The Iron Bridge and Tollhouse

Ironbridge Telford, England

Ironbridge the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.
For those who have never heard of Ironbridge it is not only the name of a town in Shropshire, but also of a bridge made of iron, the first ever constructed, which was cast in the local foundries and built across the River Severn by a man named Abraham Darby III.
Ironbridge can be found on the banks of the mighty River Severn, where today the houses and businesses cling to the sides of the beautiful Severn Gorge. The bridge itself was completed in 1779 with the fitting of the balustrade and the road surface along with the obligatory toll house. The first tolls were taken on New Year’s Day 1781.

Blists Hill Victorian Town - Ironbridge Gorge, Shropshire, UK

Stepping back in time to 1900 at Blists Hill Victorian Town - a fantastic open air museum that's great for families, one of a group of 10 museums in Ironbridge Gorge, near Telford in Shropshire. The heart of Victorian Britain, with mines, tile works and iron foundries, it has been recreated with a high street (including a sweet shop and working print shop), its own Victorian style pre-decimal money to spend, and houses to visit. One of my own childhood favourites, I visited with my six-year-old to discover it's as good as I remembered - and the staff there are full of fascinating facts as ever. Visit for more information.

Disclosure: Our entry was free for the purposes of review, all opinions and decision to make a video are my own.

Music: Hyperfun Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License


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Repair work begins on Shropshire's iconic Iron Bridge

The Ironbridge (Shropshire)

Built by Abraham Darby III and now recognised as one of the great symbols of the Industrial Revolution, the remarkable Iron Bridge still dominates the small town that bears its name. Marvel at the world’s first cast-iron bridge. You can discover the secrets of how and why the Iron Bridge was built in an exhibition within the original Tollhouse

Blists Hill Victorian Town, Ironbridge

The Ironbridge Gorge Museums in Shropshire, hosts Blists Hill Victorian Town as one of it's main attractions.
This delightful recreation of a 1900's town falls into the same 'Living Museum' genre as you will find in 'The Black Country Living Museum' in the West Midlands and 'Beamish Living Museum' in County Durham.
These 'Living' museums provide not only accurate recreation of streets, shops, industry etc but also 'In character' guides dressed in their period clothes and uniforms who will welcome you into their domain and happily discuss and demonstrate the skills of our past;
A recommended family day out


Video shot with Panasonic GH3 & 12-35mm
B&W & 2:35:1 added in post

Engineering The Iron Bridge: Iron Casting From The 1700s

The impressive Iron Bridge over the River Severn in Shropshire is an engineering marvel. Erected in 1799 and the world’s first free-standing metal structure, it used of the still-new development of fuelling local furnaces with coke, instead of charcoal, to make more affordable cast iron.

Explore this iron casting process and watch as we recreate a section of the bridge using the very same techniques used by the bridge builders over 200 years ago.

Find out more about the Iron Bridge:

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Toll Houses Are Nice

The wife of a tollhouse keeper so kindly explains a lot to us inside a real tollhouse. It's very cosy.