Wooden railway opened from Horsehay to Coalbrookdale
Morning View of Coalbrookdale by William Williams
(© Courtesy of Shropshire Museum Service Image supplied by Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust)
According to Shropshire County History Vol11, ' wooden railways were built c. 1755-6 to link the Coalbrookdale Co.'s new Horsehay furnaces to their mines in Ketley and Lawley and to Coalbrookdale itself. That from Ketley and Lawley was 16 ft. wide and entered the parish at Dawley Bank; it ran northwest of Dawley Green to Horsehay. That from Horsehay to Coalbrookdale ran a short distance through Little Wenlock parish before re-entering Dawley and running down Jigger's Bank to Coalbrookdale. Both had rails of oak or ash in the 1760s, replaced by iron rails from the 1770s.'
