Ironbridge Gorge

The Iron Bridge at Coalbrookdale, a watercolour by British painter William Williams (about 1790) painted 10 to 12 years after the construction of the bridge. Many of the buildings and much of the scenery in the area has since been restored for the pleasure of visitors (numbering around 350,000 in 1999).

Site in the Telford and Wrekin unitary authority, England, on the River Severn, south of Telford; it is the site of the Iron Bridge (1777–79) designed by Abraham Darby III (1750–89). The bridge was the world's first iron bridge, and is one of the first and most striking products of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Designated a British National Monument, it forms the centrepiece of the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site, a series of museums of industrial archaeology in and near the villages of Ironbridge (population (2001) 2,400) and Coalbrookdale.

Abraham Darby III constructed the Iron Bridge from castings made in his pioneering iron foundry at nearby Coalbrookdale. It was here that Abraham Darby I had first used coke rather than the more expensive charcoal in the iron smelting process, so allowing for increased production. Abraham Darby II (1711–63) later succeeded in making iron suitable for forging as well as casting. The area fell into decline in the 20th century until it was restored as an open-air museum, a major tourist attraction which recreates the heyday of this ‘cradle of the Industrial Revolution’. Features include the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, Blists Hill Museum, Coalport China Museum, and Jackfield Tile Museum.