My latest seasonal archaeology image is late spring in the Ironbridge Gorge (May). This season brings with it ducks on the waters of the Severn and the almost overpowering smell of wild garlic. It also brings unseasonably high water levels on the river Severn which flow swiftly beneath the late 18th century Iron Bridge lapping at its cast iron feet.
At this time of year the Iron Bridge is increasingly receding into the background, as the landscape softens with the new-season leafy growth and the strong varied greens of late spring, all of which are reflected in the eddying waters of the river beneath the arching ribs of the bridge.
Further up stream and west of the Iron Bridgr the waters are high around the Severn Warehouse, seen on the lefthand edge of the above image. This structure was built in 1834 by the Coalbrookdale Company as a transhipment warehouse in the then fashionable Gothick style. This explains the castellated walls with their pinnacles and buttresses, moulded stringcourses, and pointed arch window openings with diamond-paned casements. A polygonal ‘apse’ with lancets and two flanking castellated turrets provides long views of the river towards the iron bridge, as well as a vista of the former wharf where barges would moor with their goods. The elaborate brick chimneys stacks now sprout the recently restored, heavily decorated, chimney pots.
Inside the building is a gauge measuring the peak levels of the river over the last 100 years (left). Twelve dates are etched on the window spanning the period 1925 to 2022. Floods are nothing new along the river and the Severn Warehouse was built with flooding in mind. That was several decades after the Great Flood of 1795 which, according to the Shrewsbury Chronicle of February 13th ‘overflowed its banks to a higher degree than ever was known in the memory of man’ and swept away bridges and buildings. What is worrtying about the flood marker in the Severn Warehouse is the increasing frequency of the floods – the building being inundated six times in the 21st century, four of those epsiodes since 2020. Fortunately none of these recent events match the catastrophic flooding seen in 1946 and 1947 – yet.
As the wild garlic flowers fade and their leaves yellow, the River Severn continues to run unseasonably high. The increasing number of intense rain events deposit a month’s worth of precipitation in just a day or two up stream in the Severn’s Welsh headwaters. This means that not only is the risk of flooding downstream increasing to an almost yearly event, but also that the season for flooding is also expanding, something even the ducks might not appreciate.
archaeologytea 