What is Ironbridge?
If you type Iron Bridge in your google-search-bar, there are two results. For one a town in Shropshire, which is a county in the middle of England and secondly a bridge made out of Iron, quite self-explanatory with the name “Iron Bridge”. The special thing about this bridge is, that it was the first iron bridge ever constructed and this construction was only possible because of Abraham Derby III who put all the vital ingredients together to smelt iron with coke rather than charcoal.
The History
The Iron Bridge and the town of the same name lie within Coalbrookdale Coalfield, a area with a high density of minerals like coal or iron ore as well as limestone or sand, and is home to the Industrial Revolution, triggering some of the most far reaching changes in human history.
During the reign of Elizabeth I landowners began exploiting coal. Soon after wooden railways were build to transport the coal from the mines to the banks of the river Severn, which provided important means of transport at that time. With the mining the industry around the mines exploded. Potters, salt boilers, tobacco pipe makers, lead smelters, glassmakers, blacksmiths, rope makers, coopers and basket makers began to settle near the Severn.
By 1700 the are had several furnaces and forges which used charcoal as their fuel. But charcoal was expensive and with it everything was smelted in those furnaces.
Then in 1708 one of those furnaces was leased by Abraham Darby, who used the cheap coke as a fuel.
With that a vast increase in iron production in Britain was made possible, which we today see as the beginning states of the Industrial Revolution. A period of rapid development began. From the 1720s iron cylinders for steam engines were supplied. In 1729 iron wheels for railway wagons were cast. In 1755 the local iron trade expanded. So much even that in 1758, 400 vessels were trading between Gloucester and Welshpool. But there was one problem. The river that had to be crossed to transport raw materials between the mines and the city was difficult to cross for many months of the year and the nearest bridge was 3km away.
With that, the proposal for a new bridge was inevitable.
Abraham Darby III was commissioned to build said bridge. The building of The Iron Bridge was mostly an 18th-century equivalent of a media campaign, advertising the versatility of cast iron and the skills of Abraham Darby III and his Coalbrookdale Company. In 1775 Thomas Farnolls Pritchard, a Shrewsbury joiner turned architect, suggested a design for the Iron Bridge. His design proposed a single arch, so it would not cause obstacles for the boats on the river. The works on the Bridge began only two years later in the November of 1777. 384 tonnes of iron and two years later the Bridge was finished and was used from then on.
Today the smoke of the furnaces in the air is long forgotten, but still, Iron Bridge remains a fascinating place, so much so that it was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.
To relive the birth of the Industrial Revolution you can visit museums in and around Iron Bridge.
What can you do there?
In total there are 11 “attractions”, that help understand, relive and be inspired by the history of this town.
All of these can be found under ironbridge.org, the official website of Iron Bridge.
Under the 4 categories they present the 11 visiting sites.
For a interactive experience they recommend “Blists Hill” a victorian town, where you can travel back in time to experience the Victorian life, the “Enginuity”, which focuses in its entirety on the topic of engineering an steam engines or the “Tar Tunnels”, providing an interesting look into a 1000 yard tunnel deep in hillside.
If you wish to be inspired, then you should visit the “Jackfield Tile Museum” to discover amazing tile art and the work behind them, or the “Coalport China Museum” to set foot into a traditional riverside Workshop, or the “Broseley Pipeworks” which showcase the Churchwarden & Dutch Long Straw pipes.
If you wish to travel back in time and discover the great places of innovation the “Darby house” or “the old furnace” would be your place to visit. But if you would rather learn about the glorious metal, iron, consider stopping by at the “Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron”.
Lastly if you wish to see “The Iron Bridge”, that is also possible. Here you can visit the Tollhouse but also take a walk along the river and enjoy the stunning view.
The last Museum, the “Museum of the gorge” as of currently is closed and sadly cannot be visited (state October 2023).