Wonderful British history at its best (Ironbridge)

Member Name: MisterReview

Product:	Ironbridge
Date:	11/07/09 (34 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An education

Disadvantages: None

If you like the industrial past and visiting a lot of museums you could do no better than visit Ironbridge and its collection of museums under the umbrella of the Ironbridge Gorge Museums.
This consists of a group of museum centred around the town of Ironbridge, which stretch as far as Coalbrookdale to Coalport and Broseley.

These museums are:

Enginuity
Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron
Darby Houses
Jackfield Tile Museum
Coalport China Museum
Museum of The Gorge
The Iron Bridge & Tollhouse
Broseley Pipeworks
Tar Tunnel
Blists Hill

You will need three to five days to get round all these museums, a car or long legs, as the bus service between the sites only runs at weekends and bank holidays.

Starting at Coalbrookdale, you have the Darby Houses where the Quaker Ironmasters lived. Moving down the hill and under the gorgeous viaduct you come to the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, whuch as museums go is pretty straightforward, introducing us to some of the concepts of making Iron and the history of how the Darbys and others solved some of the problems surrounding the production of iron.

Adjacent to this site is Enginuity. If you have ever been to any of the Science centres like In-tch near Winchester, or the Science Centre on the banks of the Clyde, you will know what to expect. Once you have seen one science centre you have seen them all, however I was sorely disappointed by Engineuity. Some people might like the method they have of describing how things work (a laser pointer is used in tandem with a TV monitor), that did not do it for me.

The Jackfield Tile Museum and Coalport China Museum are a wonderful blast into the past. Here you will see some marvellous architecture and also how things were and still are made.

I didn't spend much time in Ironbridge itself. Once you have wondered at the bridge and the toll-house, there is not much to see or do there. There is a small museum with a diorama of the gorge and some exlpanation of how it operated back in the day.

The Tar Tunnel. Here you will visit an underground tunnel where natural tar was found to seep through the earth. This is a short trip in, and after you have walked the tunnel and back you are barely there five minutes. I didn't notice how much it cost at the time, (I had a 'passport' - more on that later) though the website currently states for an adult you pay £2.25. While I understand keeping heritage alive costs money, I feel entry to this site should be included as a freebie on all tickets.

I visited Brosely Pipeworks last on the tour, as it was slightly further away. It is difficult to find once you get to Brosely. This small museum is a bit plain, but still interesting and it has been left in timewarp mode. It is dusty and looks great. More on Broseley in a moment.

I have left Blists hill last in this review, although it was the first place I visited. This is a fantastic place to visit. Here you can relive what industrial Britain might have been like back in Victorian times. The museum 'guides' are in character - they act as the shopkeeper, banker, doctor, chemist, candlemaker, schoolteacher etc etc. There is a row of working shops, where you can buy 'genuine' stuff from the Victorian era. There is a fish-fryers (the chippie to you and I) a bakers and a pub for example so you can get fed and watered as well as soaking up some history. We also get to see the industrys of the day. The scoolteachers also double up as actors and you might get treated to a special performance of Shakespeare in a comedic style, and in the manner of the generation game (people are plucked from the audience to 'fill in'). Expect to spend a whole day and a whole lot of money on trinkets and food.

Now a little about Brosely. There aren't many practical shops in Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge, so if you are staying self catering in the area you will need to find an out of town Tesco. However, the locals stayed very quiet about the existence of Brosely, which has many little shops, and more to the point, practical ones rather than the gift shops in Ironbridge - so don't forget that.

The passport. If you intend visiting all museums, get a 'passport' ticket. This is a 'catch all' ticket that gets you into all the museums and is valid for revisits for twelve months. You can still squeeze a little juice out of the passport after the twelve months - it is still valid after that time for any of the museums you haven't previously visited (your passport is punched at each museum). The adult passport at the time of writing is £19.95. If you buy tickets separately this works out for an adult at about £60!

Enjoy!

Summary: Passport ticket is great VFM for entry into all sites