Bank Holiday Walks, with Ron Freethy: Ironbridge

IF YOU fancy a stroll through the industrial archaeology of England then Ironbridge in Shropshire is the answer.

You can enjoy the majestic meanders of the River Severn, explore its wildlife and yet be close to a number of industrial museums which can all be visited by the purchase of a single ticket.

The six miles of the Ironbridge Gorge has variously been described as the 18th century equivalent of the silicon valley, the birthplace of industry and the cradle of our modern world.

Here was the source of the world's first iron rails, wheels and boats and the site of the first cast iron bridge from which the present town near Telford takes its name.

Ironbridge today seems an unlikely starting point for the Industrial Revolution.

The mines and furnaces which worked so hard 250 years ago are now silent but the town is as busy as ever it was.

The difference today is that most of its inhabitants are transient rather than resident -- for Ironbridge is one of the largest museums in the world.

The Ironbridge attraction has been developed almost to perfection and in this sense Lancashire, especially East Lancashire, has lagged behind.

Where is our museum to the East Lancashire coal field? How well or how badly do we celebrate our stretch of the Leeds and Liverpool canal? The answer is that we don't and we certainly should. The Ironbridge Gorge Museum was established in 1967 and the first site opened to the public in 1973. In 1986 UNESCO realised the area's importance and designated it a world heritage site. The museum is obviously dominated by the cast iron bridge, assembled in 1779 and still the world's most spectacular advertisement for this versatile material. Inside the toll house is an exhibition about the bridge. There is also a wonderfully picturesque museum of the river and visitor centre. It was formerly a Severn warehouse built in the 1840s to store the cast iron products which were then exported throughout the world, first by barge and then by larger ships.

Blists Hill is a timewarp of a place, with exhibitions spread over a 50 acre site and indoors, shops, offices, streets lit by gas and an old toll house. It is possible to drink beer in a Victorian pub, eat pies served by staff dressed in Victorian costume and watch pig iron and cast iron being made in the traditional way.

I love this bit of Shropshire but I love East Lancashire more and I wish we had the will -- and the money -- to develop a museum of this type for ourselves.