Collection: Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  Founded in 1967, the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust Ltd is a registered charity whose twin aims are education and heritage conservation. The Trust cares for 36 Scheduled Monuments and listed buildings within the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site and operates 10 museums which collectively tell the story of the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. As well as 10 museums, the sites in the Trust’s care include a research library, a tourist information centre, two youth hostels, archaeological monuments, historic woodlands, domestic houses, two chapels and two Quaker burial grounds. The collections of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust are designated of national importance. These are displayed in, and alongside, a series of internationally important buildings, sites and monuments, and together enhance our understanding of Britain’s Industrial Revolution, which in turn shaped the modern world. The importance of the remarkable overall context for these collections was recognised in the designation of the Ironbridge Gorge as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. In presenting a story of industrialisation to the public, the Museum interprets objects in the context of their historic settings. Collections, including objects and archive material are acquired to reinforce our understanding of the importance of the area, and of its sites and monuments, to the industrial growth of the nation.

  The Old Furnace represents both the beginnings of industrialisation and the significant breakthroughs in iron making made by Abraham Darby and the Coalbrookdale Company that followed in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. The Iron Bridge is the most famous product of the Coalbrookdale Company’s engineering enterprise, and its history is explained in the Tollhouse. Downstream from the Bridge are the remains of Bedlam Furnaces, once operated by the Coalbrookdale Company. As well as heavy engineering the Gorge also became famous for its fine ceramics products. In the 18^th century Caughley and later Coalport made some of the country’s highest quality porcelain. Across the river from Coalport, Jackfield’s skill in earthenware production turned, in the 19^th century, to the manufacture of decorative tiles and architectural ceramics. The Craven Dunnill & Co., and Maw & Co., factories were at the centre of this industry. Maw & Co., was at one time the largest decorative tile manufacturer in the world and its impressive neighbour, Craven Dunnill & Co., is now the Jackfield Tile Museum. Both these factories were designed by the same architect and laid out on model lines. A couple of miles from Jackfield, Broseley became world famous for the quality of its roofing tiles and clay tobacco smoking pipes. Britain’s last remaining pipe factory is now Broseley Pipeworks, part of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.

  Blists Hill, a reconstructed Victorian Town, has been created around original iron and clay working remains. At the top of the site a surviving section of the Shropshire Canal is linked via the Hay Incline Plane to the Coalport Basin below. The canal was used to carry raw materials to the top of the Blists Hill Furnaces, the remains of which stand next to a reconstructed wrought iron works. The site has old mine workings, with one shaft connecting to the Tar Tunnel at the bottom of the Hay Incline Plane. These mines brought out clay for the Brick and Tile works, the substantial remains of which also exist on Blists Hill. These monuments and reconstructed buildings in a 50-acre site form the nucleus of a typical East Shropshire mining community in the 19^th century, interpreted by costumed staff demonstrating traditional skills.

  Due to its location in the former East Shropshire Coalfield (an area broadly bounded by the Wrekin to the west, Lilleshall Hill to the north Shifnal to the east, and Broseley and Much Wenlock to the south), the Museum concentrates its collections, research and interpretation on those aspects of the story of industrialisation which have local resonance, namely extractive, ferrous and ceramic industries, transport, industrial design and engineering and social history.

  The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust recognises its special responsibility for conservation, preservation, and interpretation within the designated World Heritage Site, along with other organisations (including Historic England, Telford and Wrekin Council, Severn Gorge Countryside Trust, the Severn Trow Trust, and specialist organisations including local history groups), and its role of explaining the wider national and international issues arising from industrialisation.

  Over its 50 year’s history, the Museum has developed significant holdings that range from archaeological and archival material to engineering and decorative products that include metalwork and ceramics, and social history and textiles. Key milestones in the development of the collection were the objects accumulated by the Coalbrookdale Archives Association from 1959 which then formed part of the original Museum collection in 1967, the designation of the Elton Collection to the Museum in 1978, the addition of the Telford Collection in the 1970s, the donation of the Labouchere Collection in 1991, and more recently the donation of the John Scott Tile Collection in 2013. These collections are detailed below.

  The Museum recognises that objects within its collections fall into two basic categories: objects for which the Museum has title and claims full ownership and those objects that are owned by individuals or other organisations and are lent to the Museum for a set period.

  In 1997 a number of specified collections for which the Museum could claim ownership were designated of national importance. Since then, Designated status has been extended to cover all the museum collections.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: Not known

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  To achieve its main objective, the Museum has acquired, and continues to acquire, collections of objects and archive material. These can be categorised under two broad headings: fixed and moveable. The fixed collections are those large objects that are accessioned into the collection and are monumental in nature. This includes large pieces of engineering equipment such as the Blists Hill winding engine. Some of the objects in the Museum’s collections are maintained in situ within the building or factory in which they were used. This is an integral part of the Museum’s conservation and interpretation strategy. The archaeological sites, monuments and listed buildings held by the Museum are protected via their listed or scheduled status and, as such, are not covered by this document. However, these sites are key to an understanding of the wider historic environment and the Museum plays an important role with other agencies in their management.

  The moveable collections are displayed and/or stored at 15 museums, collection’s stores and/or buildings administered by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust:

  • Blists Hill Victorian Town
  • Museum of Iron
  • Enginuity
  • Rosehill House
  • Dale House
  • Coalbrookdale Gallery
  • Coalport China Museum
  • Tar Tunnel
  • Jackfield Tile Museum
  • Iron Bridge Tollhouse
  • Museum of the Gorge
  • Broseley Pipeworks Museum
  • Library and Archive (Long Warehouse)
  • Archaeology Store (North Lights Building)
  • Collection Store, Coalbrookdale

  Collection:

  The pre-eminence of the Trust’s collections lies in two areas: the remarkable sequence of monuments and buildings representative of key phases in Britain’s growth as an industrial national; and in collections of machines, products and possessions shown in their original context. The Elton Collection is one of the largest devoted to art and memorabilia on industrial subjects and complements a large holding of social history material. The Darby collection includes the homes, furnaces, possessions, and records of the ironmasters as well as fine Coalbrookdale castings and steam engines. The decorative arts material includes definitive collections of Coalport China and Maws Tiles.

  Archaeology

  The area of primary interest for this collection are finds from the post-medieval, East Shropshire Coalfield. Finds within this collection, which number in excess of 10,000, come largely from excavations of local industrial sites and are used mainly for research purposes.

  Engineering

  The range of material in this subject area includes monuments as well as machinery and associated equipment, representing the technical, social and economic development of iron and steel making with special reference to the Coalbrookdale Company, its engineering history and products. Some machinery is operational at various Museum sites, primarily Blists Hill, Coalbrookdale, Coalport and Jackfield. Spare and incomplete parts of machinery may be acquired to keep complete items operational. The area of interest for collections development are examples primarily from the East Shropshire Coalfield with examples from elsewhere in the country.

  Darby Collection

  The Quaker Darby family’s pioneering work was carried out at their Coalbrookdale works from 1709 onwards and was a vital ingredient in the industrialisation of this country. Abraham Darby I was the first to make a commercial success of smelting iron using coke in 1709, a breakthrough that eventually made iron a cheap and indispensable material. In 1767 the first iron rails were cast in Coalbrookdale and in 1779 Abraham Darby III built the world’s first cast iron bridge.

  Old Furnace

  The original blast furnace in Coalbrookdale, where the smaller metal pieces for the Iron Bridge were smelted, was opened to the public in 1959. It was the first time that a structure built for a specific industrial process had been preserved in situ as an Ancient Monument anywhere in the world. The structure forms part of the original furnace used by Abraham Darby I, and the Company that followed.

  Labouchere Archives

  A direct descendant of Abraham Darby, Lady Labouchere assembled a unique collection of Darby Archives which were bequeathed to the Museum. The material includes documents relating to the work and development of the Coalbrookdale Company, as well as Abraham Darby III’s ledger containing all the accounts pertaining to the building of the Iron Bridge. Family papers, pedigrees and journals give a detailed social history of Quakerism and important diaries belonging to Deborah Darby, Quaker minister and Friend of Elizabeth Fry, document the spark of the movement from England to the Americas.

  Darby Houses, period gardens and content

  The Museum has restored and opened to the public the house constructed for Abraham Darby I, in 1715-1717, Dale House. It was in this house that his grandson, Abraham Darby III, designed the Iron Bridge. Adjacent is Rosehill House, which was also occupied by members of the Darby family, and now houses the Museum’s collection of Darby furniture, paintings, prints, porcelain, silver, and ephemera collected and donated by Lady Labouchere.

  Coalbrookdale Archives Association

  The Coalbrookdale Archives Association was formed in 1948, merging several local interest groups including the W.I., iron industrialists, and descendants of the Darby family. The Association collected documents relating to the history and industry of Ironbridge. The collection includes books, typescripts, photographs of Coalbrookdale workers and the site; notes, articles, press cuttings, event programmes (some of these records are photocopies), Association ephemera. It also includes the diaries of C.F. Peskin (c. 1902-1946) an employee of the Coalbrookdale Company.

  Extractive Industries

  This area embraces the technical, economic, and social history of the mining of coal, iron ore, limestone and clay as well as of the geological studies that supported these industries. Included in this are the National Slag Collection and the collection of minerals and geological samples numbering some 4000 specimens assembled by George Maw during his world-wide travels in the 19^th century. The area of interest for collections development are examples from the East Shropshire Coalfield.

  Decorative Arts

  A major strength of the Museum is its decorative arts collection represented by fine ceramics and metalwork. The former encompasses the products of several internationally known manufacturers; John Rose & Co. (Coalport China), Royal Salopian Manufactory (Caughley porcelain), Maw & Co., and Craven Dunnnill (producers of decorative tiles and other architectural ceramics). It also includes a specialist collection of art pottery produced by companies at Benthall, Jackfield and Broseley, decorative faience and terracotta, and 18^th century Jackfield Ware and Wrockwardine wood glass. In the 19^th century the Coalbrookdale Company also made terracotta items of which the Museum has examples on display, but its national reputation in this century was founded on its output of quality decorative metalwork.

  Caughley Collection

  The Museum holds the most comprehensive collection of 18^th century Caughley porcelain anywhere. The reference collection includes the pieces, several hundred sherds excavated at the factory site and plaster moulds, together with a significant paper archive relating to the history and development of the factory and personnel associated with it. The production of porcelain at Caughley began in 1772 when Thomas Turner one of the pioneers of porcelain manufacture in this country, took over the works. The factory soon gained an international reputation for wares in imitation of the Chinese blue and white, French Chantilly sprig and English topographical scenes. Such was the demand for quality porcelain throughout the country that a major new factory was established in 1796 at Coalport.

  Coalport Collection

  The Coalport China factory was the largest works of its kind in the mid-19^th century. Most of the former works still survive next to the River Severn, including substantial parts of the 1796 factory and three bottle kilns. Within these restored buildings is housed the Museum’s unique collection of late 18^th, 19^th, and 20^th century Coalport China. It is the largest and most comprehensive anywhere and, as such, has an international standing.

  Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Plaster Pattern Collection

  The Museum has an impressive collection of over 23,000 19^th century decorative tiles with examples from most of the major Victorian factories in this country. The educational significance of the collection is greatly augmented by housing and displaying it in the most complete surviving Victorian decorative tile factory. As this collection is added to it will become of national importance complementing those at the V&A. In addition to the tile collection, the Jackfield Tile Museum also houses a large collection of plaster moulds and patterns, which the Museum believes to be pre-eminent and of national status. There are approximately 1500 moulds from Craven Dunnill & Co., and over 12,700 items representing the majority of tile designs used by the Jackfield firm of Maw & Co., between 1852 and 1920. Included in this collection are moulds and patterns for the Company’s range of architectural faience and terracotta. In the 1880s Maw & Co. ran the largest tile factory in the world and had an international reputation. Consequently, the plaster mould and pattern collection is a unique library of designs of one of the largest 19^th century producers of decorative tiles, architectural faience and terracotta.

  Decorative Metalwork

  The Museum believes that it has the most comprehensive range of the Coalbrookdale Company’s best designs and most accomplished castings. Between the 1840s and the First World War, the quality of the Coalbrookdale castings was second to none. Castings range from decorative fire grates, through furniture, household ornaments, to both civic and domestic architectural. The Museum has collected examples of some of the best animal sculptures of noted French artists Pierre-Jules Mêne and Christophe Fratin. Other small ornaments include desk sets, candlesticks, hearth furniture, filigree fruit plates, plaques, wall cabinets, jardinières, urns, and small statuary. There is a collection of fireplaces and furniture including coat, hat and umbrella stands, benches, and chairs. Most were designed by locally trained artists but others in the collection were made to the designs of noted designers such as Christopher Dresser. Figurative pieces designed by the sculptor John Bell were made for the Great Exhibition of 1851, including a decorative fountain incorporating a life size boy and swan, and a statue of Andromeda. Bell then went on to design a cast-iron table supported by four life sized and life like deerhound dogs which was exhibited at the 1855 international exhibition, Paris. All of the above form part of the Museum’s Decorative Arts Collection. The collection is supported by a full range of lavishly illustrated company catalogues and archive. The Decorative Arts Collection has been created primarily by active acquisition since the Museum was founded in 1967. The Museum has clear aims about collecting the decorative products of local firms, which gained national reputations during the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

  Library and Archives

  The Library contains predominantly secondary published material relating to all areas of the Museum’s collections as well as industrial and social history. The book collection also contains an important collection of 19^th century trade catalogues for the Coalbrookdale Company and other iron manufacturers, Maw & Co., and Craven Dunnill & Co., as well as local directories and printed ephemera. Specialist areas include the Telford Collection and the Historical Metallurgy Society.

  The archive collection contains mainly primary and unique material including manuscripts, photographic records, deeds, correspondence, and sound and film footage. Highlights include the Labouchere Archive and a large photographic collection containing approximately 10,000 images of local people, buildings, sites and industrial processes, ranging from 1859 to the present. The latter include an almost complete set of photographs taken for the Hathern Station Brick and Terracotta Works, Loughborough, of its Victorian, Edwardian and inter-war building ornamentation and an important archive of Coalbrookdale Company glass plate negatives of their products, workers and buildings, as well as company records.

  Telford Collection

  Thomas Telford (1757-1834) was the pre-eminent civil engineer of his generation and was responsible for improving the country’s roads and canals at a time when inadequate communications within Britain were putting a brake on the economic growth of the nation. His most notable work was the improvement of the road between London and Holyhead, which involved the construction of the impressive suspension bridge over the Menai Straits still in use today. The Telford Collection is the largest source of archive and illustrative material outside London (Institution of Civil Engineers), relating to the life and works of Thomas Telford. The Collection includes facsimiles and microfilm copies of all known Telford archival material as well as a large number of books, prints, plans and photographs documenting Telford’s projects. It has unique manuscript versions of Telford’s autobiography and a large amount of original correspondence relating to its publication. There is also unique archive material relating to many of his projects among others, the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal, the Ellesmere Canal, the Gotha Canal, and the Holyhead Road.

  Library and Archives – Art

  The Museum has a selection of paintings, prints and drawings which are of national importance. The prints, drawings and paintings collected by Sir Arthur Elton of the early years of the 19^th century form the best single collection of industrial and transport images anywhere. In addition, the Museum has original watercolours, sketches, designs, and competition pieces from students at the Coalbrookdale Scientific and Literary Institute, which housed the Coalbrookdale School of Art, that date from 1880-1914. The art collection also includes local topographical views including works by Joseph Farrington RA (1747-1821) and John Nash (1893-1977).

  Elton Collection

  Sir Arthur Elton (1906-1973) was one of the early pioneers of documentary film making in the inter-war years and wrote a number of books on technical subjects. During his life he put together a unique collection of paintings, prints, drawings, books and other ephemera relating to the industrial and transport revolution. The Elton Collection was accepted by the Government in lieu of estate duties and allocated to the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust in 1978. The collection consists of over 5,600 items, including 160 original drawings or paintings, several hundred prints (engravings, lithographs, chromolithographs, etchings and mezzotints), 3,000 books and pamphlets and other printed ephemera. In addition, there are approximately 170 commemorative items in glass and china, supplemented with medals and other small objects. The strength of the collection lies in the subject area they cover. As a result, the Elton Collection is the best visual source of comparative material for the industrial and technological developments in this country from the 18^th to the early 20^th century.

  Social History

  The collection of objects within this category relates to the personal, family and domestic life, and working life including local trades, crafts and industries. The majority of items are displayed in context within restored and reconstructed 19^th century buildings on the Blists Hill site. Collections used at Blists Hill in exhibits which are not unique are considered the ‘operational collection’ and can be used to destruction and replaced.

  The Museum also cares for a collection of over 1,000 pieces of 19^th century working class and middle-class costume and textiles, and Quaker related costume. The collection the Museum considers of pre-eminence in this subject area is the Clay Tobacco Pipe Museum and its contents at Broseley. The Museum is housed in the last operational pipes works, which closed in 1960, and contains the manufacturing equipment, pipe moulds and products from three pipe making families, all of which had national reputations from the late 18^th century to the First World War. The area of interest for collections development are examples primarily from the East Shropshire Coalfield, and further afield for the Quaker costume collection.

  Broseley Pipeworks, Clay Tobacco Pipe Museum

  Broseley pipeworks is the only surviving clay tobacco pipe factory complete with its content anywhere. The three-storey factory and bottle kiln were in use from 1881-1960 after which it was abandoned, and the contents remained untouched until the Museum purchased them in 1991. Quality pipes had become synonymous with the name of the town by the 18^th century. A ‘Broseley’ was known to smokers throughout the country and the ‘churchwarden’ long stemmed pipe became a fashion in the coffee houses of Regency London.

  Transport

  The Museum’s collection covers objects and information relevant to the development of road, river, canal and rail transport. Important aspects are the physical remains of the Shropshire Union canal at both Coalport and Blists Hill linked by an incline plane, the only surviving Shropshire wrought-iron tub boat, the reconstructed river-going Severn Trow, Spry, the Lewis collection of early railway and plateway items, a reconstructed toll house designed by Thomas Telford, a replica of the world’s first railway locomotive designed by Richard Trevithick in 1802, and the only surviving Isle of Wight ‘Lifu’ steam car of 1901. Supporting this collection is the Elton Collection housed in the Museum’s Research Library at Coalbrookdale. The area of interest for collections development are items primarily from the East Shropshire Coalfield with examples from elsewhere in the country.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date:

  Licence: CC BY-NC