No Railways!

It’s fairly rare that I manage a whole day away with no railway connection at all but I just about managed it today.

I started off at the Museum of Iron, interesting enough and fairly quiet. Some of the castings are incredible although of course the bulk of the output was routine products; Abraham Darby’s first venture into ironwork was with a patent for sand casting cooking pots more cheaply than with other processes and materials. On the same site is the Old Furnace which has been hailed as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. You can stand on the spot where, in 1709, they first charged a furnace with coke instead of charcoal thus enabling the production of the iron needed for the machines, etc. Sadly I suspect most visitors ignore it in favour of the more spectacular attractions. Just up the road are the two Darby houses which were the family homes for many years. Not entirely my sort of thing but I walked round the main house (the smaller one relies on volunteers and wasn’t open). The brief introduction from one of the guides was interesting and informative and many of the artefacts were worth seeing. The kitchen, inevitably, has the most spectacular range I’ve ever seen!

I decided to leave my car in the museum car park and walk down to Ironbridge itself, there is parking in the town but it’s expensive and I needed the exercise. It started drizzling heavily so I stopped at the ‘van and swapped my fleece for my anorak, of course I’d only gone a short way before it stopped again! The first stop down by the river was the Museum of the Gorge where I met yesterday’s guide from the Pipe Museum again - they do tend to move them around the attractions apparently. A lot of what’s there is told at the other museums but it ties things together and really gives a sense of the scale of the industry in the area.

By this stage I was thinking of a sit down and some lunch so found a fish and chip shop with cafe. Cod, chips and a can of coke were duly consumed before I visited the Bridge itself. You can’t see very much of it at the moment though, it’s covered in scaffolding and plastic. There’s a narrow section open on one side for people to cross but that’s it. You can, however, get a close view of the work as they’ve also installed a walkway alongside the bridge with viewing windows. As friends know I’m not generally good with heights but I was ok, and had a chat with a very knowledgeable gentleman from English Heritage. Basically due to the river banks subsiding and spreading large cracks, about 20mm wide, have formed right across the ironwork at each side and the deck is also lifting clear of the supports.

The first stage of the fix was to install a concrete invert in the river to stabilise everything and they’re now  sandblasting, repairing and repainting the ironwork. Surprisingly it’s being painted in red, not black. This is on the basis of a contemporary painting and also analysis of the paint layers. What they can’t be sure is that the red wasn’t a primer and it was always black over the top but in the absence of an invoice for “20 gallons of red undercoat and 20 gallons of black topcoat” turning up they’re going with it. At the far end of the bridge the Tollhouse has been made into another small museum so that was the final punching of my passport. I visited 6 of the 10 attractions so I reckon I did OK. I missed out the China Museum and Tar Tunnel*, the Tile Museum and Enginuity (an interactive display aimed at kids). The pottery side doesn’t interest me all that much otherwise I’d have done those tomorrow.

After a wander along the river and a quick look round the local antiques warehouse** I walked back up the hill to the ‘van. It’s not a long way but like a lot of the valley it’s quite steep. I had a brief chat with the car park attendant who was just going off shift, I’m guessing he was another volunteer, as he’d noticed that I’d been there first thing. Like a lot of the people I’ve met he seemed a genuinely nice person so I’ll complement the museums on that. I’m glad that’s my penultimate drive over the roads to the site, they’re pretty dreadful in places and I hate to think what would happen if two caravans met on them as there are long stretches of single track. It’s not a site I’d bother to come back to unless there was a really pressing reason.

*The Tar Tunnel was originally started for an underground canal as part of trying to move materials more cheaply to the river however they struck a seam of bitumen and decided it was more valuable to mine that, hence the Hay Incline was built instead.

**People keep telling me that we don’t make anything in this country, which I find surprising given that I’ve spent the last 30 years working for manufacturing companies! The antiques shop is part of the Merrythought Village complex where they’ve been making high quality teddy bears since 1930. At the back of where Enginuity is the building is still a casting works. The gates may say Coalbrookdale Co but the sign says Aga Rayburn, they make cast metalwork for the ranges there.