Cast your eyes on this - Blists Hill Foundry to re-open this week after year-long closure
Visitors to Blists Hill Victorian Town will be able to enjoy even more of the sights, sounds and smells of the Industrial Revolution when the museum's historic iron foundry restarts casting this week.
The re-opening of the foundry, which has been out of commission for the past 12 months to allow for essential major maintenance works, will allow visitors to see the traditional iron casting method in action.
Casting, whereby molten liquid iron is poured into sand moulds in order to create objects in a specific shape, is a key part of Ironbridge’s history thanks to the work of the Coalbrookdale Company.
As well as the Iron Bridge itself, which was the world’s first cast iron bridge, casting made mass production much simpler, allowing for the creation of objects ranging from statues and fountains to items like whaling pots to be made in the Ironbridge Gorge, before being transported all over the world. Research by curators at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust has been able to track the exportation of items from the Coalbrookdale Company to countries as far away as New Zealand.
Roger Fewtrell, the Foundry Manager, who has been casting iron at the site for the past three decades, said “I joined the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust 40 years ago, the majority of that time in the Iron Foundry. I’ve been working in foundries since I was a teenager, learning casting from my father who was a foundryman all his life at the Aga foundry just down the road in Coalbrookdale.
Roger is looking forward to getting the iron flowing again, alongside fellow foundryman Nigel Wallcroft. He explains: “We love our job so it’s great to be able to get back to it in earnest. Casting is always a big draw for visitors, and reflects an important part of history, so it’s brilliant to be able to demonstrate the craft to them again.”
Richard Aldred at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust said: “It’s fantastic to be able to welcome visitors back to the foundry at Blists Hill Victorian Town. It’s a great attraction for visitors to the museum and adds another level of accuracy to their experience, giving them a true representation of what life would have been like at the height industrialisation during Queen Victoria’s reign.”
Casting will take place from around 11am, with the full process taking around an hour. Blists Hill is open to visitors from 10am - 4pm, Wednesday to Sunday. For more information or to book tickets, visit www.ironbridge.org.uk