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Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust
Ironbridge
Telford
Shropshire TF8 7AW
Tel: 01952 432 166
Website: www.ironbridge.org.uk
Email: info@ironbridge.org.uk

Once described as 'the most extraordinary district in the world', the Ironbridge Gorge is still a remarkable – and beautiful – place to visit today. The Gorge is celebrated for its role in the Industrial Revolution. Here, in the 18th century, ironmasters began the mass production of iron and helped to create the British engineering industry, laying the foundations for the railway age in the next century. A surprising amount of this early history can still be seen in the valley today. Furnaces, houses, factories, chapels and works now house collections designated as of national importance. The Ironbridge Gorge Museums show how people lived, worked and created the products in the 'cradle of industry'. In all, there are nine museums that can be visited, as well as the great Iron Bridge, an icon of the Industrial Revolution still spanning the River Severn. A two-mile stretch of the Ironbridge Gorge was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986.

The Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust website provides background, online collections and site histories, as well as information on visiting all the museums, suggested itineraries and details of the trust's educational work.

Association for Industrial Archaeology
c/o Isabel Wilson, Liaison Officer
AIA, School of Archaeological Studies
Leicester University
Leicester LE1 7RH
Tel: 0116 252 5337
Website: www.industrial-archaeology.org.uk/
E-mail: AIA@le.ac.uk

The AIA is the national organisation for people who share an interest in Britain's industrial past. It brings together people who are researching, recording, preserving and presenting the great variety of this country's industrial heritage. Industrial architecture, mineral extraction, heritage-based tourism, power technology, adaptive re-use of industrial buildings and transport history are just some of the themes being investigated by members. Every year the Association monitors over 200 hundred applications to alter or demolish industrial sites and buildings. It works with other amenity groups to protect Britain's heritage and represent Britain on the International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage.

Society for Industrial Archeology
Department of Social Sciences
Michigan Technological University
1400 Townsend Drive
Houghton, MI 49931-1295, USA
Website: www.ss.mtu.edu/IA/sia.html
E-mail: sia@mtu.edu

US equivalent of the British Association for Industrial Archaeology.