December 2023 sees the publication of my 53rd book, The Archaeology of Ironbridge Gorge in 20 Digs, by Amberley Publishing. It is more than 24 years since the last book on the archaeology of the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, one of the cradles of industrialisation. Since the late 1990s our understanding of the impact of this area on global industrialisation, and the role of archaeology in understanding this, has changed considerably. High time for a fresh overview focussing on the archaeological exploration of this internationally recognised landscape.
Over the last three years I have been privileged to be able to draw upon both published and unpublished material held in the stores of the Long Warehouse at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust in Coalbrookdale. This data covers over 60 years of research on the Gorge, its industries, and people. At the heart of this valley landscape is the Iron Bridge spanning the River Severn, one of the world’s first iron bridges and an iconic image of the Industrial Revolution. The area’s role in helping to transform Britain into the world’s first industrial society earned it UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 1986. Industrialisation in and around the Gorge was shaped and constrained by the landscape and this is reflected in the range of extractive, manufacturing, and transport sites in the area. These include Abraham Darby’s coke-fired iron furnace of 1709, the first steel furnace in England at the Upper Forge (from the mid-17th century), brick and tile works, canals, tramways, and workers’ housing. The Archaeology of Ironbridge Gorge in 20 Digs explores these sites and their material evidence through a series of excavations from the 1960s to the 2010s. It combines these archaeological excavations with the analysis of the industrial and domestic buildings that helped to create the industrial communities of Broseley, Coalbrookdale, Coalport, Ironbridge, and Madeley.
Ironbridge is often regarded as the spiritual home of British Industrial Archaeology, that branch of the discipline that deals with the archaeology of industrialisation, from manufacturing and extraction industries to transport infrastructure, factory workers’ domestic dwellings, and the material culture of everyday lives in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Gorge was the site of one of the very first industrial museums in Britain, Abraham Darby’s Old Furnace, opened in 1959, and has been the headquarters of the Association for Industrial Archaeology since it was formed in 1973. From the 1980s to the 2000s it led the way in industrial archaeology research through the Ironbridge Institute (founded in 1978) and the Ironbridge Archaeology Unit (established in 1981), helping to push the boundaries of the concept of industrial archaeology beyond the purely technical aspects of manufacturing and production synonymous with the Industrial Revolution.
The selection of sites in the book is, naturally, a personal choice, but I’ve tried to show how archaeology, the recovery of the physical remains of the human past, has contributed to our wider understanding of Ironbridge’s industrial importance, and those who lived and worked in this landscape, since the first dig here in the 1960s. The chapters are arranged broadly in chronological order of exploration, with archaeological digs and surveys highlighting important industries, transport connections, and domestic sites. Hopefully, this new study shows how our understanding of Ironbridge’s role in the industrialisation process has evolved from the mid-20th century focus on individual sites in the context of Britain, to a more holistic view of the how the management and conservation of these sites, and the wider legacy of the first fossil-fuel-based industrial revolution, provides a basis for interpreting the continuing international significance of this dramatic industrial landscape.
For more details follow this link: https://www.amberley-books.com/
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