The West Midlands

The official region contains the largest conurbation (агломерация) that includes Birmingham and Wolverhampton, but also covers the predominantly rural shire counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire.

The longest river in the UK - the Severn - traverses the region southeastwards, flowing through the country towns of Shrewsbury and Worchester. The first iron bridge in the world in Shropshire - Ironbridge Gorge - across the Severn was built during the Industrial Revolution (heritage of UNESCO).

The industrial heartland of Britain. Black Country, Birmingham, Coventry and Stoke – the four industrial pillars.

The Black Country (from the 1840s) got its name because of black soot (сажа) from heavy industries that covered the area, north & west of Birmingham. During the IR it became one of the most industrialized areas.

Birmingham is the second largest city in the UK with 1 million people. The city of manufacturing, famous for motor vehicle and automotive component. Rover, Land Rover & Jaguar plants are located here (but are presently foreign-owned). It’s an important centre of banking, finance and business services.

The region is also known for its pottery and ceramics industry in Staffordshire, centering in the town of Stoke-on-Trent.

With increasing global competition in manufacturing, the West Midlands has had a difficult time economically: since 1979 employment in manufacturing in the area has fallen 44%. Today East Midlands, Yorkshire & the Humber are most productive in terms of manufacturing.

Coventry – centre of the British motor industry (+ Trenton, Brent)

Wolverhampton – heavy engineering, tyre production

Tourism is of growing importance in many parts of the region, not only in traditional tourist area around Stratford, but also in areas of industrial heritage – the Ironbridge Gorge, the Black Country canals.

In general, the growth in service industry wasn’t high enough to offset (компенсировать) the job shedding in the manufacturing. In some parts of the region agriculture is almost non-existent, particularly in the WM metropolitan county.

In other areas, in particular, South Shropshire, around 1 in 10 are employed in the agriculture, forestry & fishing industry.