Deep in the West Midlands, the River Severn carves its way through the Shropshire countryside.

It's the longest river in Great Britain and its name is thought to be derived from a mythical

nymph, Sabrina.

Shropshire is peppered with the stunning Blue Remembered Hills that inspired the poet A.

E. Housman but this landscape is also the crucible where the industrial revolution was

forged.

As the River Severn cuts a path through a deep gorge, a monument to that tumultous era

looms over the water. The Iron Bridge. The stately arches of cast iron gracefully belie

the fire and force that went into smelting the structure into shape. The bridge was the

first of its kind in the world, standing in testament to Britian's pioneering of industry

on a mass scale.

It's hard to believe that this is the cradle of the industrial revolution. Today it feels

like a peaceful green haven. The Iron Bridge straddles the steep sides of the Severn Gorge

and it's a testament to the ingenuity of the ironmasters who worked here for centuries.

All of the raw materials required to produce iron can be found here: iron ore, limestone

and coal. But it's not just the raw materials. The actual shape of the landscape played its

part. The steep sides of the gorge meant that water could easily be harnessed to power the

water wheels that in turn provided blast for the furnaces. And then there's the River Severn

and this was the super-highway of its day. It enabled finished products to be taken away

to market.

Coal has been mined here since the middle ages but it was directly after the reformation

when land owned by monasteries came into the hands of entrepreneurs that industry really

began to take off. That great symbol of the age of industry, the Iron Bridge, was begun

in 1777 and finally opened to traffic on New Year's Day 1781 and it's remained open more

or less every since.

The bridge had a revolutionary impact on both

technology and architecture and UNESCO declared it a masterpiece of man's creativity when

they granted Iron Bridge Gorge world heritage site status in 1986. The visitors who come

here today are only the latest in a long line of people who have been awed by this incredible

structure. Few records exist about how the bridge was actually built but some interesting

experiments have been undertaken in recent times. But we know that a large wooden scaffold

was erected and that the majority of the work was undertaken in a few short months and without

any major incidents. It was truly a marvel of its age. Abraham Derby III, one of the

most important ironmasters in the area and one of a long line of Derbys to work here,

oversaw the work and it quickly became something of a tourist attraction with people coming

from throughout the country and even abroad to see it. Writers, artists and poets were

all struck by it and many fell back on the language of mythology to describe the bridge

in this environment of industry. Gods and demons were described as being at work among

the smoke and flames of the furnaces. At this time, iron founding demanded huge skill and

strength. But as the industrial revolution developed machines increasingly took over

from people.

Iron Bridge is a potent reminder of how industry transformed England and this imposing structure

deserves a song which also has its roots in the industrial era. The Four Loom Weaver,

sung for us by Abel Selaocoe, is one of our most iconic industrial ballads and it tells

the human story that lies behind the mighty feats of engineering and manufacturing like

the Iron Bridge. It features the lament of a poor weaver reduced to starvation and eating

nettles. Originally derived from a song called the Poor Cotton Weaver, it was rewritten as

this version during the economic downturn at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, at a time

when many hand weavers were losing their jobs due to the rise of the steam-driven weaving

machines. It's a poignant document of the inequality that was rife in the industrial

era and the sense of dispossession people felt as the onward march of progress reduced

them to units

of production.