Darby Houses


Just uphill from the Museum of Iron, these beautifully restored 18th-century homes housed generations of the Darby family in gracious but modest Quaker comfort. In the Rosehill house, kids and adults can try on Victorian dress and view china displays. The highlight of the Darby family house is the study where Abraham Darby III designed the Iron Bridge.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron

0.16 MILES

Set in the brooding buildings of Abraham Darby's original iron foundry, the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron contains some excellent interactive exhibits. As…

2. Enginuity

0.17 MILES

Kids will love this levers-and-pulleys science centre where they can control robots, move a steam locomotive with their bare hands (and a little…

3. Museum of the Gorge

0.82 MILES

An ideal place to kick off your Ironbridge Gorge visit is the Museum of the Gorge. Occupying a Gothic riverside warehouse, it offers an overview of the…

4. Iron Bridge

1.05 MILES

The arching Iron Bridge, which gives the area its name, was built to flaunt the new technology invented by the pioneering Darby family. At the time of its…

5. Bedlam Furnaces

1.23 MILES

By the River Severn, you can see the remains of the 1750s-built coke-fired blast furnaces, which remained in use into the 19th century.

6. Broseley Pipeworks

1.71 MILES

This was once the biggest clay tobacco pipe-maker in the country, but the industry nose dived after the introduction of prerolled cigarettes in the 1880s,…

7. Jackfield Tile Museum

1.74 MILES

Once the largest tile factory in the world, Jackfield was famous for its encaustic tiles, with ornate designs produced using layers of different coloured…

8. Blists Hill Victorian Town

1.98 MILES

Set at the top of the Hay Inclined Plane (a cable lift that once transported coal barges uphill from the Shropshire Canal), Blists Hill is a lovingly…