The website of the
Black Country Society
Promoting interest in the past, present and future of our Black Country
Jim William Jones 1923-1993
Jim William Jones was a well known Black Country poet who was very active in the Black Country Society in its early years. His work was published in a small number of books of both standard English and dialect poetry, sadly long out of print, and he contributed poems to the Blackcountryman on a regular basis. On this page we give links to PDF versions of some of his work, that are freely available to download, as well as links to MP3 versions of some audio tapes that he made in the late 1989 featuring some of his work. A brief biography of Jim Jones is also given, and a link is made to a presentation made by the current webmaster of the Society (Chris Baker) in 2024 that used Jones' poems as a way of looking at the history of the Black Country in the second half of the twentieth century.
J W Jones by CLEBAK, From Black Country Society Calendar collection 1976
The poems
Jim William Jones published three small volumes through the Black Country society - “From under the smoke” from 1972, “Factory and Fireside” from 1974, and “Jim and Kate” from 1986. He contributed numerous poems to the first 25 years of the Society magazine, the Blackcountryman from 1967 to 1992. PDFs of the first two books can be accessed by clicking on the graphics below. A PDF collection of his poems from all three books and from those published in the Blackcountryman (compiled by Chris Baker) can also be accessed. It is hoped that in the future a PDF of "Jim and Kate" will also be available.
The button to the right leads to a page featuring some drawings by Tony Brockhouse that illustrate some of the Black Country Ballads.
The audio files
In 1989 Jim Jones recorded some of his work on tape for Keith Hodgkins, the sometime Chairman and President of the Society. In an accompanying letter of 29/8/87 he writes as follows.
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Dear Keith
You have been so kind and encouraging about my work that I have made a tape recording for you. It includes the piece you like – ‘Big George the Striker’. I have produced one or two of these tapes for friends, particularly those who have actually requested them, also the Blind Institute’s ‘TALKING BOOK’. Please excuse the amateurish quality of the recording. This is inevitable when produced in someone’s spare room with just an ordinary tape recorder and a record player for musical accompaniment.
Best regards
Jim Wm Jones​
This recording can be accessed below in two MP3 files, one for each side of the original tape. As noted by Jones, the quality is poor in places, but, in the main, not such as to interfere with one's enjoyment of the material
Audio file 1 - Big George the Striker, Yo might have sid me, Moment of steel, The story of Isaiah’s Rhubarb wine, The silolquy from ‘Omlet, Nell’s place, If I were a bright pink flower, I was out in our garden
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Audio file 2 - Caleb’s Gold, Patterns and Colours, 'Earts and plaices, Samson and Jemima, Across the Leas, Tipton War Memorial
Jim Jones - a brief biography and appreciation
Jim William Jones was born in Coseley on February 15th, 1923, and spent his childhood and school years there. After leaving school he began work with the engineering firm Joseph Sankey and Sons as a junior clerk. He was conscripted into the army at the age of 18 in 1941, taking part in the Normandy landing in 1944 and also serving in India and Ceylon, reaching the rank of Warrant Officer. After the war he returned to Sankey’s and was trained in works management, before leaving industry to join local government in 1955 where he worked in education administration, marrying Jesse Ralphs at Wednesbury in that year. He was a qualified teacher of speech and drama and a member of amateur dramatic societies, hosting a radio programme on Beacon Radio and working with the Black Country folk music group Giggetty. He had a strong Christian faith and was a gifted speaker and Methodist local preacher. He became a very well-known Black Country poet, both for his dialect poetry (Black Country ballads) and for his poetry in more conventional English. He died in 1993.Some of Jim Jones poems were included in a 1976 anthology “Widening circles” edited by Edward Lowbury. Following Jones’ death, Lowbury wrote an appreciation for the Blackcountryman (26.4, 1993). He acknowledged the humour and the pathos in the dialect ballads, which at the time of publication of “Widening Circles” he felt to be more successful than the poems in standard English. By 1993 however he had somewhat modified his views and concluded that his standard English poems were perhaps “nearer to the heart of poetry than the more immediately entertaining dialect ballads”. In a much later Blackcountryman article (45.3, 2012) Trevor Brookes again writes in appreciation of Jim Jones, and in particular his dialect poetry, emphasising that as well as humour, they contained much that showed a profound understanding of people and their lives. He regretted that these were not easily available, being scattered across many newspapers and other publications, and not accessible to modern readers. It is hoped that this web page goes some way to remedying that.
Black Country History Day presentation - The Black County environment of the mid-20th century through the poetry of Jim William Jones - by Chris Baker
This presentation was given at the Black Country History Day in 2024 by Chris Baker. It considers the history and environment of the area through Jones's poetry, featuring sixteen of the standard English and dialect poems. More details of the day can be found on Chris Baker's website, including a writtent transcript of the presentation.