Theme of the Week National Science and Engineering Week Wednesday

Word of the Day Its Science is simply common sense at its best.

This country has such an extraordinary pedigree in science and engineering the laboratory where Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in London; Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s SS Great Britain in Bristol; Richard Trevithick’s first steam locomotive, “Billy”, in Swansea; and the Forth Rail Bridge – the largest listed building in Scotland and the world’s first major steel bridge – soaring over the Firth of Forth.

The cradle of the industrial revolution at Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire

The focal point of the Ironbridge Gorge is perhaps the Iron Bridge itself - the first bridge in the world to be constructed of iron. Built in 1779 to a design by Shrewsbury architect Thomas Farnolls Pritchard and cast at the Coalbrookdale ironworks of Abraham Darby III,

Art was inspired by the Industrial Revolution

Iron making in Coalbrookdale during the eighteenth century was revolutionary: it developed coal and coke as fuel, applied steam engine technology and promoted the emergence of a transport network. The Iron Bridge confirmed Coalbrookdale’s significance, and became in its own lifetime an internationally known symbol of the Industrial Revolution.

Reflection