Foreword [by Venetia J. Newall]
Even before local-government reorganization had removed the Black Country from Staffordshire, the county remained predominantly agricultural.

Introduction
Staffordshire divides into three clearly defined regions - the Black Country, the Potteries and the country in between; the nineteenth and twentieth-century historians who devoted some of their time to Staffordshire folklore worked within their own regions, so the picture that emerges in one seen through the eyes of a number of unrelated writers.