Subsidence at Jackfield

This newsreel was being played in the tile museum at Jackfield yesterday. I love the "Borough of Wenlock" sign: this is long before the new town of Telford was thought of.

The British Geological Survey site has an article about Landslides in the Ironbridge Gorge, which will give you an idea of what caused the extraordinary images in the British Pathe films.

As you will also see from that article, the problems continue to this day. Yesterday I walked along the old railway track with the odd wooden boards that has been pressed into service as a road - you can see them in the article's Figure 5.

When I reached the Boat Inn - it was so good that they served even though they were closed - I was asked to sign a petition calling for this road to be improved. It is said that millions have been spent improving the roads in the gorge, but there was little sign of it at Jackfield.