Ironbridge Gorge

Be immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of Victorian life as you step back in time to the year 1900. Visit Victorian shops and cottages, meet craftspeople demonstrating their trades and taste authentic food as you explore a recreated working-class town in the East Shropshire Coalfield.

Delve into the story of iron, the material that transformed the modern world. Discover the original blast furnace where Abraham Darby I perfected the iron smelting technique that triggered the Industrial Revolution and changed our lives forever.

Enginuity is currently in closed. We are in the process of reviewing the exhibits here as part of our longer-term planning for Ironbridge. We know Enginuity is popular with families and we want to ensure that everything is running smoothly and safely before we open it up again. Thank you for your patience while we carry out these vital conservation works.

Open on weekends, explore the colourful history of tiles in a former factory whose tiles went around the world. Stroll through a London underground station, a 1940s bar and centuries of tilemaking. Next door, there's the chance to book onto tile making workshops led by Craven Dunnil.

Currently open on 11, 12, 13 and 18, 19 20 September for Heritage open Days, Coalport China Museum is located inside the former Coalport China Works. For more than a century, the Works were among the most successful anywhere in the world with china travelling from the kilns of Coalport across the globe. Close-by is the 1,000-yard (914 metre) Tar Tunnel which was dug out in 1786 to bring coal out of the mines at river level.

Open daily, the Iron Bridge Toll House stands at the foot of the world famous Iron Bridge, one of the greatest symbols of where the Industrial Revolution began. Goods produced in Coalbrookdale went through the Severn Warehouse, now the Museum of the Gorge, on their journey to the rest of the country and around the world. Please note that the Museum of the Gorge is currently closed for essential conservation works.

A short walk from Museum of Iron are the Darby Houses, former homes to the Darby family. Rosehill House, built in 1738, and Dale House, built in 1717, sit on the hillside overlooking Coalbrookdale, so that the industrialists who lived there could have easy access to their place of work. Please note that the Darby Houses are closed due to remedial works being needed after they encountered flood damage. 

Little has changed at the Broseley Pipeworks since it ceased operating as one of the UK’s last producers of clay tobacco pipes in the late 1950’s. Untouched for 80 years, and re-opened as a museum in 1996, the Pipeworks is a time capsule depicting perfectly an ancient local industry which spanned 300 years. Broseley Pipe Works are currently open on 11, 12, 13 and 18, 19 20 September for Heritage open Days.