What it is all about, the cast iron bridge built in 1779, the first ever made like this and it is still standing.  It crosses the Severn river.  Only pedestrian traffic now to keep it safe......



From the bridge centre, the view down the river.....



The little museum that gives an overall view of what the gorge is all about was closed for renovations but a free short movie was  being shown that gave the story of how the industrial revolution really started here when Mr Darby researched a way to make cheaper cooking pots from cast iron. His methods  triggered production of all sorts of objects and devices from the new stronger iron. In the end we didn't quite see that any of the museums there would be of the necessary interest to us, so we went for a walk along the river instead and found that the Ironbridge Rowing Club was hosting  a huge rowing event with teams from all over the country, just a small sample of the huge array of boats......






Then to Ludlow and you have to look at a few more old buildings that interested us..... first the Feathers Hotel.......



Another group of shops, the one on the left says "1365" and that is probably when the first building was there, but most have been rebuilt umpteen times over the years and burnt down in various disasters and civil wars etc, so the dating is a bit ambitious......



Not all old buildings are black and white......



The Ludlow bridge, looks quite old, missed finding an appropriate plaque......



Later wandered into an old church in Ludlow and found a tomb/memorial (from 1580?) that looks like they all did look originally, all painted properly. Most now have no paint and are just plain marble or stone, the painted ones look so good.....

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