New shops at the Black Country living museum.
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00:00I'm Carole King, I'm the Director of Content here at the Black Country Living Museum
00:05and we're introducing three brand new shops to our museum.
00:09We've got Spring Hill Post Office set in 1965,
00:13Langer's Army and Navy Store in 1967,
00:16and Hales Oldman & Hasbury Co-op set a little bit earlier in 1949.
00:21And these are really exciting new developments for us because they're
00:26new shops that tell a really interesting story about what was happening
00:30in the black country during the 40s, 50s and 60s.
00:33So our Co-op which we set in 1949 tells this really interesting story of a move
00:38from counter service to self-service but also it's telling that story of rationing
00:44because lots of people think that after the Second World War rationing went away
00:48but it lasted for quite a long time and it was quite an interesting experience
00:52for shoppers trying to go in see what they could get and work out their rations.
00:57So our visitors can come in and they can have a go at that,
00:59we'll give them an original recipe and they can see whether or not
01:02they can find all the ingredients that they need.
01:05And then in our post office we're telling that story of really the heyday of post offices,
01:09it was in the 60s we had the most post offices across the country
01:13and we're talking about when they were really a hub of the community.
01:17But this particular post office also tells a story of family business in the black country.
01:22It was started in the 1930s by Leonard Nettleton
01:25and when we set it it's been taken over by Stan his son.
01:29And it's really an expanding business, he's diversified the product line
01:33and really exciting for us and for our visitors he's introduced toys.
01:37So our visitor can go in, you can post a postcard but you also have the opportunity
01:41to buy some of the toys that would have been available in the 1960s.
01:46And then finally Langer's Army and Navy store.
01:50Army and Navy stores were a really new and interesting shop
01:53that was happening after the world war.
01:59One of our vehicles telling the story of the 1960s,
02:02definitely have quite a different sound to what you might expect now,
02:05very different to the electric vehicles on our roads today.
02:08But Langer's Army and Navy, this was a new type of shop that was happening,
02:12army surplus, it was really important for people looking for good quality workwear
02:16but it also started to influence fashion,
02:19so what you see kind of in the 60s is people wearing ex-army surplus
02:23as part of a fashion statement.
02:25But what was really interesting about this shop is Herbert Langer himself who set it up
02:29was actually a German prisoner of war who was captured and held here in the black country
02:34and he liked the black country so much he decided to stay
02:37and have his family and expand his business here.
02:41And for all of these buildings we have worked with the people
02:45who lived and worked with them to recreate them exactly as they were
02:49and with Langer's we worked with Herbert's son Steve
02:52to make sure that it was exactly as he remembered it and as his father's.
02:55We even have his father's coffee cup in there that he had
02:58that no one else was apparently allowed to touch
03:01because the visitors can go in and speak to our characters
03:03and learn the story of Herbert and his family.
03:15So
04:16welcome to the co-op and a brand new experience of shopping.
04:20We're inviting you today to take a basket and actually engage in our new self-service
04:27which I know sounds a little bit frightening and a little bit odd at first
04:30but we're here to help you with it.
04:32So this number 11 horn branch of the co-op is a pioneering
04:36branch in terms of starting this self-service region.