2009 Anniversaries - A Celebration of Imagination
2009 is a special year for Ironbridge & Shropshire as we celebrate the imagination of a number of the world’s great pioneers, Abraham Darby, Charles Darwin and William Penny Brookes
Ironbridge
2009 marks 300 years since Abraham Darby first smelted Iron with coke instead of charcoal. This meant that cast iron could now be mass produced for the first time as quickly as coal could be mined, instead of as fast as trees could grow when using charcoal as the fuel.
This new process helped spark the Industrial Revolution, that led to the modern industrial world
What's more, the iron made at Coalbrookdale was particularly suitable for steam engines - the driving force behind the changes taking place in manufacturing and industry worldwide.
For more information on special events to celebrate this unique anniversary visit the Ironbridge Gorge Museums Website
Darwin
2009 also marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Shrewsbury’s most famous sons Charles Darwin. Born in Shrewsbury on the 12th of February 1809, Charles Darwin was a resident of the town until the age of 27.
From Shrewsbury he attended university at Edinburgh and Cambridge and embarked on the trip of a lifetime before moving south to London and finally settling at Down House in Kent.
It was here in Shrewsbury that nature and nurture combined to produce the ideal candidate for the position of Naturalist on the Voyage of the Beagle.
William Penny Brookes
Much Wenlock is to Britain what Olympia is to Greece. In this beautiful unspoiled little market town local surgeon Dr William Penny Brookes (1809 - 1895), inspired the fore-runner of the modern Olympic Games for the "promotion of moral, physical and intellectual improvement" - the Wenlock Olympian Games – still held annually during the second week in July.
2009 is a special celebration year for Much Wenlock as Brookes was born in the town 200 years ago exactly. The Games are organised by the dedicated volunteers who make up the Wenlock Olympian Society, and are still held in the town every July.
For more information on all the regions anniversaries please visit the Celebration of Imagination Website