Ironbridge Gorge

The last week of July Ben and I took a three day trip out to Shropshire to visit Ironbridge Gorge. It is where the first cast iron bridge (crossing the River Severn) was built in 1779. You might wonder why we'd traveled two hours to see a bridge- but it was so much more than that!

Some of you might remember studying the Industrial Revolution back in school (some of you might say you remember being there!), but how many places can you go to see where it practically started and where so many artifacts from that time remain?

For a refresher on the industrial revolution, click here. If you aren't feeling up to the history lesson that's alright, I still think you'll find some of this stuff interesting without the background.

To get there we traveled by train and bus, it was just over a three hour trip from Oxford. I managed to get us a room in this charming little B&B just a few steps away from the bridge itself called The Library House. We stayed in the Chaucer Room, which not only had a nice big bath tub (we only have a stand up shower stall in our place) but it also had private access to the terraced garden at the back of the house. You have to see the pictures of the place just to appreciate how charming it was. Liz, the owner, has done such a wonderful job with the decoration. I'd highly recommend The Library House to anyone, it was easily the best place we've ever stayed in Europe or in the States. (How many places come with their own little Terrier mascot named Fizz?)

After dropping our things off at the B&B, we walked over to the Bridge and crossed the river to the Toll House, which is now the Visitor's Centre. Back in the day, when pedestrians still had to pay a toll EVERYONE had to pay, servicemen, clergymen, even royalty. The major financiers of the bridge, the Darby family, were Quaker and believed no one should have exemption.

We picked up a footpath map, since we'd be getting around the Gorge by foot, then headed over to the Gorge Museum. There are a lot of Museums and attractions in the area, so we bought a pass that allowed us access to them all. Then we spent the next hour or so learning about the geology of the Gorge, how it was formed and why it was able to provide so many of the resources that literally fueled the Industrial Revolution. It's main resources were iron ore, limestone, coal, clay, and tar.

After the Gorge Museum we walked down to the Teddy Bear shop and museum. All the bears are handmade in the shop, even some of the Bears remain from 100 year ago! There were lots of other little shops and boutiques to explore before going back and getting cleaned up for dinner. Liz recommended Pondicherry, an Indian restaurant which was built into the old police station. Then we walked over to the Riverview Lounge for drinks overlooking the River Severn as the sunset, it was a really nice night.

The next morning we were up early for our Veggie Full English breakfast then our 15 mile walking day! The first footpath we took led us along the riverside where we passed some iron kilns left over from the late 1700's. It was a warm and beautiful day walking through the woods, after about 2 miles we came to an old tile factory that is now a museum. We arrived a little bit before the opening time so we wandered about the old building before going in.

Inside was pretty interesting, sure made me wish I had a house to decorate with lovely tiles! They showed not just how the tiles were made (and what they were made of) but also all the techniques used to decorate them. It was like visiting a art gallery, some of these tiles were such works of art. Getting pictures inside was hard, there are just some things that are better shown than said.

Anyways, next we were off to the Tar Tunnels! The tunnels were being dug to take the iron carts from the top of the gorge to the bottom. However, the work had to stop when they hit some black gold, Texas tea...not really oil just tar pools! It seeps from the walls! It was just fun putting on a hard hat and climbing into a dark tunnel...

Next we walked along an old mucky canal to the Coalport China Museum where we saw thousands of hand-painted pieces of tea sets and vases. We learned about the evolution of the tea cup and visited the old towering sets of kilns that were used to fire all the china.

From there we trekked our way up the Silkin Way footpath to Blist Hill. A charming village that has been preserved from the Victorian area, with an old-fashioned bank that exchanged your current currancy for Victoria coins! They also had an old Chemist shop, Sweet Shop, Bakery, and Pub. There were houses and ironworks to explore and the entire village was inhabited by costumed actors who answered questions and lived out a daily Victorian life. We walked out to the Hay Incline to see it from the top of the hillside. It was a long way down but an ingenius way to get the carts of coal from the canals at the top of the gorge to the bottom.

After a long walk back the way we came back to the center of Ironbridge, we had started our day at 9 am walking and we were returning well after 5 pm, having easily walked 15 miles. We staggered into The Tontine Pub & Hotel for a pint and an early dinner. While at the bar ordering there were a few local blokes (guys) had an adorable blonde haired, brown eyed little girl (must have been about 2 or 3) up on a barstool giving her sips of Guiness...they start 'em young here...

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing in our beautiful room back at the B&B, a nice long hot bath (with luxurious bath bomb from Lush), and tea with a crossword and Fizz in the garden.

Perfect.

The following morning was our last day in Ironbridge. We had most of the morning and afternoon before heading back to Oxford. So after another delicious breakfast at The Library House we began an uphill walk to visit the Darby House where generations of the Darby family lived while they were in owership of the nearby iron works (which is now the Iron Works Museum). The interiors were well preserved and had lots of the furniture, as well as recreations of the wallpaper and decor from the 18oo's.

It was a short walk back down to the old Iron Works. What is left looks like acient ruins. The museum had tons of iron pieces that were shown in the Great Exhibition of 1851 within the Crystal Palace (a place I'd definatly visit if I had a time machine). Most of the works were the original pieces on display. Decorative tables, chairs, coat racks, fountains, and sculptures all made of iron. There were also large diaramas of the iron mining area in Shropshire and lots of other interesting technical stuff for Ben to read about.

From there it was back to the B&B to pick up our backs, say goodbye to Fizz and hop on the bus back to Telford. In Telford there was a shopping mall and a two hour wait for our train back to Oxford. So we wandered around still in awe of our beautiful days walking the treelined footpaths and exploring so much history. It was a little disorientating, like having travelled back from the past to present day. It was a wonderful few days. If you ever get the chance visit and/or read what you can about the history of the area you really should.