Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
IRONBRIDGE
135 miles NW of London; 36 miles NW of Birmingham; 18 miles SE of Shrewsbury
Some 200 years ago, the small village of Ironbridge was humming with industrial
activity. Today the factories and smelters are long gone, and tourists and tour buses
come to soak up a heavy dose of Britain's industrial heritage. This stretch of the
Severn Valley has been an important industrial area since the Middle Ages because
of its iron and limestone deposits. But the event that clinched the area's importance
came in 1709, when a Quaker ironmaster, Abraham Darby I, discovered a method for
smelting iron by using coke as a fuel, rather than charcoal. This paved the way for the
first iron rails, boats, wheels, aqueducts, and the first iron bridge itself, cast here by
Darby's grandson in 1779. The village of Ironbridge grew up around the bridge in
subsequent years, and since the late 1960s most of the gorge, including the adjacent
settlement of Coalbrookdale, has formed a giant historical park, home to 10 absorb-
ing museums.
Essentials
GETTING THERE The nearest train and long-distance bus station is in Telford,
5 miles north of Ironbridge and well connected to London and Birmingham. The
Gorge Connect bus service links Telford Central Station to Ironbridge, a 20-minute
ride. Fares are 50p per ride or £2.50 for an unlimited Day-Rover pass, useful as the
bus also connects all the major sights in Ironbridge. The catch is that the bus only
runs on weekends and bank holiday Mondays April to October; buses run every 30
minutes or so between 9:30am and 3:54pm from Telford. Alternatively, Arriva runs
regular buses Monday to Friday to Ironbridge from Telford and Shrewsbury. See
www.arrivabus.co.uk for timetables.
VISITOR INFORMATION The Ironbridge Tourist Information Centre, the
Tollhouse ( &   01952/884391; www.visitironbridge.co.uk), is open Monday to Fri-
day 9am to 5pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am to 5pm.
Exploring the Area
The Ironbridge Valley plays host to several illuminating museums, collectively called
the Ironbridge Gorge Museums ( &   01952/433522 Mon-Fri, or
01952/432166 Sat-Sun; www.ironbridge.org.uk). These include the Coalbrookdale
Museum of Iron with its Darby Furnace (£7.60 adults; £7.10 over 60; £5.10 full-
time students and children 5-18); Darby Houses, the restored 19th-century homes
of the Quaker ironmasters (£4.75 adults; £3.75 over 60; £3.25 full-time students and
children 5-18); the remarkable Iron Bridge , with its original tollhouse (free);
the Museum of the Gorge (£3.75 adults; £3.10 over 60; £2.45 full-time students
and children 5-18) with a scale model of the gorge in 1796; the Jackfield Tile
Museum (£7.60 adults; £7.10 over 60; £5.10 full-time students and children 5-18),
where you can see demonstrations of tile pressing, decorating, and firing; Blists Hill
Victorian Town , with its illuminating open-air recreation of a 19th-century
village (£14.95 adults; £11.95 over 60; £9.95 full-time students and children 5-18);
the absorbing Coalport China Museum and Tar Tunnel , with ceramics
displays (£7.60 adults; £7.10 over 60; £5.10 full-time students and children 5-18)
and a tour of an underground mine (£2.60 adults; £2.25 over 60; £2 full-time stu-
dents and children 5-18); Broseley Pipeworks, a 50-year-old abandoned tobacco
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