History of Madeley / including Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale, and Coalport

by John Randall

During the construction of the bridge a model was prepared and sent up to the Society of Arts, who presented Mr. Darby with their gold medal in recognition of his merits as designer and erector; and a model and an engraving of the bridge may still be seen in the Society’s rooms, John Street, Adelphi. Mr. Robert Stephenson has said of the structure: “If we consider that the manipulation of cast-iron was then completely in its infancy, a bridge of such dimensions was doubtless a bold as well as an original undertaking, and the efficiency of the details is worthy of the boldness of the conception.” Mr. Stephenson adds “that from a defect in the construction the abutments were thrust inwards at the approaches and the ribs partially fractured.” This was not the case. It arose from the nature of the land and its exterior pressure which was obviated by sinking and underbuilding the foundation, and to remedy the supposed defect, two small land arches were, in the year 1800, substituted for the stone approach on the Broseley side. While the work was in progress, Mr. Telford carefully examined the bridge, and thus spoke of its condition at the time:—

“The great improvement of erecting upon a navigable river a bridge of cast-iron of one arch only was first put in practice near Coalbrookdale. The bridge was executed in 1777 by Mr. Abraham Darby, and the ironwork is now quite as perfect as when it was first put up. Drawings of this bridge have long been before the public, and have been much and justly admired.”

Mr. Smiles in speaking of the bridge quotes a Coalbrookdale correspondent who, writing in May, 1862, says that

“at the present time the bridge is undergoing repair; and, special examination having been made, there is no appearance either that the abutments have moved, or that the ribs have been broken in the centre or are out of their proper right line. There has, it is true, been a strain on the land arches, and on the roadway plates, which, however, the main arch has been able effectually to resist.”

It is a pleasing object in the landscape, and passed its centenary this year, 1879, with no other display than a few small flags which Mr. Frisby placed on the balustrades. It has paid for itself over, and over again; and the excessive toll is at present severely felt. Those sharing the benefits of the monopoly of course protest against attempts to make it a free bridge, and being private property there is no other means of effecting the object than by buying them out, or by obtaining ah Act of Parliament. There is, it is true, one other: and that the suicidal one of letting it rust to its own destruction—a course the monopolists seem resolved to take. [340]

The Severn formerly was a great liquid highway for heavy goods; people took their boats to Shrewsbury to the fairs for butter, cheese, and groceries, and came down with the stream, others were carried on pack-horses; a strong enduring race now extinct.

Roads were made pretty much at will, and were repaired at pleasure. Covered waggons, like Crowley’s, drawn by 4 or 6 heavy horses, crept along the rough circuitous roads. It was not till 1763 that turnpike-gates were established, to raise money to keep roads in repair. Stage coaches then ventured into districts they had not visited before. Previous to a road being made along the Wharfage, coaches had to toil up the hill at the back of the Swan, but after the bridge was built they went under it and turned up by the stables to the front of the Company’s Inn, the Tontine. Afterwards they ran somewhere at the back and came into the old road at Lincoln Hill. Ultimately the present road was made by Styches pit to the top of the bank. At one time four coaches ran through the town; two from Shrewsbury to Cheltenham, L’Hirondelle and the Hibernia; and two from Shrewsbury to Birmingham; the Salopian and, we think, the Emerald. The two latter belonged to the brothers Hemmings, who drove them; but who afterwards quarrelled and ran in opposition to each other. Taylor of the Lion started the “Young Salopian” in opposition; and Hemmings then called his the “Old Salopian.” When the Birmingham and London railway opened, Taylor got a petition numerously signed to the Post Master General, asking in an apparently disinterested way to be allowed to carry the mail bags gratuitously to Birmingham, at the same time binding himself to forfeit a heavy sum if he failed to be in time. He obtained his wish and immediately called his coach the Royal Mail; which not only brought him custom but saved him £1 4s. 0d. per week at Tern Gate, 18s. at Watling street, £1 4s. 0d. at Priorslee, 12s. at Shifnal, and tolls at all the other gates to Birmingham.

John Peters took a fancy for driving the Hibernia, thinking he could take it down the steep hills between Shrewsbury and Ironbridge without stopping to have the wheels looked. The first steep descent was the Wyle-cop, and this he managed to get down without accident; but in trying the experiment down Leighton Bank, shortly before the first change of horses, the coach, driver, and passengers came to grief, and were pitched right over into a field at the bottom of the hill. Peters was seriously injured, and some of the passengers were badly hurt; but Peters never tried a similar experiment to the end of his days.