The Museum has built up an extensive Research Library, which is based in the Long Warehouse, adjacent to the Coalbrookdale MUSEUM OF IRON. Collections include material on the history of the iron industry, bridge building, civil engineering, brick and tile manufacture, coal mining, the pottery and porcelain industries, railways, canals, the social history of the East Shropshire Coalfield and all other subjects represented at the Museum’s sites. Special collections include the Elton Collection, strong on images of industry, and a collection devoted to the life and work of Thomas Telford. Some archive material is also held, mainly relating to the Darby family and local firms such as the Coalbrookdale Company, the Lilleshall Company, the Horsehay Company and Maw & Co.

The Library, which is open weekdays only 9.00am - 5.00pm, can be visited by prior appointment. Please contact John Powell, BA, ALA, Librarian & Information Officer, in writing at the main Museum address, or by telephone (01952 432141), to make a booking. (Proof of identity will be required on a first visit.)

e-mail: library@ironbridge.org.uk

Rolt Collection

Thanks to a generous donation from the Manifold Trust, the collection of papers, etc. belonging to the late L.T.C. (“Tom”) Rolt is being deposited in the Library of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust in Coalbrookdale, Telford. Transfer of material from the Rolt family home in Stanley Pontlarge, Gloucestershire, is currently under way, and in due course a detailed catalogue will be produced. In the interim, all enquiries concerning the collection should be made to John Powell, Librarian & Information Officer. See www.ltcrolt.org.uk for more information.

Sonia Rolt seen visiting Coalbrookdale on 20th May 2008, with Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust Librarian & Information Officer John Powell. The Museum Library & Archives, in which the Rolt Collection will be housed, can be seen behind them, to the left of the Museum of Iron.