Ironbridge 

Ironbridge Gorge has been an accredited UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986, putting it in an elite group that includes the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids, Stone Henge and New Lanark.

The area is in such illustrious company as it has been identified as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. For it was in this steep-sided valley that developments in iron making, mining, manufacture and engineering altered the course of history.

In 1709 Abraham Darby first used coke, instead of charcoal, in the iron smelting process and mass production of iron became a reality. Some 70 years later Darby’s grandson first used iron in industrial architecture when he built the Iron Bridge that spans the Severn and a world first. In the late 18th and 19th centuries the iron foundries, china manufacturers and factories of Madeley, Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale, Jackfield and Coalport were mass-producing goods for the first time.