In January 2025, the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust is beginning conservation work on three of its buildings in Coalbrookdale in the next phase of the Conserving the Historic Estate project, funded by £5.5 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
The work at Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, the Long Warehouse building and the North Lights building is to conserve buildings where maintenance work is a priority. At the same time the Trust is working with the National Heritage Memorial Fund to ensure that the works account for the changing climate and increased intensity of rainfall by increasing the size of valley gutters, for example.
At Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, which will remain open during the conservation work, timbers in the wooden structure of the museum’s iconic clocktower will be replaced and the clocktower and clockface redecorated. The clocktower base coverings will be weather proofed using more durable materials, as will parts of the roof. The cast iron rainwater goods, window heads and sills will be conserved and redecorated. The exterior of the building will be fully redecorated, and the brickwork, copings, parapets and wall heads will be repointed.
The lantern section of the roof of the Long Warehouse building, currently home to the Trust’s library and archives and the Furnace Kitchen café restaurant, all of which will remain open during the work, will be replaced with one in stainless steel. The gutter linings, flashings and weatherings on the Long Warehouse, which is home to the museums’ stores, will be renewed. Defective fascia boards will be repaired and the cast iron rainwater goods repainted. The whole exterior of the building will be redecorated using a historic paint scheme.
The work is part of the Conserving the Historic Estate project, a three-year programme of repair and conservation to some 35 internationally important heritage buildings and monuments in the care of the Trust, and funded by £5.5 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund to counter long-term impacts of the pandemic as part of the Cultural Assets Fund. The aim of the Cultural Assets Fund is to safeguard nationally important heritage following the years of disruption due to Covid-19. The Ironbridge Gorge is internationally recognised as the symbol of the Industrial Revolution through its UNESCO World Heritage site status.
Lucy Oldnall, Conserving the Historic Estate Project Manager, said: ”We are looking forward to working with Cooper Whyte Conservation Ltd on this important conservation project, which will see these wonderful buildings repaired, protecting them from the elements for many years to come. This project marks a key milestone in the Conserving the Historic Estate project, now halfway through and due to complete in 2026.”
Nick Ralls, CEO of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, said, “We are grateful to the NHMF for its funding, which has enabled us to carry out essential conservation work in Coalbrookdale and on our other sites. The conservation of the historic monuments and buildings in our care requires specialist knowledge and resources and this external funding allows a number of significant conservation projects to be undertaken simultaneously, and means that the Trust’s resources can be used to undertake the less significant but equally important conservation work required on the 35 buildings and monuments in our care. With this work we are securing the future of our buildings and monuments for future generations.”
In total, work is being carried out on five Scheduled Monuments, one Grade I listed structure, 10 Grade II* listed structures and 19 Grade II listed structures all within an area of 5.5 square kilometres. So far work has been completed on a selection of buildings at Blists Hill Victorian Town, the Museum of the Gorge, the Boy and Swan fountain in Coalbrookdale, Broseley Pipeworks and the Iron Bridge Tollhouse. The three-year project will come to an end in February 2025.
For more information about the project, go to the dedicated page.