Pub history · No.7 of 18 · Coalport & Jackfield
The Woodbridge Inn
1785 | The pub beside Ironbridge's other iron bridge
The Woodbridge has a bridge story of its own.
Our working date is 1785, when an inn developed beside the wooden bridge crossing the Severn here.
That bridge didn't last.
The catastrophic 1795 flood destroyed it.
In 1818 it was replaced by the beautiful single-span iron bridge beside the pub today.
Which gives us a lovely bit of Gorge symmetry.
Upstream, the Tontine grew up facing the famous Iron Bridge.
Downstream, the Woodbridge developed beside another historic Severn crossing.
How we know this date
- DocumentedHistoric England dates the inn to the late 18th century, which is consistent with the 1785 working date.Source: Historic England list entry 1245370
- TraditionThe pub's own history relates that it was built at the same time as the wooden bridge here, around 1785; that bridge was swept away in the great flood of 1795 and replaced in iron in 1818.Source: The Woodbridge Inn's own history
This is a working date. If you have a document or photograph that changes it, we'd genuinely like to see it.
Then
Now
The Woodbridge Inn · Coalport & Jackfield
Can you help with The Woodbridge Inn?
We're still researching this pub. Old photographs, licences, newspaper cuttings, brewery documents or family memories all help — and if you have evidence that changes our date, we'd genuinely like to see it.
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