Ironbridge; Sunday, 14 August, 2011

Out early, onto the first Gorge Bus of the morning and up to the Victoria town at Blists Hill.

I spent the whole of the morning wandering around the site, stopping for lunch there, before catching the bus back over to Coalbrookdale and one of the most important industrial sites in the world.

The Old furnace at Coalbrookdale is where Abraham Darby perfected the use of coke in smelting, and with it creating vast quantities of cheap strong Iron. The whole of the industrial revolution can be traced back to this one small part of what is now rural Shropshire.

Along with the furnace itself I had a look around the museum of Iron and the Darby Houses before leaping back on the penultimate bus of the day down to the museum of the Gorge in Ironbridge to have a look around that.

After looking around the museum I was just in time to catch the last scenic cruise up the Severn for the evening, which included being able to see a Kingfisher feeding in the river.

From the mooring point I wandered back to the hotel for a very nice dinner before heading out to take some photos of Ironbridge at night, and then back to the hotel and bed.