Horsehay

Horsehay
Horsehay
	The All Labour in Vain public house, Horsehay
	Horsehay Location within Shropshire
Population	4,292 (2011)
OS grid reference	SJ675075
Civil parish	Dawley Hamlets ;
Unitary authority	Telford and Wrekin ;
Ceremonial county	Shropshire ;
Region	West Midlands ;
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Telford
Postcode district	TF4
Dialling code	01952
Police	West Mercia
Fire	Shropshire
Ambulance	West Midlands
UK Parliament	Telford ;
	List of places UK England Shropshire 52°39′22″N2°29′24″W / 52.656°N 2.490°W

Last updated July 25, 2023

Horsehay is a suburban village on the western outskirts of Dawley, which, along with several other towns and villages, now forms part of the new town of Telford in Shropshire, England. Horsehay lies in the Dawley Hamlets parish, and on the northern edge of the Ironbridge Gorge area.

Horsehay used to have four pubs, The Station Inn, The Forester Arms, the All Labour In Vain and the Travellers Joy, however The Station Inn closed down in 2012, and the All Labour In Vain closed in 2014. It also has a Methodist Chapel, a village hall, a post office, and a golf course complete with restaurant.

Etymology

Its name is Anglo-Saxon for 'an enclosure for horses'^{[ citation needed ]} and as late as 1981 it was reportedly pronounced "Ossay" in local dialect.^[2]

History

Originally Horsehay was nothing more than a farm, until the 1750s when Abraham Darby II built a blast furnace next to what is now known as Horsehay Pool. The Coalbrookdale Company further developed the area, constructing brickworks and later a pottery in 1838. Coalbrookdale specialised in the smaller and more decorative ironwork pieces, whereas Horsehay produced many larger scale products, including the railway bridge in nearby Shifnal. As the iron trade in the area began to slump, in 1857 the railway arrived. Horsehay is still home to the Telford Steam Railway to this day. A.B. Cranes bought the site previously occupied by the ironworks to manufacture some of the largest cranes in Europe until it closed down in 1983. The site has been transformed into both a small factory estate and a housing estate. The houses which were kept for the ironworks employees were clustered around Horsehay Pool in Spring Village, and they are still lived in today.

Horsehay Works

Horsehay works has a history of more than 230 years on the same site. Formed in 1755 by Abraham Darby II it contributed to the birth of the industrial revolution through large scale production of iron. Later it produced pre-fabricated bridges for export all over the world. It was a major employer in the area until the mid-1980s when it closed under the ownership of Adamson Alliance.

The following is based on an article "Horsehay Works (1755–1986) - a history of a once dominating company" by J. L. Woolley (local artist and former employee of Horsehay Works):

Abraham Darby I, a Quaker, succeeded in smelting iron with coke as a fuel suitable for forges in 1709. The Coalbrookdale Company needed additional furnaces and Horsehay (an easy walk to the north) provided a sufficient water supply and land for lease. In addition, Dawley (adjacent to the east) provided mines. The furnace at Horsehay came into blast successfully on 5 May 1755. For this venture, Darby II enlisted the financial help of Thomas Goldney III (the main shareholder of the Coalbrookdale Company).

The new furnace ushered in a period of great activity when the East Shropshire Coalfield, for a time, became the area of greatest production of iron then known. Such was the importance of the furnace that many people including dignitaries visited it.

A railway from Horsehay to the nearby Severn wharves was built and the first waggon of 'pigs' (iron) was sent down Jiggers bank through Coalbrookdale and on to the wharves almost within sight of the Ironbridge (built later by Abraham Darby III, completed in 1779).

Telford Horsehay Steam Trust

Horsehay is home to the Telford Steam Railway. It holds various events throughout the year, including as of 2017, a 1940s weekend and a Polar Express experience at Christmas.

Famous residents

Horsehay was the birthplace in 1913 of novelist Edith Pargeter, who wrote the popular Brother Cadfael novels under the pen name "Ellis Peters". Country singer/songwriter, Raymond Froggatt lived there until his death in 2023 and had his studio in the village. Television personality Paul Hendy used to live in one of the cottages round Horsehay Pool.

Back in the early 19th century, a giant of a man called William Ball worked in the Horsehay Iron Works. At the time, he was the heaviest man in England, tipping the scales at 36 Stones. Following an eye injury, he finished work at the Iron Works and toured the country under the name of "John Bull".

Related Research Articles

Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. It lies within the civil parish called the Gorge.

Dawley is a constituent town of Telford and a civil parish in the borough of Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire, England. It was originally, in 1963, going to be the main centre of the 'Dawley New Town' plan before it was decided in 1968 to name the new town as 'Telford', after the engineer and road-builder Thomas Telford. Dawley now forms part of Telford whose town centre is north of Dawley itself.

The Madeley Wood Company was formed in 1756 when the Madeley Wood Furnaces, also called Bedlam Furnaces, were built beside the River Severn, one mile west of Blists Hill.

The Telford Steam Railway (TSR) is a heritage railway located at Horsehay, Telford in Shropshire, England, formed in 1976.

Madeley is a constituent town of Telford and a civil parish in the borough of Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire, England. The parish had a population of 17,935 at the 2001 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abraham Darby III</span> English ironmaster and Quaker (1750–1789)

Abraham Darby III was an English ironmaster and Quaker. He was the third man of that name in several generations of an English Quaker family that played a pivotal role in the Industrial Revolution.

Abraham Darby, in his later life called Abraham Darby the Elder, now sometimes known for convenience as Abraham Darby I, was a British ironmaster and foundryman. Born into an English Quaker family that played an important role in the Industrial Revolution, Darby developed a method of producing pig iron in a blast furnace fuelled by coke rather than charcoal. This was a major step forward in the production of iron as a raw material for the Industrial Revolution.

The Wellington to Craven Arms Railway was formed by a group of railway companies that eventually joined the Great Western Railway family, and connected Wellington, Shropshire and Shifnal, with Coalbrookdale, Buildwas, Much Wenlock and a junction near Craven Arms. Its objectives were dominated by the iron, colliery and limestone industries around Coalbrookdale.

The Shropshire Canal was a tub boat canal built to supply coal, ore and limestone to the industrial region of east Shropshire, England, that adjoined the River Severn at Coalbrookdale. It ran from a junction with the Donnington Wood Canal ascending the 316 yard long Wrockwardine Wood inclined plane to its summit level, it made a junction with the older Ketley Canal and at Southall Bank the Coalbrookdale (Horsehay) branch went to Brierly Hill above Coalbrookdale; the main line descended via the 600 yard long Windmill Incline and the 350 yard long Hay Inclined Plane to Coalport on the River Severn. The short section of the Shropshire Canal from the base of the Hay Inclined Plane to its junction with the River Severn is sometimes referred to as the Coalport Canal.

Abraham Darby IV was an English ironmaster.

The Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron is one of ten Ironbridge Gorge Museums administered by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. The museum is based in the village of Coalbrookdale in the Ironbridge Gorge, in Shropshire, England within a World Heritage Site, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.

Resolution was an early beam engine, installed between 1781 and 1782 at Coalbrookdale as a water-returning engine to power the blast furnaces and ironworks there. It was one of the last water-returning engines to be constructed, before the rotative beam engine made this type of engine obsolete.

The Darby Houses museum is one of ten Ironbridge Gorge Museums administered by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. It is based in the village of Coalbrookdale in the Ironbridge Gorge, in Shropshire, England within a World Heritage Site, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.

Richard Reynolds was an ironmaster, a partner in the ironworks in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, at a significant time in the history of iron production. He was a Quaker and philanthropist.

William Reynolds was an ironmaster and a partner in the ironworks in Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, England. He was interested in advances in science and industry, and invented the inclined plane for canals.

William "Billy" Ball (1795–1852), the "Shropshire Giant", was a nineteenth-century iron puddler and "giant".

The Cinderloo Uprising took place at Old Park in the Coalbrookdale Coalfield on 2 February 1821, when the South Shropshire Yeomanry confronted a crowd of 3,000 mostly striking workers who had gathered to protest the continued lowering of their pay.

References

↑ "Civil Parish population 2011" . Retrieved 27 November 2015.
↑ Bailey, Brian J. (1981). Portrait of Shropshire. Robert Hale,London. p. 81. ISBN 0-7091-9340-8.

Heath, P. Horsehay. Retrieved 20 October 2005.

External links

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[1] "Civil Parish population 2011" . Retrieved 27 November 2015.

[2] Bailey, Brian J. (1981). Portrait of Shropshire. Robert Hale,London. p. 81. ISBN 0-7091-9340-8.

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