Coalbrookdale is a town[1][2] in the Ironbridge Gorge and the Telford and Wrekin borough of Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting.

This is where iron ore was first smelted by Abraham Darby using easily mined "coking coal".

In 1651, the manor was leased to Francis Wolfe, the clerk of the ironworks, and he and his son operated them as tenant of (or possibly manager for) Brooke's heirs.

The surviving old blast furnace contains a cast-iron lintel bearing a date, which is currently painted as 1638, but an archive photograph has been found showing it as 1658.

[3] Some evidence may suggest that Shadrach Fox smelted iron with mineral coal, though this remains controversial.

Fox was evidently an iron founder, as he supplied round shot and grenade shells to the Board of Ordnance during the Nine Years War, but not later than April 1703, the furnace blew up.

Coalbrookdale has been claimed as the home of the world's first coke-fired blast furnace; this is not strictly correct, but it was the first in Europe to operate successfully for more than a few years.

[6] Darby renewed his lease of the works in 1714, forming a new partnership with John Chamberlain and Thomas Baylies.

However, Darby died prematurely at Madeley Court in 1717 – the same year as he began the house Dale End which became home to succeeding generations of the family in Coalbrookdale – followed quickly by his widow Mary.

[9] To date, the only known information about it comes from a drawing preserved at the Science Museum, London, together with a letter written by Trevithick to his friend Davies Giddy.

A flywheel drove the wheels on one side through spur gears, and the axles were mounted directly on the boiler, with no frame.

Other examples include the Coalbrookdale verandah at St John's in Monmouth, Wales,[12] and as far away as the Peacock Fountain in Christchurch, New Zealand.

[15] Several of Coalbrookdale's industrial heritage sites are to be found on the local trail: including: Coalbrookdale railway station, the Quaker Burial Ground, the Darby Houses, Tea Kettle Row and the Great Western Railway Viaduct.

The fourth side is a viaduct carrying the railway that delivered coal to the now demolished Ironbridge Power Station.

The Museum's archaeology unit continues to investigate the earlier history of Coalbrookdale, and has recently excavated the remains of the 17th century cementation furnaces, near the site of the Upper (formerly Middle) Forge.

The uppermost reads "Abraham Darby 1777", probably recording its enlargement for casting the Iron Bridge.

The interior profile of the furnace is typical of its period, bulging around the middle, below which the boshes taper in again so that the charge descends into a narrower and hotter hearth, where the iron was molten.

When Abraham Darby III enlarged the furnace, he only made the boshes wider on the front and left sides, but not on the right where doing so would have entailed moving the water wheel.