Landslides in the Ironbridge Gorge, Shropshire

The River Severn flows through the Ironbridge Gorge (location map and Figure 1) which is located to the south of Telford in Shropshire and is a World Heritage Site. It is named after the famous Iron Bridge designed by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard and built by Abraham Darby III, the first arch bridge in the world to be made from cast iron (Figure 2). The Gorge is thought to have originated some 10 000 years ago and is deeply incised in rocks of Upper Carboniferous and Silurian age, which are prone to landsliding, and have suffered a number of failures through its history. The valley sides rise steeply from 40 m at river level to over 140 m on the plateau above (Figure 3).