Lee Dingle Bridge

Lee Dingle Bridge
The derelict Lee Dingle Bridge with the current footbridge across the Coalport Road in the foreground.
Carries	Meadow Pit Plateway (from Madeley Colliery)
Crosses	Lee Dingle (Coalport Road)
Locale	Blists Hill, Ironbridge
Heritage status	Grade II listed building
National Heritage List for England	1367428
Characteristics
Design	Truss
Material	Wrought iron
History
Opened	1872
Closed	1922
Replaces	Timber trestle bridge
Statistics
Daily traffic	Coal

The Lee Dingle Bridge is a wrought iron truss bridge across the Lee Dingle in Ironbridge, Shropshire. The bridge is a Grade II listed building. ^[1] It is derelict and has had no deck since the 1960s.

History

The bridge as seen from Blists Hill Victorian Town today.

The bridge was built to carry the plateway which brought coal from the Madeley Colliery to the Blists Hill furnaces. ^[2] It replaced a timber trestle viaduct built when the London and North Western Railway's Coalport branch line was constructed. ^[3] On the far side of the bridge from Blists Hill was an inclined plane known as Bagley's Wind, which still survives in part as a brick pathway.

Current status

The bridge forms part of the Blists Hill living museum. Most buildings there are reconstructions but blast furnaces, a mine, a brick and tile works and the Lee Dingle Bridge are original to the location. ^[4]

References

1. "LEE DINGLE BRIDGE, Madeley - 1367428". historicengland.org.uk. Historic England . Retrieved 3 November 2025.
2. "South Telford Heritage Trail" (PDF). Telford and Wrekin Council.
3. "Lee Dingle Bridge and the Railway Sidings". Blists Hill Open Air Museum: a guide to the museum and exhibits (PDF). Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. 1978. p. 10. SJ 693033.
4. Goulding, Christina; Saren, Michael; Pressey, Andrew (2018). "'Presence' and 'absence' in themed heritage". Annals of Tourism Research. 71: 25–38. doi:10.1016/j.annals.2018.05.001.