Close, janetsflower, but not entirely accurate; the name "Black Country" arose from the pall of smoke that hung permanently over the region and general griminess and sootiness of everything as a result of the concentration of industry there. Coal-mining was certainly part of it, but so were metal-refining, foundrywork, glassmaking and a hundred other filth-generating industries. And for the record, Wolverhampton is not actually in the Black Country.....