Ironbridge; Saturday, 13 August, 2011

I had thought sitting at home listening to the sirens and helicopters on Monday evening had been a pretty unpleasant experience, but I now realised that was nothing compared to the train journey to Telford.

Earlier in the week the Home Secretary had banned a march through Wellington by the far right (and supposedly not racist) English defence league. Despite their march being banned a very large number of members were still going to Wellington to have a “Static demonstration” and most of them had boarded the train I was on. In spite of the heavy police presence it was a scary environment, and in spite of all the claims of their leadership, the members present were clearly demonstrating some particularly “non-diversity-friendly” language (to the extent that a couple of them were hauled off the train by police at Smethwick because of the language they were using). It was only 45 minutes to Telford, but it was an unpleasant 45 minutes.

Having got off the train and left the racists to continue on to Wellington (where a fair number were subsequently arrested for drunken behaviour and minor public disorder offences), I wandered over to the bus stop and caught the bus up into the town centre to the bus station. There it was a 40 minute wait for the next bus to Ironbridge so by the time I arrived at the hotel it was just before 2.

I checked in, dropped off all my stuff and went for a wander.

First stop was, naturally, the Iron Bridge, and next door to it the gift shop where I was able to purchase the Ironbridge gorge passport which would give me access to all the sites, and free travel over the weekend.

I wandered over the bridge and had a look around the Toll House which has a small exhibition on the history of the bridge. From there I walked back over to the town and picked up the bus down the gorge to Coalport and the Tar tunnel.

Having taken in the wonders of the Tar tunnel I walked the short distance along the canal to the china works and had a look round there.

Then it was back on the bus and round to Jackfield to take in the tile museum before finishing off with an early evening wander back along the Severn the mile or so from Jackfield to the Ironbridge following the course of the old railway.

I had a quick pit stop before going for a short wander around Ironbridge itself and then heading back to the hotel for dinner.