The Sabbath Walks

By 1785 Ironbridge was the firebreathing epicentre of the industrial revolution - Dante's inner circles of hell made manifest some said, coal mines, iron foundries, the Bedlam Furnaces all belching out smoke and worse.



The Ironmasters were generally Quakers - barred from the great universities and the professions because of their religion they seem to have taken to commerce like ducks to water. Kays (shoes), Clarkes (also shoes) Cadbury (chocolate) Abraham Darby (the first iron bridge!) all Quakers.



So down in the gorge the iron masters took a paternal view of their workers, providing decent housing on the whole and to try to slow the death rate and keep drinking gambling and whoring in check one of them set out and made public the Sabbath Walks - paths through the surrounding woodland and countryside that would keep you fit and out of temptation if you walked them on a Sunday.



Yesterday was Sunday - so we walked through Jackfield and Coalport along some of the Sabbath paths and the old railway - and the gorge is so beautiful now, probably at it's most beautiful as none of the trees are so very old. We ended up walking 7 miles rather than 5 because we missed Jackfield Bridge - how can anyone miss Jackfield Bridge it's huge!