Jay Blades: The Midlands Through Time S01E02 - Episode 2

In the second episode of this three-part series, Jay Blades takes us to his adoptive home of the West Midlands, to uncover the unsung story of its workers during the industrial revolution up until WWI.

Kicking off in the Black Country, he navigates his way by narrowboat through the Dudley tunnel, to hear how thousands of miners, as young as eight years old, put their lives at risk to fuel the country's industrial revolution.

Back in Birmingham, aka the "city of a thousand trades", Jay finds out about its famous Jewellery Quarter and its army of workers, he also has a go at making an MBE medal using traditional methods.

Elsewhere in the city he finds out about the real Peaky Blinders – debunking a couple of myths, he hears about one gang member who ended up dressing as a nurse to make a living.

Jay goes for a ride round Wolverhampton's Molineux stadium, where people flocked to see bicycle races in the 1800s. Hundreds of companies manufactured them in local factories – making Wolverhampton and Coventry the centre of its burgeoning industry.

In the sleepy medieval Shropshire town of Much Wenlock, Jay hears how local Doctor, William Penny Brookes, protected local workers' health by kickstarting in 1850 a sports day inspired by the ancient Greek Olympic games. Only to inspire the world's biggest sporting event himself!

Jay visits an original chainmaker's home/workshop, where women worked tirelessly in terrible conditions, to hear how trade unionist, Mary Macarthur, helped 800 women go on strike over their unfair pay. Leading to the country introducing a national minimum wage.

Jay ends his journey just south of Birmingham, to find out how the Cadbury brothers created the beautiful model village of Bournville around their chocolate factory, which made a remarkable impact on the lives of their workers.