Three generations of the Sutton family paid a visit to the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire to check out the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution and how it is faring today. Lindsay Sutton reports.
If you’re going to build the first iron bridge in the world, make sure it’s something special.That’s exactly what iron-master Abraham Darby achieved with his iconic 18th Century structure over the majestic River Severn in Shropshire. It was so well engineered and perfectly proportioned that it has stood the test of time, ever since it was constructed in 1779. It also proves the point that simplicity of design is the key to creating a thing of beauty.
Of course, back then, the scene would be one of an industrial Hell on earth. Furnaces, like the aptly-named Bedlam Furnace, made coke from raw coal, an invention of Abraham Darby III that changed the world. Proper, hardened cast iron was able to be produced for the first time with coke rather than traditional charcoal. Hence, the Iron Bridge that was a wonder of the world, both then and now.
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