As can be seen from the satellite photo there
are plenty of parking spaces in Station Car Park
but none on the other side. For satnav
directions to the car park use "Iron Bridge
Tollhouse", the postcode is TF8 7JU. Parking in
Station Car Park is £3 for up to 2 hours
and £4 for up to the full day, parking in
The Square, if there are any spaces, is free for
up to 30 minutes and £1.60 for up to 1
hour.
When travelling from the south I like to
avoid the last few miles on the motorways, it's
about 10 miles shorter and 10 minutes longer by
the old roads, more interesting and mostly
through pleasing Shropshire countryside. Try
putting DY9 0JB from the M40/M42 or WR9 0JJ from
the M5 below Worcester as a waypoint on the
satnav/route
planner.
Travelling from the northwest as an
alternative I would suggest aim for TF8 7NH
which is The Museum of the Gorge adjacent to The
Wharfage Car Park (£3 for 3 hours) the
second largest car park in Ironbridge, from
there it's about six minutes walk along the
riverside to the shop (and bridge). Adding TF10
7BX as a via for a adds 5 minutes but saves 14
miles. Near the car park is a Co-op for
reasonably priced comestibles and with a free
cash machine.
Just a mile along the river is the Jackfield
Tile Museum housed in the Craven Dunnill
Tileworks, a few hundred yards further along is
Maw & Co.'s old tileworks now a craft
centre. Both were designed by architect
Charles Lynam, Craven
Dunnill in 1874 and Maw in 1883.
Ironbridge is a great place to visit with
ten
museums, many places to stay and eat and a
hub for exploring nearby countryside with its
wealth of history in beautiful settings.
Just 2 miles away is Buildwas
Abbey where some medieval tiles can be seen,
also 2 miles away is Benthall
Hall and Gardens home of George Maw the
genius behind Maw & Co., Bridgnorth, home to
the Severn
Valley Railway is just 8 miles away. Much
Wenlock is a beautiful old Shropshire town full
of character and only 5 miles away, Wightwick
Manor and Gardens with its collection of
William de Morgan tiles is just 15 miles
away.
A little further afield Stoke on Trent is 35
miles, there Lynam had previously designed
Minton, Hollins & Co.'s tileworks in 1869,
some tiles from the works are installed at the
Gladstone
Pottery Museum. In similarly urban
environments there is the Stourbridge
Glass Museum 20 miles away and the Black
Country Living Museum at 22 miles.
Back in to the nearby Shropshire countryside
we find Wroxeter,
once the fourth largest Roman city in Britain
and Acton
Burnell believed to be the site of the first
Parliament of England at which the commons were
fully represented in 1283, it is not simply
eighteenth and nineteenth century history and
engineering to be found nearby but a wealth of
what makes life what it is today.
Yet Ironbridge should perhaps be more famous
for something else, the first iron railway
tracks and wheels, and there is the site of a
steel works that predates Abraham Darby I by a
century in Dale Road, Walter de Caldbrook
licensed the rights to dig coal just off Madeley
Road in 1332, a couple of miles down the road in
Leighton there is the Kynnersley
Arms with almost 1000 years of
history….
