Roman
Fording the Severn
The Gorge is crossed at low water. There is no bridge anywhere between Buildwas and Bridgnorth, and the river runs shallow enough to walk only in summer.
Medieval
Abbey crossings and fish weirs
Buildwas Abbey controls a crossing at the head of the Gorge. Weirs, fisheries and rights of passage begin to appear in the manorial record.
1600s
The passage boats
As the river trade grows, formal 'passage boats' are licensed at Coalport, Madeley Wood and Benthall — rowed or hauled, and leased out year by year.
1779
The Iron Bridge is cast
Abraham Darby III's bridge is erected across the Gorge, opening to traffic on New Year's Day 1781 — the first cast-iron arch bridge in the world.
Read the article →1796
Buildwas Bridge
Telford spans the river at Buildwas in cast iron, replacing the ancient crossing at the top of the Gorge.
1799
The Coalport ferry disaster
An overloaded passage boat goes down at Coalport with heavy loss of life — the event that shadowed every later argument for a bridge here.
Read the article →1818
Coalport Bridge in iron
The wooden bridge at Coalport is rebuilt in cast iron, with toll houses at both approaches.
Read the article →1864
The Albert Edward Bridge
The railway crosses the Severn on a cast-iron arch built at Coalbrookdale — industry crossing the river it had grown beside.
1890
Joseph Crowell takes the ferry lease
A handwritten agreement sets out the terms on which the Coalport ferry boat is worked — one of the few such documents to survive.
Read the article →1909
The Free Bridge and the last ferries
The toll-free bridge opens between Ironbridge and Jackfield. Photographs taken that year show the last ferry boats still on the water beneath it.
Read the article →1922
The Memorial Footbridge
Coalport and Jackfield build a footbridge as a war memorial, ending the passage boat that had crossed here for centuries.
Read the article →1950
The Iron Bridge tolls end
After 169 years, tolls stop being collected at the toll house. The bridge closes to vehicles in 1934 and to everything but foot traffic thereafter.
Read the article →1993
The Free Bridge replaced
The 1909 Free Bridge is demolished and replaced by the present Jackfield bridge.
Read the article →Today
What survives
Landing steps, a corrugated-iron ferry shed, worn stone at the water's edge, and five bridges. Everything else is photographs.
Read the article →