Ironbridge

A few weeks ago my son and I had a day out in this wonderful little town.

This is Ironbridge on the banks of the River Severn in Shropshire. It's known as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution so I was expecting something a little more  - well, industrial. Had I visited in the second half of the eighteenth century It would all have looked very different.

'Coalbrrokdale by Night' by Philip de Loutherbourrg (1740 - 1812)

Abraham Darby developed the use of coke, rather than charcoal in the manufacture of cast iron early in the eighteenth century, producing a high quality product at low cost.  The original smelting works led to factories producing ceramic tiles and china, all within a few miles of each other in what was then known as Coalbrookdale.

Some fifty years later, Darby's grandson (also called Abraham) decided that a bridge was needed to link the town with the industrial works on the south bank of the river. The result was the first bridge to be built entirely of cast iron anywhere in the world.

'Ironbridge inder Construction' by Elias Martin (1739 - 1818)

During recent conservation work, parts of the original paintwork were exposed and the whole bridge has now been re-painted in this colour.

Doesn't it look magnificent? I love all those repeated lines and patterns. From the start, the bridge was something of a tourist attraction and anyone and everyone had to pay a toll.

As you can see, you even had to pay a halfpenny (pronounced haypenny for my younger readers) to take a lamb across the bridge.  There were no exceptions at the other end of the social scale either.

'This bridge being private property, every Officer or Soldier whether on duty or not, is liable to pay toll for passing over, as well as any baggage waggon, Mail-coach or the Royal Family.'

Within the six miles of the Gorge, there are lots of exciting museums to visit. There's one about Coalport China, a tile museum, a clay pipe museum ... you can visit the Darby houses and, as if that wasn't enough, there's a re-creation of a Victorian town at Blists Hill. I do love a good museum so this is very much my sort of place.

By now you've probably guessed that we had been lured to Ironbridge by all this glorious history ... well, if so, you'd be wrong. What we actually drove two and a half hours for - beautiful country all the way - was this ...

Yes, it's a book shop (of course it is). This is not just any old secondhand bookshop though, this is Twice Told Tales which specialises in Penguin and Puffin books. We both collect first editions of the Puffin storybooks, old green Penguin crime books and Picture Puffins.

This is just part of my collection - green penguins at the top and puffins below. The picture books at the end of the middle shelf are my Picture Puffins. These were wonderful books, full of information and with beautiful artwork.

At the bottom right corner is my checklist of Puffin Picture books which I bought from the Penguin Collectors Society and which has helped me list my collection correctly. Both the text and the illustrations often changed between editions (and yes, it does matter).

We spent hours in this little bookshop, sorting through all the treasures and couldn't have been made more welcome. It's a wonderful shop and we'll definitely be going back. Now that we know what a beautiful place Ironbridge is, I think a holiday is called for. I'd love to visit all the museums and it looks a great place for walking too.

Anyway, want to see what I bought? I had to restrain myself as there were so many books I'd never even seen before so I concentrated on the more unusual ones.

These two books are from a short series I'd never heard of before, published in the 1940s and 50s. I do love books on design.

There were some beautiful Penguin books on music; I managed to restrict myself to these two.

There was also a book of madrigals and another one of part songs ... choices, choices. I did get a few Picture Puffins too, including a rare one ('The Story of Louisa').

If you collect Penguin or Puffin books, a visit to Ironbridge is an absolute must.

Downstairs is more 'normal' stock and this looked good too - we definitely need to go back here.

After lunch sitting outside a friendly cafe near the bookshop (Ironbridge seems to be a very friendly place), we had a walk along the river and went to one of the smaller museums. It's such a beautiful place, just look at this wild flower meadow on the banks of the river.

And I really liked the buildings too - isn't that brickwork great?

All in all, Ironbridge was a revelation to us - we'll definitely be going back.