Dr. Simon Briercliffe is a historian of the Black Country. He completed his doctoral research at University of Birmingham in 2022 on the experiences of Irish immigrants to Victorian Wolverhampton, and is now an Honorary Research Fellow there and part of the editorial board for the journal Midland History. He is also a Researcher at the Black Country Living Museum, and published his first book based on that in 2021: Forging Ahead: Austerity to Prosperity in the Black Country 1945-1968.
In the mid-nineteenth century, thousands of Irish people settled in the Black Country fleeing famine at home and seeking a new life. This talk will look at their experiences, the prejudice they faced and the way they developed a community in their new home. It will focus particularly on Wolverhampton’s Carribee Island, but draw on experiences from across the region.
