The Government has stepped in to save one of Britain’s most famous vistas – the world heritage site at Ironbridge Gorge – by committing a £12m ‘keystone’ to conserve and protect it, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has announced.
Funding will go to restoring and protecting Ironbridge Gorge so that generations to come can enjoy the landscape and an area that sparked a new age of modernity in Britain and across the world.
The site, which is home to the first ever cast iron bridge, sits alongside such marvels of the world as the Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China and the Egyptian Pyramids, on the list of world heritage sites and plays an important role in the local economy.
Each year the Ironbridge Gorge draws in over half a million tourists from near and far to the area and pumps £20m into the economies of Telford and Wrekin and the wider Shropshire area.
Constantly shifting river banks and the weight of stone in the abutments squeeze the Bridge, cracking ironwork and buckling the deck.
The first reports of cracking in the Bridge were made as early as 1784, and repair and maintenance has become a necessary and regular ever since.
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