The Hay Inclined Plane opened to traffic in 1793, connecting the Shropshire Canal to the Coalport Canal, which in turn linked with the River Severn. The canal was critical for transportation, routing, coal movement, clay production and the manufacture of decorative tiles and bricks at a time when the Ironbridge Gorge was a hive of industrial activity, to the extent that in 1986 the Gorge was recognised as a symbol of the Industrial Revolution by UNESCO and made a World Heritage Site.
Over the last year the trust, a heritage conservation and education charity, has carried out work, funded by MEND, to repair and conserve this Scheduled Ancient Monument. The significant work at the Hay Inclined Plane has involved clearing vegetation, removing self-seeded trees from the canal basin, cleaning graffiti and replacing the failing concrete capping that covered the monument with soft turf.
Repairs have been made to the Winding House, where the machinery that pulled goods up and down the plane was located, and to the bridge over the Silkin Way, a public footpath, on a disused railway line. Moss has been cleared from the sleepers between the tracks and the steps for visitors to walk up and down alongside the plane have been repaired and a new handrail installed.
The same funding also made possible several more essential projects at Blists Hill Victorian Town, including the installation of a new fire alarm system, the introduction of a voltage optimisation system bringing energy saving benefits, providing new ventilation facilities in the museum’s foundry and new security fencing along the museum boundary.
Karen Davies, Interim CEO at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, said: “We are extremely grateful to Arts Council England for its funding, which has made it possible to carry out a number of important works at Blists Hill Victorian Town.
“Visitors to the museum can now see the Hay Inclined Plane, an incredible Scheduled Ancient Monument, in all its glory. We hope they will be able to picture the hive of activity that would have been found there in the past, and that it will serve as an incentive to explore one of the greenest and less well-known areas of the museum site.
“While the impact may be less visible to our visitors, the work we have been able to do on the fire alarm system, voltage optimisation system, museum boundary and in our foundry are no less important.”
The Hay Inclined Plane has been closed during the conservation work and has reopened to coincide with the Easter holidays. Volunteer Paul Green will lead specialist guided walks around the monument on Wednesday, 16 and Saturday, 19 April at 11am and 1.30pm.
Paul Green said: “The genius of the Incline Plane is that it took just four minutes to transfer tons of goods from the world’s most advanced ironworks high up in Blists Hill down to the world’s first science park on the River Severn. But it’s way more than technology, it points to stories of big ideas, beliefs and battles with the status quo. They reimagined the world so why not join us and reimagine this awesome archaeological heritage on one of our brand-new tours.”
The trust has also created a new itinerary, downloadable on the Blists Hill page of its website, so that visitors can explore the site at their leisure.