At the beginning of February 2024, the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust’s Museum of the Gorge reopened after major conservation and restoration work. The building was built in 1840 as a river warehouse for the Coalbrookdale Company for the onward transport of its goods down river to Bristol and beyond. It became part of the Museum in the 1970s.

Standing on the northern bank of the River Severn, the museum has been flooded several times since 2019. Work on restoring the Grade II* Listed building has involved repairing the leaking roof, re-pointing brickwork, restoring the parapets and chimney pots, re-building the original roof for the Lady Chapel and removing the vegetation, as well as future-proofing the structure from future flooding events. This is part of the £9.9m grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund to help secure the future of the buildings that form the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.

Visitors to the museum can find out about the history of the building, learn about the conservation work that has been carried out and see a selection of reproductions of historic maps of Shropshire from the Patricia Bracegirdle Collection. They can also find out about the Gorge and our museums from IGMT staff and buy souvenirs and gifts from the shop. 

Nick Ralls, CEO, said, “We are delighted to be able to welcome visitors back to the Museum of the Gorge after a year of closure.”