Earlier this afternoon we arrived home from our week away in a farm cottage between Bridgnorth and Ironbridge, within an area promoted as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.
I bought a cheap souvenir anvil which is, though predating the Industrial Revolution by thousands of years, indicative of industry, of engineering. What’s it’s not indicative of though is the massive social upheaval brought about by the increasingly rapid change starting in the early 18th century.
Here’s my anvil, it’s 3-1/2″ long and awesome:
We visited a range of museums throughout the week:
- Blists Hill Victorian town (a wide range of buildings moved from elsewhere and reconstructed.) (Here we purchased annual passes for most of the biggest attractions in the area.)
- The Broseley clay tobacco pipe works (at which pipes are still made in limited numbers, most notably for films such as The Lord of the Rings),
- Abraham Darby’s home, incongruously opulent for a Quaker,
- The Jackfield ceramic tile museum,
- We travelled from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster on the Severn Valley Railway, and had an excellent meal at the King and Castle pub (which has a wide range of local beers),
- The Acton Scott historic working farm,
- Enginuity, a series of interactive exhibits targeted at children of all ages.
- The Bridgnorth Cliff Railway (a magnificent 1-1/4 minutes of travel on a 64% incline),
- The world famous Ironbridge Iron Bridge.
- The Museum of the Gorge,
- The Coalport China Museum,
- To top all this off we had a last night meal and drinks at the Old Castle pub in Bridgnorth, known for its hanging baskets.
I might add links to the list at some point, and check if I’ve missed anything out (apart from a few visits to the Bridgnorth Sainsbury store.) Here are some map screenshots.
The area we explored, the cottage is indicated by the blue flag:
Aside from the Southern terminus of the Severn Valley Railway at Kidderminster, the longest drive to a starred point on this map is just about 35 minutes (from the cottage to Acton Scott farm.)
The area around the Iron Bridge:
