West Midlands

A metropolitan county formed in 1974 and centred around England's second largest city of Birmingham.

The county covers an area of 347 square miles and is home to 2,650,000 people.

The administrative centre is, of course, Birmingham with the towns of Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, Coventry, Smethwick and West Bromwich being the other major population centres.

The county is heavily industrialised with the manufacture of all kinds of engineering and mechanicals goods such as motor vehicles and machine tools the paramount trade.

Birmingham can lay claim to be the home of the birth of Lawn Tennis. Today the National Exhibition Centre is the centrepiece of a modern, thriving city and county.