudley between 1871 and 1901.
As was usual in the Black Country at this time, the business was run on a modest scale, the premises consisting of a small front room shop and a back room preparation area.
The business was a typical family run operation with Mr Cook as confectioner, his son Thomas as assistant confectioner and his son's wife Martha and their two children all helping out.
Martha would probably run the shop, while the two men made sufficient sweets to stock the shop and supply to other retailers.
The British nation is renowned for its very sweet tooth and tooth decay was recognised as a serious health problem just prior to World War I. In those days it was widely believed that sugar was a nourishing food and particularly the working class consumed large quantities.
Mr Cook ran a professional commercial scale business but many Black Country sweets makers worked part-time operating on a humbler scale making simple sweets by boiling up sugar in a saucepan over the grate in the brew ‘us. Their produce helped supplement the family income and was either sold on a market stall or from jars in the front room window of their homes.
The skill of sugar boiling has been revived in Mr Cook’s shop at the Museum where you can experience the tastes, the smells and the shapes of the Black Country ‘suck’ with many old favourites like pear drops, acid drops and troach sweets.
To the left is the Baker's Shop.
The shop which was on Birmingham Road, Oldbury, was Frederick Veal's Bakers.
The baker's shop is a replica of the one which stood in front of the bakery in Birmingham Road, Oldbury.
The original was probably built in about 1840 with the single storey shop front and extension added later in the 1870s.
The period setting of the shop interior is based on a photograph of 1910 when the name of the proprietor George Veal, confectioner, appeared in enamel lettering, known as 'opal letters' on the window along with famous chocolate manufacturers 'Cadburys' and 'Frys'.
The baker not only sold bread and cakes they also sold Johnston's British Wine. Customers sat on a bench behind the screen in the doorway and paid 3d for a glass of wine and a biscuit.
The range of bread and cakes sold in the shop are produced by a local bakery and are similar to those sold in the original shop.
Sadly we are prevented by modern food hygiene regulations from selling bread baked in the bakery’s traditional oven, the Museum’s lucky livestock benefit instead!!