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The Iron Bridge

The Iron Bridge was constructed at Madeley Wood, linking the parishes of Madeley and Benthal, and has stood as a monument to the Industrial Revolution and to the ingenuity of its creator Abraham Darby 111.

It was designed by the Shrewsbury architect Thomas Farnolls Pritchard - no doubt influenced by Darby's own creative ideas - and consists of five semicircular ribs supporting a deck and rail. Two further rows of ribs support uprights and a circle between the ribs and stone abutments. An ornate centerpiece bears the words, erected in 1779, and cast into one of the ribs, this bridge was cast at Coalbrook Dale and erected in the year MDCCLXXIX. Weighing 378 tons and spanning 100 feet across the Severn, the bridge was not only remarkable for the material used in its construction but also for the triumph of engineering over the fragile geology of the Severn Gorge.

In the 1700's the only means of crossing the Severn was via the medieval bridge at Buildwas, a few miles upstream from Coalbrookdale, or by ferry boats. Writing to the Ironmaster John Wilkinson in 1773, Pritchard suggested the building of another bridge, leading to a list of subscribers who partitioned parliament with the idea. Abraham Darby 111 and his brother Samuel being two of those subscribers.

There were grave doubts about building a bridge in cast iron and while parliament had agreed in principle, they stated the bridge could also be built using more conventional methods: stone, brick or even timber.

There was a great deal of dissent amongst the Trustees who were against using cast iron but eventually agreed to commission Abraham Darby 111 to build the bridge. It was made clear to Darby, however, that he alone bore the financial risk of such an escapade.

No turnpike roads existed in the area chosen for the building of the new bridge, and while the geology decreed the site of it to some degree, it is worth noting that one of the trustees owned and operated a ferry at that particular location.

The initial cost for constructing the bridge was £3,250 but rose to £5,000 because of the need to build new roads and approaches. Most of this increase in expenditure was borne by the Coalbrookdale Company and Darby himself - a sad paradox for a man of such vision; a dream that led to a lifetime of debt.

Many aspects of the Iron Bridge are subject to a certain ambiguity. Pritchard's design was for a lower and wider bridge; having died when work started in 1777, whose design was Darby working to? Had he himself altered Pritchard's original drawings? While there is no doubt that certain elements of the Iron Bridge bore Pritchard's hallmark, who designed the rest?

History has not recorded the exact method used in the construction of the Iron Bridge and no portrait has been handed down to posterity of its creator, Abraham Darby 111, a devout Quaker.

More than two centuries after the construction of the Iron Bridge visitors still flock to view this masterpiece of engineering. Is it the intrinsic beauty of it; the strength of its seemingly fragile form; perhaps some quintessential element that defies description? Like its creator, the Iron Bridge remains somewhat of an enigma.

Written by Colin Ayling © 2006