Coalbrookdale
Coalbrookdale | |
---|---|
The Gorge | |
Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | TELFORD |
Postcode district | TF8 |
Dialling code | 01952 |
Police | West Mercia |
Fire | Shropshire |
Ambulance | West Midlands |
UK Parliament | |
Coalbrookdale is a village in the
This is where iron ore was first smelted by Abraham Darby using easily mined "coking coal". The coal was drawn from drift mines in the sides of the valley. As it contained far fewer impurities than normal coal, the iron it produced was of a superior quality. Along with many other industrial developments that were going on in other parts of the country, this discovery was a major factor in the growing industrialisation of Britain, which was to become known as the Industrial Revolution. Today, Coalbrookdale is home to the Ironbridge Institute, a partnership between the University of Birmingham and the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust offering postgraduate and professional development courses in heritage.
Before Abraham Darby
Before the
In 1651, the manor was leased to Francis Wolfe, the clerk of the ironworks, and he and his son operated them as tenant of (or possibly manager for) Brooke's heirs. The surviving old
Industrial Revolution
In 1709, the first Abraham Darby rebuilt Coalbrookdale Furnace,[3] and eventually used coke as his fuel. His business was that of an ironfounder,[3] making cast-iron pots and other goods, an activity in which he was particularly successful because of his patented foundry method, which enabled him to produce cheaper pots than his rivals. Coalbrookdale has been claimed as the home of the world's first coke-fired blast furnace; this is not strictly correct, but it was the first in Europe to operate successfully for more than a few years.[4]
Darby renewed his lease of the works in 1714, forming a new partnership with John Chamberlain and
The company's main business was producing cast-iron goods. Molten iron for this foundry work was not only produced from the blast furnaces, but also by remelting pig iron in air furnaces, a variant of the reverberatory furnace. The Company also became early suppliers of steam engine cylinders in this period.[citation needed]
From 1720, the Company operated a forge at Coalbrookdale but this was not profitable. In about 1754, renewed experiments took place with the application of coke pig iron to the production of bar iron in charcoal finery forges. This proved to be a success, and led to the partners building new furnaces at Horsehay and Ketley. This was the beginning of a great expansion in coke ironmaking.
In 1767, the Company began to produce the first cast-iron
In 1795, the first porcelain factory near Coalbrookdale was founded at Coalport, east of the Iron Bridge, by William Reynolds and John Rose,[5] producing Coalport porcelain.
In 1802, the Coalbrookdale Company built a rail locomotive for
In the 19th century, Coalbrookdale was noted for its decorative ironwork.
Several of Coalbrookdale's industrial heritage sites are to be found on the local trail: including: Coalbrookdale railway station, the Quaker Burial Ground, the Darby Houses, Tea Kettle Row and the Great Western Railway Viaduct.
Museum
In the century after the Old Blast Furnace closed, it became buried. There was a proposal for the site to be cleared and the furnace dismantled, but instead, it was decided to excavate and preserve it. It and a small museum were opened to celebrate 250 years of the Company in 1959. This became part of a larger project, the
Old Furnace
The Old Furnace began life as a typical blast furnace, but went over to coke in 1709. Abraham Darby I used it to cast pots, kettles and other goods. His grandson Abraham Darby III smelted the iron here for the first Ironbridge, the world's first iron bridge.
The lintels of the furnace bear dated inscriptions. The uppermost reads "Abraham Darby 1777", probably recording its enlargement for casting the Iron Bridge. It is unclear whether the date on one of the lower ones should be 1638 (as it is now painted) or 1658 (as shown on an old photo). The interior profile of the furnace is typical of its period, bulging around the middle, below which the boshes taper in again so that the charge descends into a narrower and hotter hearth, where the iron was molten. When Abraham Darby III enlarged the furnace, he only made the boshes wider on the front and left sides, but not on the right where doing so would have entailed moving the water wheel. The mouth of the furnace is thus off-centre.
Iron was now being made in large quantities for many customers. In the 1720s and 1730s, its main products were
Notable residents
- Abraham Darby II (1711–1763), ironmaster, and his wife Abiah Darby (1716–1794), Quaker evangelist.
- Abraham Darby III (1750–1794), ironmaster.
- Arthur Charles Fox-Davies (1871–1928), writer and heraldic expert.
See also
- Ironbridge Gorge Museums
- new town
- Green Wood Centre
- Resolution
- Listed buildings in The Gorge
- Holy Trinity Church, Coalbrookdale
Notes
- ^ Baugh (1985), pp. 45–49.
- ^ King (2002), pp. 40–41; Cox (1990), pp. 130–311.
- ^ a b c Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 593.
- ^ King (2009), p. 56.
- ^ Trinder (2000), p. 88.
- ^ Trevithick, Francis (1872). Life of Richard Trevithick: With an Account of His Inventions, Volume 1. E. & F.N. Spon.
- ^ ISBN 0903802-14-7.Article 'Shropshire Railways' by John Denton.
- HMSO. pp. 3 & 11.
- ^ Trinder (1996), p. 130.
- ^ "St Johns Garden, Monmouth". coflein.gov.uk. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
- ^ "Public Art in Central Christchurch" (PDF). Retrieved 27 August 2012.
- ^ Cox (1990), pp. 131–144; Raistrick (1989); Thomas (1999); Trinder (1978).
- ^ "Coalbrookdale Aga foundry to close by end of November". BBC. 21 November 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
References
- Baugh, G.C. (Ed.) (1985) A History of Shropshire, Vol. XI: Telford, the Liberty & Borough of Wenlock (part), Bradford hundred, Victoria history of the counties of England, Oxford University Press ; London : Institute of Historical Research, ISBN 0-19-722763-5
- Cox, N. (1990) "Imagination and Innovation of an Industrial Pioneer: the First Abraham Darby", Industrial Archaeology Review, XII (1), pp. 127–144.
- King, P. W. (2002) "Sir Clement Clerke and the Adoption of Coal in Metallurgy[permanent dead link]", Trans. Newcomen Soc., 73A, pp. 33–52.
- King, P. W. "Technological Advance in the Severn Gorge", in P. Belford et al., Footprints of Industry: papers from the 300th anniversary conference at Coalbrookdale, 3–7 June 2009 (BAR British Series 523, 2010).
- Labouchere, Rachel – Deborah Darby of Coalbrookdale – Sessions: York, 1993.
- Labouchere, Rachel – Abiah Darby of Coalbrookdale, 1716–93, Wife of Agraham Darby II – Sessions : York, 1988.
- ISBN 1-85072-058-4
- Thomas, E. (1999) Coalbrookdale and the Darby family: the story of the world's first industrial dynasty, York : Sessions/Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, ISBN 1-85072-217-X
- Trinder, B. (1978) The Darbys of Coalbrookdale, Rev. imp., London : Phillimore/Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, ISBN 0-85033-305-9
- Trinder, B. (1996) The Industrial Archaeology of Shropshire, Chichester : Phillimore, ISBN 0-85033-989-8
- Trinder, B. (2000) The Industrial Revolution in Shropshire, 3rd rev. ed., Chichester : Phillimore, ISBN 1-86077-133-5
- Geordan Hammond and Peter S. Forsaith (eds), Religion, Gender, and Industry: Exploring Church and Methodism in a Local Setting (Eugene, OR, Pickwick Publications, 2011).
Further reading
- Belford, P. (2007). "Sublime cascades: Water and Power in Coalbrookdale" (PDF). Industrial Archaeology Review. 29 (2): 133–148. S2CID 110369508. Archived from the original(PDF) on 22 February 2012.
- Berg, Torsten and Berg, Peter (transl.) (2001) R.R. Angerstein's illustrated travel diary, 1753–1755: industry in England and Wales from a Swedish perspective, London : Science Museum, ISBN 1-900747-24-3
- Hammond, Geordan and Forsaith, Peter S. (eds). Religion, Gender, and Industry: Exploring Church and Methodism in a Local Setting Archived 21 July 2015 at the ISBN 9780227173879.
- Scarfe, Norman (1995) Innocent espionage: the La Rochefoucauld Brothers' tour of England in 1785, Woodbridge : Boydell Press, ISBN 0-85115-596-0
- Trinder, Barrie Stuart (1988) The Most extraordinary district in the world: Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale: an anthology of visitors' impressions of Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale and the Shropshire coalfield, 2nd ed., Chichester : Phillimore/Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, ISBN 0-85033-685-6
External links
- Coalbrookdale tour
- The official Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust site
- Coalbrookdale Interactive Census, 1851
- Telford Steam Railway
- There was a subsidiary foundry at Liverpool which existed for over 200 years and supplied the engines and cannon for many warships out of the Mersey Archived 9 September 2022 at the Wayback Machine