In the presence of over 100 members, guests and regional TV and media, Institution President, Group Captain Mark Hunt FIMechE, presented Barrie Williams, Chairman of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, with the prestigious award. It was bestowed in recognition of Abraham Darby’s innovative use of coke instead of charcoal in the production of iron.
This presentation marks the highly successful revival of the Institution’s heritage awards.
The site of Old Furnace is recognised by many to be the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. The Old Furnace had been in use since the mid-1600s. However, it was not until 1708 – when Abraham Darby took over its lease – that the site came into prominence.
Although it is known that others had experimented with the use of coke as an alternative to charcoal – which at the time was becoming more expensive due to increasing shortages – it is widely agreed that Darby was the first person to make the change economically viable and commercially successful.
It is thought his experimentation with coke stemmed from his time as an apprentice, where he would have seen brewers using coke to fuel their malting ovens.
Coalbrookdale grew rapidly into one of the major producers of cast-iron goods and pig iron for other foundries. In the late 1770s, Abraham Darby III used the Old Furnace to produce the cast-iron components of the world’s first cast-iron bridge, the iconic Iron Bridge. The impact of the Iron Bridge on subsequent buildings was momentous. Iron frames rapidly became the norm in large industrial structures across the UK and beyond.
By the 1820s the Old Furnace was ‘blown out’ although, by that time, the Coalbrookdale Company had greatly expanded its works. The original structure gradually became buried under industrial waste until its excavation and conservation over 130 years later. The Old Furnace and a small museum were opened to celebrate 250 years of the Coalbrookdale Company in 1959.
Today, Old Furnace sits within the Museum of Iron, a six square kilometre museum complex, containing 10 museums and 36 listed buildings. In 1986 The Ironbridge Gorge was recognised as a World Heritage Site.
John Wood, past president and Chairman of the Institution’s Heritage Committee commented at the presentation: “The Old Furnace marks the beginning of the industrial age and it is hard to image what world we would live in if it wasn’t for the innovation and vision of people like Abraham Darby.
“Not only are we pleased to welcome this World Heritage Site to the Engineering Heritage Award family, it is also gratifying to reach the 100th award in the scheme’s 30th anniversary year.”
The Engineering Heritage Awards were established by the Institution in 1984 to recognise and promote great British engineering. Ninety-nine awards, given up to September 2014, have recognised a wide range of industrial artefacts and sites, such as Holland One submarine, The Mallard, Wellington Bomber, Crossness Pumping Station, The Falkirk Wheel and the Titan crane.
In recent years the awards have recognised British-made artefacts overseas, such as the Yavari in Peru, the Armstrong Gun in New Zealand and BT19 in Australia. In a recent poll, members of the Institution recently voted the Bombe, at Bletchley Park, their favourite Engineering Heritage Award winner to date.
As well as attracting over 3,000 members and guests to the presentations over the last five years, the scheme has proven popular with the media, generating substantial coverage from broadcast and print media, and has become a leading promotional tool for the Institution.
If you would like to apply for an Engineering Heritage Award, download the application form and guidance notes from the Institution’s website
www.imeche.org/eha or email
heritage@imeche.org.
In addition, PE magazine has published a new travel guide called
Engineering Attractions: Visiting Britain’s Best Industrial Heritage Sites. The book is priced at £9.95 and members receive a 10% discount.
To celebrate reaching the 100th award, the Heritage Committee has published its latest compendium, highlighting all the awards presented over the last 30 years. A PDF of the compendium
Recognising Engineering Excellence Past, Present and Future: Engineering Heritage Awards can be viewed online. Or to receive a hard copy, email
heritage@imeche.org with your contact details.