AD 1900-2000 Modern

During this period, traditional industries in the north of the region like coal-mining suffered from the inter-war depression. Elsewhere, it was not such a bad time, especially for the middle classes. New ‘red-brick’ university colleges were founded at Leicester and Nottingham. The motor industry boomed in the 1930s. It was part of a larger development in engineering, which produced aircraft, bicycles, and electrical equipment industries.

Many cities in central England were hit by bombing during World War II (1939-45); the historic centre of Coventry was wiped out in November 1940. In 1949, the Peak District in Derbyshire was the first National Park to be created and is today the second most-visited park in the world. The traditional industries of the Potteries at Stoke-on-Trent and the Black Country (north and west of Birmingham) faltered after the war. The success of the west Midlands in the post-war years was symbolised by the opening of the National Exhibition Centre outside Birmingham, and helped by the construction of the M1 motorway from London.

The down-turn in the motor industry caused unemployment in the 1970s and early 1980s. The east Midlands, with two-thirds of the country’s footwear, hosiery and knitted goods industries, catered to new consumer demand. By the 1990s central England also had a sizeable Asian population, much of it involved in small businesses.