Ind Archaeol Rev 3 (2)

Porcelain was made at Coalport, on the banks of the River Severn in Shropshire, from 1876 until 1926. Part of the works premises now forms the Coalport China Works Museum of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. This paper traces the history of the premises and relates the surviving buildings and sites to this history.

The preservation of industrial monuments can be justified on the grounds that a particular monument has an educational function, or potential for excavation. This article suggests that in addition a surviving monument continually poses questions about its own past, and about wider historical issues. As an example, understanding of the Coalport Bridge has increased over the last twelve years, not just because new documentary sources have come to light, but because it has been possible to use the evidence of the structure itself to test the authenticity of other sources.

The Ironbridge Gorge Museum is to reconstruct and operate a wrought iron manufactory at its Blists Hill Museum. This paper presents the nature of the intended reconstruction and discusses the manning and material requirements for its operation. Most of the equipment and the expertise for the wrought ironworks came from Thomas Walmsley and Sons Limited, Atlas Forge, Bolton, the last firm in the world to make wrought iron.

Note on the findings of excavations in 1977 and 1978 at the site of the late 17th-century Allensford Blast Furnace. Excavation was to continue in 1979 and 1980. Consolidation of the exposed structures, including a calcining kiln, was also to be undertaken and the site was to be proposed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. LD