| Re: National Trust gets £9m to take over Ironbridge Industrial Revolution museums Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 17:31, 9th November 2025 |     |
A related topic, from the BBC:
Ironbridge volunteers restore replica 1800s Trevithick steam locomotive
Volunteers at Blists Hill Victorian Town in Telford have restored a full-scale working replica of the world's first steam railway locomotive.
The Trevithick was first designed by Richard Trevithick in 1802, with the original built in the Ironbridge Gorge by the Coalbrookdale Company.
After about eight months of repairs, the replica is running again for visitors for the first time in 18 months.
"We're thrilled to bits that we've finally got this engine back on its plateway, it's a pretty unique exhibit," said Trevor Barraclough, steam engineer and volunteer with the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.
"We've done quite a lot of work to it, reboring the cylinders… replacing the heat tubes and the boiler, repairing things that have been done to it in the past, and trying to cope with old technology in a new technological environment. It's a very interesting thing to drive, but there's very little on it that's on a steam locomotive you might find on the Severn Valley."
He described it as a "clockwork version" of a steam train. "We believe it's the first steam powered locomotive to work on a track," he told the BBC.
"Trevithick had built many stationary engines, he came here to Coalbrookdale to produce this high pressure engine, in its day it was like nuclear physics - this thing was working at much higher pressure than the Cornish mine engines.
"It was feared, and rightly so, this thing was operating at four, five times the pressure of the contemporary engines and marked the ability to put a lot of energy in a very compact unit that could then be fitted to something reasonably sized on a set of rails."
He said that this engine industrialised the movement of things like coal, iron and clay. "Before this engine was built, if you wanted to move wagons of coal up and down a plateway... you had to do it either by hand… or with horses. People and horses get tired, they need feeding… whereas a steam engine, the idea was it would do the work for you."
The engine is up and running at the Victorian Town and will continue to do so until the first hard frost in December.
Volunteers at Blists Hill Victorian Town in Telford have restored a full-scale working replica of the world's first steam railway locomotive.
The Trevithick was first designed by Richard Trevithick in 1802, with the original built in the Ironbridge Gorge by the Coalbrookdale Company.
After about eight months of repairs, the replica is running again for visitors for the first time in 18 months.
"We're thrilled to bits that we've finally got this engine back on its plateway, it's a pretty unique exhibit," said Trevor Barraclough, steam engineer and volunteer with the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.
"We've done quite a lot of work to it, reboring the cylinders… replacing the heat tubes and the boiler, repairing things that have been done to it in the past, and trying to cope with old technology in a new technological environment. It's a very interesting thing to drive, but there's very little on it that's on a steam locomotive you might find on the Severn Valley."
He described it as a "clockwork version" of a steam train. "We believe it's the first steam powered locomotive to work on a track," he told the BBC.
"Trevithick had built many stationary engines, he came here to Coalbrookdale to produce this high pressure engine, in its day it was like nuclear physics - this thing was working at much higher pressure than the Cornish mine engines.
"It was feared, and rightly so, this thing was operating at four, five times the pressure of the contemporary engines and marked the ability to put a lot of energy in a very compact unit that could then be fitted to something reasonably sized on a set of rails."
He said that this engine industrialised the movement of things like coal, iron and clay. "Before this engine was built, if you wanted to move wagons of coal up and down a plateway... you had to do it either by hand… or with horses. People and horses get tired, they need feeding… whereas a steam engine, the idea was it would do the work for you."
The engine is up and running at the Victorian Town and will continue to do so until the first hard frost in December.
| Re: National Trust gets £9m to take over Ironbridge Industrial Revolution museums Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 00:21, 18th October 2025 | |
... My first visit was as a 6th Form A Level History student ... An added bonus was that someone knew a shortcut to the local pub.
That is also one of my own memories of A Level History research.
| Re: National Trust gets £9m to take over Ironbridge Industrial Revolution museums Posted by johnneyw at 23:52, 17th October 2025 | |
Interesting. I wonder if my NT life membership will get me in or if there will be a different admissions arrangement for the sites.
It's been many years since I was last there. My first visit was as a 6th Form A Level History student on a two or three day work party stay in some fairly basic accommodation by the old canal on the Blists Hill site. An added bonus was that someone knew a shortcut to the local pub.
| Re: National Trust gets £9m to take over Ironbridge Industrial Revolution museums Posted by Ralph Ayres at 20:18, 17th October 2025 | |
It will be interesting to see how they approach admission prices/tickets. A fair proportion of visitors to the Ironbridge complex probably have NT membership, so if they get free admission as at other NT sites that's an immediate drop in income, though it might be balanced by non-members visiting Ironbridge deciding to join the NT. There's also currently an annual pass for the Ironbridge sites, and I don't think the NT has anything similar at any of their properties or areas so if they continue that it will be a bit of an oddity.
| Re: National Trust gets £9m to take over Ironbridge Industrial Revolution museums Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 18:44, 17th October 2025 | |
Another update, from the BBC:
Plans 'absolutely vital' to protect future of Ironbridge museums
The interim boss in charge of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust says the new plan to protect the sites was "vital" after visitor numbers fell.
On Thursday it was announced the National Trust would be taking over the running of its 10 museums and 35 listed buildings and scheduled monuments, with the help of £9m from the government.
Karen Davies, the trust's interim chief executive officer, said the last five years had been "very difficult" and visitor numbers "were just not returning to pre-Covid levels". She said the museums were "not about to go bump", but added: "We recognised to protect the historic assets for the medium to long-term future, it was absolutely vital we put a plan in place."
The Ironbridge Gorge has been described as the birthplace of the industrial revolution, and one of the attractions is the original blast furnace where Abraham Darby I perfected iron smelting. His innovations, and those of the "iron masters" who followed him, are widely recognised as being the catalyst for the building of the bridges, railways and machinery of the modern world.
The museums tell the story of those achievements and of the Industrial Revolution and since 1967 the area's heritage has been overseen by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.
But Ms Davies said visitor numbers had fallen from approximately 450,000 before the pandemic to just under 300,000 last year. She said ideally, to be sustainable, that figure needed to be 500,000. For that reason, she said the museum trust had spoken to "lots of organisations" to seek help.
Blists Hill Victorian Town is one of the biggest attractions in the Ironbridge Gorge
The National Trust has said it aims to increase annual visitor numbers to 600,000 in the long term, and Ms Davies said: "We consider ourselves to be very fortunate the National Trust recognised the absolute uniqueness of Ironbridge."
She said the "stories that we tell you can't find that anywhere else in the world," and it would be up to the National Trust to decide how to tell that story. Ms Davies also said: "The whole idea of government investing the £9m is that the National Trust will have the ability to invest in all our sites and bring them to life more."
Ms Davies said it was too early to talk about the impact on jobs, but in the short term all employees would move over to the National Trust when the takeover is completed in the spring. "We haven't started to discuss operational plans with the National Trust," she added.
The future of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust is more certain, however, and she said the organisation would be wound up in mid-2026.
The interim boss in charge of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust says the new plan to protect the sites was "vital" after visitor numbers fell.
On Thursday it was announced the National Trust would be taking over the running of its 10 museums and 35 listed buildings and scheduled monuments, with the help of £9m from the government.
Karen Davies, the trust's interim chief executive officer, said the last five years had been "very difficult" and visitor numbers "were just not returning to pre-Covid levels". She said the museums were "not about to go bump", but added: "We recognised to protect the historic assets for the medium to long-term future, it was absolutely vital we put a plan in place."
The Ironbridge Gorge has been described as the birthplace of the industrial revolution, and one of the attractions is the original blast furnace where Abraham Darby I perfected iron smelting. His innovations, and those of the "iron masters" who followed him, are widely recognised as being the catalyst for the building of the bridges, railways and machinery of the modern world.
The museums tell the story of those achievements and of the Industrial Revolution and since 1967 the area's heritage has been overseen by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.
But Ms Davies said visitor numbers had fallen from approximately 450,000 before the pandemic to just under 300,000 last year. She said ideally, to be sustainable, that figure needed to be 500,000. For that reason, she said the museum trust had spoken to "lots of organisations" to seek help.
Blists Hill Victorian Town is one of the biggest attractions in the Ironbridge Gorge
The National Trust has said it aims to increase annual visitor numbers to 600,000 in the long term, and Ms Davies said: "We consider ourselves to be very fortunate the National Trust recognised the absolute uniqueness of Ironbridge."
She said the "stories that we tell you can't find that anywhere else in the world," and it would be up to the National Trust to decide how to tell that story. Ms Davies also said: "The whole idea of government investing the £9m is that the National Trust will have the ability to invest in all our sites and bring them to life more."
Ms Davies said it was too early to talk about the impact on jobs, but in the short term all employees would move over to the National Trust when the takeover is completed in the spring. "We haven't started to discuss operational plans with the National Trust," she added.
The future of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust is more certain, however, and she said the organisation would be wound up in mid-2026.
| Re: National Trust gets £9m to take over Ironbridge Industrial Revolution museums Posted by Mark A at 16:40, 17th October 2025 | |
tl:dr Anecdote of an idiosyncratic visit around 1979-80.
We travelled from Kidderminster on a bus to Bewdley and then Severn Valley Railway to Bridgnorth - on one of the very rare days they were running a late evening train back to Bewdley. At the time, the SVR weren't running to Kidderminster as their station site there was a freight yard taking delivery of, among other things, large aluminium ingots.
From Bridgnorth, by bus to Ironbridge, where we discovered that no way would a single day allow us to visit the entire museum site (but that was OK as the entrance ticket included unlimited return visits).
It's embarrassing given the riches on display that my stand-out memory is of eating a pork pie from one of the museum shops, it was like no other and in a good way and I still dream of that pie. Years later and visiting Beamish I sought out any sign of a pork pie shop but nooooh.
The return journey involved the last bus back to Bridgnorth. (There's still an bus between Bridgnorth and Ironbridge and it may now run even later).
Transport back to Bewdley was going to depend on a one-off late evening run by I think a Hall locomotive, newly returned to service, and providing something like a 10:30pm train in celebration, so, an evening with a chinese meal at the town on the hill before heading to the station (no reinstated footbridge then) and back to Bewdley to the unfamiliar sight of a steam loco in darkness and off down the Severn Valley with various landmarks passed in the dark of a moonless night and the Severn invisible beneath the (audible) Victoria bridge.
Finally, the walk back along the road from Bewdley to Kidderminster as the bus service had gone to bed by then.
I've seldom been to the area since (and our one attempt to reach Bridgnorth from downstream by boat ended in defeat at Hampton Loade) but my latest recollection of the place is the recent(ish) photo in the media of the shoes of the workforce hung on the gates of the foundry that made castings for Aga stoves, the site shuttered when the company was sold to I can't recall who.
Mark
| National Trust gets £9m to take over Ironbridge Industrial Revolution museums Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 11:24, 17th October 2025 | |
From the BBC:
Blists Hill Victorian Town recreates life in 1900
The National Trust is to take over the running of museums in the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, with the help of a £9m government grant.
It will replace Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust, which has been operating the locations in Shropshire since 1967. The area was named a Unesco World heritage site in 1986. The trust currently runs 10 museums, and 35 listed buildings and scheduled monuments, including Blists Hill Victorian Town, the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, and the Old Furnace.
The grant will enable the National Trust to fund the upkeep of the properties, part of the government's Plan for Change to help boost the local economy.
The role of the Ironbridge Gorge in the Industrial Revolution owes much to Abraham Darby I's transformation of iron production, as well as the "iron masters" who followed him, with some likening the area to the silicon valley of its day. The innovations which were started there are widely recognised as being the catalyst for the building of the bridges, railways and machinery of the modern world.
The transfer of the assets to the National Trust is due to take place in spring 2026.
It does not include the world's first large iron bridge, a Grade I listed structure spanning the River Severn and giving the area its name, which is owned by Telford and Wrekin Council and cared for by English Heritage.
One of the attractions visitors can see is the original blast furnace where Abraham Darby I perfected iron smelting
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said the move would save and keep open a "key heritage asset", and it is hoped it will boost visitor numbers. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said: "As the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, it is absolutely vital that that the museums in the Ironbridge Gorge are protected."
The £9m from the government, along with support from the National Lottery and the Arts Council, will be used to help with running costs.
The Jackfield Tile Museum is another of the attractions the National Trust will take on
The National Trust has said it aims to increase annual visitor numbers from 330,000 to 600,000 in the long term, tackle barriers that prevent people from engaging with heritage, and provide events and programming to appeal to families. Its director general, Hilary McGrady, director general of the National Trust, said: "I cannot think of something more at home in the National Trust's care - an institution built to protect and preserve the things our nation loves on behalf of everyone, everywhere."
Mark Pemberton, chairman of the board of trustees of Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, said: "We are incredibly pleased to have secured the long-term future of the museum by its transfer to the National Trust." He said the £9m recognised the "global significance and national importance of Ironbridge".
