Upper Coalbrookdale Landscape

This project is the latest part of the CHART programme of research into the landscape of Coalbrookdale. Earlier in the autumn we began archaeological investigation of an area above the Darby Houses. This area is now known as the 'Arboretum', and this was laid out and planted in 1805. However it partly overlies an older formal walled garden which is depicted in engravings of the mid-eighteenth century and has disappeared from present-day interpretations or understanding of the landscape.

Detail of a 1759 engraving of the garden by Francois Vivares (IGMT Collections)



Our work involved walkover survey, geophysical survey and excavation. Not only were we trying to establish the survival of remains associated with the eighteenth century garden, but we were also asking questions about its origin.

Resistivity survey in progress - attempting to locate the southern wall.





The excavation work looked at various components of the garden, and discovered previously unidentified elements of the walls and original paths. However the main focus was on the Summer House shown at the top of the garden in the engraving (above). We located the original eighteenth century building, and also discovered evidence for its modification in the nineteenth century.

One of three trenches on the summer house site; original walls appear as infilled foundation trenches.


Further work on this site will be undertaken next year, and we will be seeking volunteers to work on the project. Please email us for further information.

First Steel Furnace in England

After five seasons of hard work at Coalbrookdale we have discovered the first cementation steel furnace in England. The furnace dates from c.1619, and was built by Sir Basil Brooke - an eminent industrialist and ironmaster who operated several iron furnaces and forges.

The 2005 season was the third involving collaboration between the Ironbridge Gorge Museum and Wilfred Laurier University. With students from the UK, Canada and the US under the expert - if sometimes slightly frazzled - guidance of directors Paul Belford and Ron Ross, we opened an enormous hole and discovered that there were three main phases of site occupation. Phase 1 - The steel furnace. This was built in 1619, subsequently modified and extended and then later (probably c.1630) joined by another furnace of the same sort of size and dimensions. The furnace was circular in form, approximately 6m in diameter, with two separate flues on which a coal fire was lit to heat the cementation chest. The wrought iron in the chest would have been packed with charcoal and the carbon from the charcoal was absorbed into the iron... thus making steel! The furnaces went out of use in the 1680s.

Phase 2 - The malthouse. From the late 17th century the site underwent a few changes in ownership and design. By the 1730s the steel furnace had been demolished and the buildings surrounding it adapted for use as a malthouse. Here barley was soaked, sprouted and dried as preparation for use in brewing. We found settling tanks, the base of the kiln, and several varieties of drying floor tiles.
Phase 3 - Tenement housing. By the later 18th century a rather ramshackle range of tenements had been added to the western side of the malthouse. In the 1840s the malthouse itself was converted into a row of 12 back-to-back houses. These survived in use until the 1960s. We found an old domestic cooking range...

...in one of the kitchens and a number of fireplaces still in situ. We were pleased to have visits from people who had lived (or whose ancestors had lived) in the houses - a nice link with oral history and historical archaeology.

Now the only problem is to get the post excavation work done!

Historical Archaeology in Coalbrookdale

This blog replaces an earlier effort which showcased work at the Upper Forge site.

This site is bringing together the results of all of the work since 2001 on a wide range of sites all over Coalbrookdale. Although currently under construction we hope to have a more exciting range of stories to tell early in the New Year.