Sylvester at the Bottle and Gas, Black Country Living Museum, Dudley, England

A postcard I sent to myself last year as I wanted the UK Year of the Horse stamp cancelled on a postcard. ....and the Royal Mail actually cancelled the stamp! :O

 The Black Country Living Museum isn't too far from where I live. I've been there a couple of times, and I think I've been to this pub as well, although I don't think I had anything to drink... :P My favourite thing there is the fish & chip shop, their fish & chips are lovely, mmmm.. The downside is that a lot of people agree with me so normally you'll have to queue for *at least* half an hour, even after they opened a second chippy due to the demand. :P

The Black Country Living Museum is an open-air museum of rebuilt historic buildings in Dudley in the West Midlands of England. It is close to Dudley Castle in the centre of the Black Country conurbation. The museum occupies 105,000 square metres of former industrial land partly reclaimed from a former railway goods yard, disused lime kilns and former coal pits. It was opened in 1978, since when many more exhibits have been added.

 The museum preserves some important buildings from around the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton; mainly in a specially built village. Most buildings were relocated from their original sites to form a base from where demonstrators portray life in the period from the 1850s to the 1950s.

The museum is constantly changing as new exhibits, especially buildings, are being added.

Sedgley, England

I thought I'd show you my home town. Well, sort of.. This doesn't really show a town but just a church, but this is the only postcard I've been able to find of Sedgley. I have a few of Dudley, but those don't seem to exist anymore in shops either as I haven't been able to find them anywhere since last year. Well, Dudley isn't exactly a popular tourist destination and it's not particularly pretty, either (honestly, a lot of Dudley is just so run down and boarded up it's really depressing).



Anyway, here you can see All Saints Parish Church in Sedgley. Sedgley is a tiny town within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, situated some four miles north of Dudley in the direction of Wolverhampton (I live very near to the Wolverhampton border; my bus stop is the first stop in Dudley after the border). Sedgley was originally a manor of villages, but developed into a town between 1920 and 1970 following extensive housebuilding in the private and public sectors.

All Saints' Church, then, is a parish church situated in the town centre. The first All Saints' Church was built during the 12th century but the current structure was completed in 1805 and has a capacity to seat more than 1,300 people. The organ which was fitted in the church on its completion had originally been in Westminster Abbey. The church is located on the corner of Vicar Street and Dean Street, with the modern vicarage and church hall on the opposite side of Vicar Street.



As I prefer written and stamped postcards to unwritten cards, I thought I'd mail the card to myself - plus that way I'd get a nice stamp on it, too. :) I'm annoyed that the card didn't actually get cancelled, though, but still has those annoying orange markings so I can't mail it again. Grrrr. The stamp is from a miniature sheet issued in May this year, with the title "Britain Alone". The miniature sheet's theme is the Battle of Dunkirk. All the stamps in this series relate to World War II and I personally think they are very nice (although obviously the theme isn't nice at all. :/).