A sneak peek at the Ironbridge Festival

24th September 2022

24th September 2022

Roll Up! Roll Up! Welcome, to the beginnings of the Ironbridge Festival, 24th September 2022 (Author’s Collection).

As regularly readers of my rambling tales, travel or otherwise, will attest, I have an enormous amount of love and affection for the oldest iron bridge in the world. If you’re new here or simply passing through from one Matrix staging post to the next, stop awhile, kick off those aching shoes, help yourself to the chocolate biscuits and hopefully you’ll enjoy some very different images from an Ironbridge in the middle of her yearly festival.

My love for Ironbridge is two decades long and counting. Rather than the geographical or historical details associated with this accredited World Heritage Site, let me tell you there are no better places in the world to be on a crisp, cold and clear full moon night than stood, lost in your own thoughts, in the middle of the bridge I lovingly call the “Grand Old Lady”. On such nights you can expect to hear the incessant hooting of owls in the trees or the swooping of bats and four times hourly, the local church high atop the hill overlooking Ironbridge will break the silence so beautifully with its chimes. Seasonal daytimes are a hive of activity with visitors numbering in the hundreds of thousands visiting this tiny hamlet on the banks of the River Severn which in a half mile stretch affords you the choice of five pubs (public houses), a similar number of restaurants, boutique stores, tourist shops, an utterly brilliant independent bookshop, tea-rooms, a cocktail bar, a fish n chip shop and an old fashioned sweet shop owned and run by a Welsh gentleman by the name of Jeremy, a man I’m lucky to call my friend.

The bridge itself was completed in the year 1779, its the first of its kind and rightly a World Heritage Site, but those are just undisputable facts. What you have to see and experience for yourself is its aura and atmosphere and unapologetic stance to remain a century or so away from that pesky concept of “real life” today. Be it full of tourists or devoid of any discernible life, sunrise, sunset, a full moon directly above the “Grand Old Lady” or the screams from the pleasure seekers larking around on the River Severn, Ironbridge is some place, and a tiny piece of heaven that never fails to raise the soul and human spirit.

What follows is a tiny two hour peek from a Saturday afternoon in a now over two week festival in and around Ironbridge celebrating the arts, the environment, heritage, history and so much more explained in the fullest of detail in the official link at the end of this paragraph. When I lived in Ironbridge, the yearly festival (then known as the World Heritage Festival) would be a weekend affair with the only road closed to traffic and instead stalls and stands and street performers and artists beautifully littering the entirety of the riverside walk into nearby Coalbrookdale. The festival has clearly grown in size in the few years since I regrettably had to move from Ironbridge and bravo to all concerned. There’s even comedy nights now!

The pictorial stroll that follows takes us from the sports field adjacent to the magnificent public park in Coalbrookdale and along the riverside “Wharfage” to the bridge herself and a bridge surrounded by street performers, a Male Voice Choir, Morris Dancers, a brilliant street band and a hearty bunch of football supporters who’d made Ironbridge their stopping off point before watching their team play at the nearby town of Telford, and must now have the impression that Ironbridge is always this loud and lively!

It isn’t.

But it’s always beautiful.

Home - Festival of Imagination
The Festival Event Diary World Heritage Site Volunteer Plan your visit Map & Venues Partners Partners Events In The…ironbridgefestival.co.uk

*All images captured by me on Saturday 24th September 2022*

The beginnings of the festival and the constant recurring theme of Ironbridge writ large — The ancient and the modern.

Three of the four rally cars on show in the sports field and oh for the chance to take the Alpha Romeo for a spin!

The fourth and final rally car on show today — the Abarth Alitalia.

The sun shining on the righteous as well as Ironbridge’s very own Teddy Bear Shop! (The village actually has two — the other can be found underneath the distinctive arches of the village square opposite the bridge).

Anyone fancy a cup of tea?

The Summer shallows and perfect feeding area for a constant supply of rather hungry ducks! The River Severn flows gently at this time of year up and to the right, underneath the “Grand Old Lady” and onward to Bewdley in 30 or so miles, and beyond.

With the road closed to traffic for the weekend, please say a hearty hello to two of the numerous street performers and artists limbering up for the day and weekend ahead.

A simple view back from whence we came simply in order to give an indication of the beautiful shops, boutiques and tea-rooms that line the riverbank.

And onward up the hill to the bridge herself with a newsagents (all purpose store), a “Christmas Shop”, a coffee house and guest house, locally made ice cream and pork pies and the imposing “Tontine Hotel” lining the route.

The “Grand Old Lady” sparkling in the September sunshine.

Background: Morris Dancers clad in their distinctive red and black lining the entrance to the bridge. Foreground: The sun shining on the righteous again and the magnificent “Telfordaires” male voice choir.

The sun shining on the oldest and righteous of all.

An always captivating view through the ironworks of the bridge onto the River Severn as it flows through Ironbridge and onward to beautiful Bewdley (please see article on Bewdley within my travel archives).

Welcome to “Toytown” and rather more colourful and loud than is normal!

A view through the ironworks and back from whence we came.

A closer up view of the colour surrounding Toytown today. The distinctive Red and Black of the Morris Dancers blending perfectly with the Yellow and Black of the visiting football fans from Boston United.

The 120 steps leading to St Luke’s Church. Halfway up reminds the horror fan in me of The Exorcist! Not to be undertaken whilst drunk!

Quite the view from atop “Church Hill”.

St Luke’s Church and on those crisp, clear and cold winter nights when standing on the bridge one feels as though they are the only person in Ironbridge, you’ll always be accompanied by her sweet chimes.

“Cleos” (right) was a favoured destination for the “Happy Hour” and nightly 2for1 cocktails as I lived opposite! There are eight or nine independent establishments in this shot alone and nearly all have “changed flavour” over the years. Cleo’s used to be a garage and then a coffee house before becoming a cocktail bar and the white building ahead is home to the pharmacy and post office but the nearest half of the building has been a florists and a hairdressers before recently being refurbished into a shop specialising in doughnuts!

Three final images of the “King Brasstards” entertaining Morris Dancers and football fans alike beside the iron bridge — Part 1.

Three final images of the “King Brasstards” entertaining Morris Dancers and football fans alike beside the iron bridge — Part 2.

Three final images of the “King Brasstards” entertaining Morris Dancers and football fans alike beside the iron bridge — Part 3.

Your humble narrator in the place he calls his “spiritual home”, early August 2022 (Author’s Collection).

Thanks for reading. My “Summer Project” has taken me to the waterways as well as many local historical and religious ruins as I’ve crisscrossed the border between England and Wales, and my three most recently published travel articles are linked below:

A beautiful return to Chirk Castle
14th September 2022medium.com

Two noble fools return to Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon
15th September 2022medium.com

A return to a “Stream in the Sky”
14th September 2022medium.com