Coalport & Jackfield Memorial Bridge

Before the bridge: the ferry

For around 120 years a small ferry carried workers and families across the Severn between Jackfield and Coalport. It was practical but precarious, and by the early twentieth century locals wanted a safer, permanent crossing.

1907: raising money for a free footbridge

As early as 1907 money was being raised for a “free foot bridge”. On Wednesday 24 July that year the Alexandra Theatre in Ironbridge staged a benefit performance of The Bells, by kind offer of Mr R. Allworth, with tickets at 1s 6d.

The idea lingered until after the Great War, when the project found a new purpose: the crossing would also stand as a memorial to the men of Jackfield and Coalport who did not come home.

1920: why the workers needed it

On 24 January 1920 the Bridgnorth Journal reported a meeting at the local institute, chaired by Rev. R. Gillenders. He pressed the need for a bridge to help workers walking daily to Maw & Co. and the Coalport China Works. Employers, he said, would contribute if the working classes also showed support. A committee was formed and subscription lists were opened.

September 1922: the opening

The Wellington Journal of 9 September 1922 recorded the details. Lady Forester officially opened the bridge, which was five feet wide and replaced a ferry that had served the area for around 120 years. It was erected by the Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company, and construction took nine weeks. The memorial plates were designed by C. H. Parker and cast at the Court Works in Madeley. The Jackfield and Madeley bands played at the opening.

Lady Christine Forester cut the ribbon with a pair of silver scissors, declaring:

“I declare this bridge open and wish it a long and happy life.”

The Jackfield Band played “The End of a Perfect Day” before the National Anthem. Carnation buttonholes, supplied by Mrs Hinsley of Madeley, were sold by two young girls, Freda Jones and Joan Withers, raising over £6 for the committee. The bridge cost £1,046.

Names remembered

The bridge bore plaques with the names of 26 men who had fallen in the Great War. Later, another nine were added from the Second World War. Thirty-five in all, one recorded as missing.

At the entrance, a smaller plaque carried a simple instruction:

“This bridge is free. O tread it reverently, in memory of those who died for thee.”

The bridge and the works

Floods, restrictions and the “Shakey Bridge”

The Severn wasted no time in testing it. On 4 January 1925 the river rose to 16’9”, flooding the Boat Inn beside the bridge and submerging the approach almost to the deck. By 1926 the bridge was restricted to pedestrians only.

Through the decades it endured floods, corrosion and neglect. Locals, with a mix of affection and exasperation, nicknamed it the “Shakey Bridge”, a name it still carries for the wobble underfoot as you cross.

Deterioration and the campaign to save it

By 1997 the situation was dire. On 25 July the Bridgnorth Journal reported county engineers considering closure on safety grounds. Landlord Mike Pygott of the Boat Inn warned it would devastate trade, with up to 5,000 people using it in a tourist season. MP Bruce Grocott lent support, but by September the bridge was declared unsafe and closed.

Two years on it was still shut. In June 1999 a public consultation was called at Coalport Village Hall: engineers put immediate repairs at £130,000 and full restoration at as much as £1,000,000, while temporary measures were sought to reopen the crossing for a few years. Funding was being pursued through the Heritage Lottery Fund, Eastern Generation and the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, with £25,000 earmarked by the council to look at the options.

There were fears it might be lost altogether, and some argued demolition would be cheaper. The community pushed back, insisting a war memorial must be saved rather than scrapped. As one local paper put it: “Money spent on these values is money well spent.”

Rescue came through grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Onyx Environmental Trust. At a cost of £430,000 the bridge was dismantled and taken to Wrexham for refurbishment.

2000: lifted out and restored

On 28 April 2000 the refurbished span was lifted back into place.

15 July 2000: reopening and rededication

The villages celebrated with stalls, craft displays, face-painting and a barbecue, and the Jackfield Elcock Reisen Brass Band played outside the Boat Inn. At 3pm the official reopening took place. Lord and Lady Forester attended, rededicating the bridge almost 80 years after his grandmother had first opened it.

The plaques

Today

On 19 September 2025 the bridge was closed again following an inspection. Cllr Carolyn Healy called it a “key route for residents” and promised to press for it to be reopened quickly.

The press worked. Investment has now been secured for the full redecking of the bridge, so the years of ad-hoc repairs can finally stop. Work begins on Monday 7 September 2026 to replace the decking and improve the lighting to prevent future faults, with completion set for Friday 9 October 2026. The bridge will be closed throughout the works.

A signed pedestrian diversion will run along the Severn Valley Way to the Coalport Bridge and back along Coalport High Street. To keep that route open, the planned closure of the path by Severn Trent Water has been deferred. The On Demand bus service covers Jackfield and Coalport, running Monday to Friday between 8am and 5.30pm. A welfare unit and materials storage container will sit on the highway closest to the bridge, between the memorial tree and the bridge itself.

It is short-term disruption, but it is the work that will let the old bridge carry people across the Severn safely for many more years.

From ferry to memorial, flood to closure, demolition scare to rededication, the Coalport & Jackfield Memorial Footbridge is more than steel. It is a community’s promise, carried forward a century on:

Lest we forget.