It’s a New Town in Shropshire has plenty to keep you entertained particularly if you’re intrigued by the history of industrial Britain. Telford is a starting point to The World Heritage Ironbridge Gorge, the place where Quaker entrepreneurs kicked off an Industrial Revolution in the 18th century.
The vertiginous shores of the River Severn are old mines blast furnaces, kilns and blast furnaces which are all reminders of the development of heavy industry. The place is summarized in”the Iron Bridge (1781), which was the first bridge constructed of iron.
There are ten of these industrial museums within Ironbridge and all within a short drive of Telford. For those who love nature The long Wrekin hill’s ridge is a must to be conquered and will reward you with one of England’s most rural and exciting views.
Let’s look at the best activities to enjoy within Telford:
1. Ironbridge Gorge Museums
The birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century The Ironbridge Gorge to the south of Telford is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
One of the best ways to be involved with the historic industrial environment is to set aside some time to visit one or more of the ten museums for industrial history located on the site, each of which is run through the Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust. All of them are housed in restored warehouses, factories and kilns, or in the residences of the prestigious Darby family. We’ve selected the five most practical and useful in this list, however If you’re an avid historian, all ten are worth your time.
The Museum of the Gorge in Coalbrookdale provides a comprehensive overview of the past of Ironbridge Gorge at a sublime Gothic Revival warehouse by the Severn.
2. The Iron Bridge and Tollhouse
If there’s one thing to begin with in the Ironbridge Gorge, it’s the Iron Bridge traversing the Severn.
Built and cast by the Quaker ironmaster Abraham Darby III, the Iron Bridge was the first bridge made of iron in 1781. The concept was conceived to Thomas Pritchard, who died before his design was completed. The bridge is only accessible to pedestrians , and is worth the time you have to take to examine its structure. It has 1,700 pieces of steel each designed and built separately and fixed as wood beams in contrast to the iron structures that were to follow.
The Tollhouse is home to an exhibit about the past of this bridge and an information center to help visitors navigate the Ironbridge Gorge.
On the wall of the building is an “table of tolls”, which lists the costs for crossing across the Iron Bridge.
3. The Wrekin
Tourists in Telford can cast a nostalgic eye at the Wrekin towers just to the east of Telford. It is less than 5 miles from the town. The Wrekin was once topped by an Iron Age fort, the Wrekin is now a renowned landmark that marks the western boundary of Shropshire and is visible all over the world all the way from the Manchester’s Beetham Tower to Cleeve Hill in Gloucestershire.
Even though the trail can be rough in spots but you don’t have to have a climbing experience in order to reach the 407-metre summit and is easy to reach the path by way of the motorway M54.
The Wrekin is a complex geological formation and is made up of Precambrian volcanic rock that is much longer that Mount Everest. From the top, the view is truly amazing: when it is sunny,, you can see across 17 counties.
4. Telford Town Park
A far cry from the typical municipal park, Telford Town Park was named one of the country’s Best Park in 2015 following an overhaul project that started in 2011. The list of facilities is extensive, including an aerial ropes course as well as five play areas designed for children as well as mini-golf courses for adventure, cycling centre and water play areas in summer, swimming pools, and a visitor’s centre that includes cafe.
All of these are in conjunction with the park’s sensory garden formal flower gardens bandstand, and the an area of 62 ha Local Nature Reserve safeguarding heathland woodlands, meadows, and ponds on an industrial site, which was then abandoned in the 1960s.
In Medieval times, the land belonged in the hands of Cistercian Buildwas Abbey. the only thing that remains from the time is an Norman Chapel which was which was rebuilt near Withy Pool after being moved from the site it was originally located. Telford’s branch of the House of Fraser now sits.
5. Wellington
The most picturesque town in the region, Wellington is contiguous with Telford.
If you take the train from Telford Central Station it will take just seven minutes to get to Wellington The town has an attractive set of streets that have been the site of markets since 1244. The market today is located inside the Victorian hall that trades all week long and hosts 120 stalls, with half of them inside and the other half outside.
The list includes butchers and fruit and vegetable sellers, bakers, delicatessens jewellers, haberdashers cheese merchants, fishmongers and more. Then, you can relax with the tea you’ve had and a cake in one of the two cafes.
6. Sunnycroft
In Wellington there is In Wellington, you can visit a National Trust house that is distinct from other.
A suburbia-style villa that resembles the grandeur of a regal country home, Sunnycroft (1880) is an example of a property sought-after by the middle class in the Victorian period.
What is what makes Sunnycroft so unique is the number of original fixtures and fittings that remain in place.
At this rural estate with a miniature kitchen garden and orchards, stables, and a quaint conservatory, a medicine cabinet that has 300 remedies, and a garage that houses the capacity of a Daimler and Smoke Room that serves tea.
In the good weather, you can enjoy croquet games on the lawn under the gorgeous lime trees and redwoods.
7. Hoo Farm Animal Kingdom
A compact , but well-designed Zoo that is well-designed and compact. Hoo Farm Animal Kingdom an ideal family half-day excursion featuring a range of animals spread across five distinct zones.
“African and Eurasian Adventure “African and Eurasian Adventure” includes exotic cats, such as servals fish cats, caracals along with meerkats lemurs, skunks, otters as well as a wide variety of birds, owls and hawks. If you go, find out what activities take place throughout the day, such as feeding the lambs or kid goats in a bottle or walking around the habitat of lemurs and holding reptiles eggs, or watching a race for sheep.
8. Blists Hill Victorian Town
Just ten minutes within ten minutes Telford town centre, there is an open-air museum that takes you back into an era of the 19th century.
Blists Hill Victorian Town Blists Hill Town Victorian lies situated in an old industrial zone that was repurposed to iron, coal as well as fire clay mines along with blast furnaces and ceramic factories producing tiles and bricks.
The museum is cleverly divided into an industrial area featuring a blast furnace and ironworks wrought and the museum is a Victorian townscape that includes homes as well as a cobbler’s shop, photographer’s studio, sweetshop, post office, bank bakery, bicycle shop and post office and the bucolic countryside, with a church of mission with a tin roof tollhouse and squatter’s cottage.
A large portion of the show is focused on that of the Victorian street scene and the industrial which is where dressmakers baker, ironworker and dressmaker will talk to you about their jobs, and you can see demonstrations such as foundry workers pouring iron molten into the furnace, and Victorian chemical engineers devising bizarre cures.
9. Jackfield Tile Museum
At Jackfield just 15 minutes away from Telford it is possible to visit Jackfield, the old headquarters for Craven Dunmill, one of the top ceramic tile producers in Britain.
The impressive neo-Gothic structure is still being used to make decorative tiles. It also hosts an exhibit about the tile-making industry in Shropshire that has been in operation since the 1500s.
Tiles produced at Jackfield decorated churches pubs, tube stations and churches and pubs, and the interiors were recreated in the museum.
The exhibition is dedicated to the British tile industry, as well as stunning tile mosaics floor mosaics, as well as informative tiles that you can get a feel for. You can go on a tour of the factory on Wednesday mornings . You can also take your kids to workshops on tile painting during holiday season.
10. Coalport China Museum
Being big drinkers The Victorians led to a rise in the use of ceramics during the 19th century and factories such as Coalport China met that demand.
China was manufactured in these kilns at Coalport from 1795 until 1926. The company relocated from Coalport to Staffordshire and was then taken over by Wedgwood.
