Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron
The Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron is one of ten Ironbridge Gorge Museums administered by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. The museum is based in the village of Coalbrookdale in the Ironbridge Gorge, in Shropshire, England within a World Heritage Site, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.
It is open to the public every day of the week.
On display are:
- the remains of the revolutionary water powered blast furnace known as the Old Furnace
- displays of domestic and decorative ironwork.
- the Boy and Swan Fountain cast by the Coalbrookdale Company for the Great Exhibition of 1851
- the Deerhound Table designed by sculptor John Bell for the Paris International Exhibition of 1855
- cast iron Coalbrookdale Cooking Pots that introduced Abraham Darby I to the iron trade.
The Old Furnace
The Old Furnace is where Abraham Darby I perfected the smelting of iron with coke instead of charcoal.
In 1959 Allied Ironfounders, successors to the Coalbrookdale Company, had the Old Furnace site excavated to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Darby's first coke smelting.[1] This led to a small Coalbrookdale Museum, which in 1970 became part of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust as the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron.
It is a Grade I listed structure.[2] The Old Furnace was in 2014 the 100th recipient of the Engineering Heritage Award given by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
The Coalbrookdale site is also home to Enginuity, an interactive design and technology centre.
References
- ↑ Trinder, Barrie (1981) [1973]. The Industrial Revolution in Shropshire (2nd ed.). Phillimore. p. 242. ISBN 0 85033 428 4.
- ↑ "Name: THE OLD FURNACE AT COALBROOKDALE IRONWORKS List entry Number: 1054135". English Heritage. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
External links
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Coordinates: 52°38′21″N 2°29′35″W / 52.6392°N 2.4930°W