Historic Ironbridge Gorge buildings wrapped in scaffolding as landmark restoration work takes place

Scaffolding is now in place around both the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron and Long Warehouse - both managed by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.

Vital restoration work is taking place on both buildings, which are key parts of the legacy of the gorge, and how it changed the world.

The work is the latest stage of the trust's 'Conserving the Historic Estate' project, which has been funded by £5.5 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF). 

The three-year programme includes work on 49 buildings across the trust's estate.

The latest work includes replacing tiles on the roof of the Long Warehouse - home to the Furnace Cafe, which remains open during the work.

As part of the project the gold finial on top of the clock which sits on the roof of the Museum of Iron will also be re-gilded.

Lucy Oldnall, the trust's manager of the estate-wide conservation project, said this would be the busiest year of work.

She said that access had been a major issue, with around a month needed just to set up the scaffolding that now surrounds the two buildings.

She said: "The biggest task was getting the scaffolding up - that has taken over a month. It is a huge amount of scaffolding for what is relatively simple work."

Ms Oldnall said the Long Warehouse would be entirely re-roofed during the work, along with the replacement of the lantern roof.

She added that the work on the two buildings is the biggest part of the restoration project, because of the scale of the buildings involved. 

She said the golden finial will be re-gilded in gold, as it was originally finished.

It had been painted in gold in the intervening period.

She said: "It was originally gilded with real gold so we are going back to gilding it again."