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The Museum of the Gorge, originally the Severn Warehouse, is one of the ten museums of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. It portrays the history of the Ironbridge Gorge and the surrounding area of Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, England. == History == The River Severn was a major transport route, especially before the building of the railway. Severn trows were used to bring raw materials to the forges of the Gorge and to take the finished goods away. At this time, before the management of the river by weirs, water levels in the Severn were highly seasonal. During the summer the river was too low to be navigable and so finished goods were held in warehouses until there was once again enough water for passage. The site is at the Wharfage, just West of the village of Ironbridge. This location is also the confluence of the main manufacturing area of Coalbrookdale, and its non-navigable river, with the valley of the Severn. Around 1840 a warehouse was constructed here for the Coalbrookdale Company, to plans by the architect Samuel Cookson. Its architectural style is highly distinctive and most unusual for a warehouse. It follows the Gothic Revival architecture recently made fashionable by Pugin and already made use of locally for St Luke's Church, Ironbridge. St Luke's is in the simple Commissioners' Gothic style, by local architect Samuel Smith of Madeley. That style is close to the original medieval Gothic and follows Pugin's ideas. The style of the warehouse owes far more to Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill than to Pugin. The parapet of the roof is crenellated at each end and decorated with pinnacles. The Eastward, riverward face is extended with a church-like apse, flanked by two narrow towers decorated with cross-shaped arrow loops, but actually hiding chimneys. Construction is of local red brick, with yellow brick dressing. The main roof is simple and warehouse-like, comprising four tiled bays with simple gable ends. Most of the walls are blind, with only high windows in the gables for security and the walls between supported by buttresses. The apse extension, originally an office, has tall lancet windows to give light, and reinforcing the church-like atmosphere of that facade. The warehouse is Grade II * listed.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Severn Wharf Building (Premises of Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust), The Wharfage )〕 The sandstone walls of the 1780s wharf extend for half a mile between the warehouse and the Iron Bridge; they are also listed at Grade II.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Ironbridge wharf walls, from Severn Warehouse to East of the Iron Bridge, the Wharfage )〕 Various small narrow gauge tramways were used around Coalbrookdale. The short distance from the doors of the warehouse to the river basin is crossed by plateway grooves for unflanged wheels, set directly into the paving of the wharf. Later warehouses were built to the west, adjoining this building and what is now the museum car park. These have since been used for light industry and retail purposes. At one time they housed the Merrythought teddy bear factory, makers of Mr Whoppit and other bears. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Museum of the Gorge, Ironbridge」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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