Children of the revolution at Ironbridge gorge

Ironbridge in the national press

Children of the revolution: How to visit Ironbridge Gorge

“A quick explanation if you’ve never been: Ironbridge, six miles south of Telford, Shropshire, is a glacial gorge that carries the River Severn on its way south. Coalbrookdale is a tributary valley, which, thanks to the coalfield, the river and the vision of the Quaker pot-maker Abraham Darby, first kindled the early Industrial Revolution, then a century later, became the heart of mass production for the new consumer age.”

Children of the revolution at Ironbridge gorge

One of the smash hits at the Great Exhibition of 1851 was a cast-iron fountain of a little boy riding a swan, rearing out of a lily pond. From the swan’s bill, a plume of water shot skywards, wowing the crowds at the huge stand built by the Coalbrookdale Company. You can see the boy and his swan tod…