The Gorge is a
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
in the district of
Telford and Wrekin
Telford and Wrekin is a borough and unitary authority in Shropshire, England. In 1974, a non-metropolitan district of Shropshire was created called The Wrekin. In 1998, the district became a unitary authority and was renamed "Telford and Wrekin", ...
,
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
, England. It contains 215
listed buildings that are recorded in the
National Heritage List for England. Of these, two are listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, 13 are at Grade II*, the middle grade, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The
River Severn
, name_etymology =
, image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG
, image_size = 288
, image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle
, map = RiverSevernMap.jpg
, map_size = 288
, map_c ...
runs through the parish and, together with a tributary running from the north, form
Ironbridge Gorge
The Ironbridge Gorge is a deep gorge, containing the River Severn in Shropshire, England. It was first formed by a glacial overflow from the long drained away Lake Lapworth, at the end of the last ice age. The deep exposure of the rocks cut t ...
, which contains the town of
Ironbridge, and the villages of
Coalbrookdale
Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. It lies within the civil parish called the Gorge.
This is where iron ore was first s ...
,
Coalport and part of
Jackfield.
Until the coming of the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
the parish was rural, and the listed buildings from this period consist of
timber framed houses and cottages. In 1708
Abraham Darby I moved to Coalbrookdale and took over an disused
blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...
. He developed this into
The Old Furnace
The Old Furnace is a colloquial name given to an historic site in Oakamoor, Staffordshire, England, that supported the development of medieval and post-medieval iron smelting.
The furnace was situated in the Churnet Valley in the Staffordshi ...
in which he
smelted
Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from l ...
iron with
coke for the first time in the world in 1709. From this, Coalbrookdale Ironworks developed and a number of buildings associated with it are listed. The iron for
The Iron Bridge
The Iron Bridge is a cast iron arch bridge that crosses the River Severn in Shropshire, England. Opened in 1781, it was the first major bridge in the world to be made of cast iron. Its success inspired the widespread use of cast iron as a str ...
at Ironbridge, the first major bridge in the world to be built from
cast iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
in 1777–80, was smelted at Coalbrookdale, to be followed soon by Coalport Bridge in 1780; both bridges are listed. These bridges and some of the surviving strictures associated with the early iron industry are also
Scheduled Monuments.
Following the construction of The Old Bridge, the town of Ironbridge grew, and many of the listed buildings in the town are houses, shops and other buildings constructed in the late 18th century and the early 19th century. Apart from structures associated with the iron industry, houses, cottages, and shops, the other listed buildings in the parish include public houses and hotels, churches, chapels and schools, structures associated with the wharf at Ironbridge,
toll houses,
Coalport China works, public buildings, a burial ground, warehouses, more bridges,
level crossing
A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...
gates, a former
workhouse
In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...
, lamp posts, a war memorial, and a telephone kiosk.
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Key
Buildings
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{{DEFAULTSORT:The Gorge
Lists of buildings and structures in Shropshire