Hinkshay Road Archaeology
There is still some archaeological evidence of the Hinkshay Ironworks, a tunnel and surrounding workers houses around Hinkshay Road.
Between the 21st and 26th April 2010 Archaeologists uncovered the foundations of ironworkers’ houses lying under Telford Town Park; the houses were built for workers at Stirchley and Hinkshay Ironworks as part of collaboration between Ironbridge Gorge and Nexus Heritage.
The rows of properties were built in Hinkshay Road in Dawley in about 1815 by the Botfield family of ironmasters. The row that was excavated in April 2010 was called “Double Row” as the houses were built back to back. They were demolished in 1969.
The archaeology found included tiled floors, walls, fireplaces, and many artefacts from the 19th Century to the 20th Century.
At the time of the excavations the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust had wanted anyone who remembered the houses or the people who lived there to come forward and probably still does.
Local community groups, members of the public and the Telford Historical and Archaeological Society took part in the dig; there was a lot of local interest, the dig attracted over 200 participants and visitors.
And there was a BBC news article on the 2010 archaeology work in the area.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/shropshire/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8638000/8638141.stm
A lot more information about the dig and photographs can be found here on Paul Belford’s blog, one of the archaeologists:
http://paulbelford.blogspot.com/2010/04/community-archaeology-at-hinkshay.html
Richard Foxcroft wrote an interesting article on the remains of the Ironworks here as well: http://www.telford.org.uk/general/hinkshay.html
Author: Christine Garner
