Visit Ironbridge ... & fire your imagination

The Ironbridge Gorge was the scene of the remarkable breakthrough which led Britain to become the first industrial nation and workshop of the world. The area still retains much of the atmosphere of those momentous times.

Here in 1709 the ironmaster Abraham Darby first smelted iron using coke as a fuel, thus paving the way for the first iron wheels, iron rails, iron steam engine cylinders, cast-iron bridge, iron boat, iron aqueduct, iron-framed building, and first high pressure steam locomotive.

In tribute to these achievements, the Ironbridge Gorge Museum has been created around a unique series of industrial monuments spread over some six square miles of the Gorge.

Michael Vaughan-Rees, Geraldine Sweeney, Picot Cassidy: In Britain; Cornelsen Verlag, 2000, page 82