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Seasonal Archaeology: the Old Furnace, Coalbrookdale
At least in south Manchester, it has felt like autumn, punctuated by some very hot days, since the beginning of August. This long September has been marked by the leaves turning colour on the shallow-rooted trees along the leafy suburban roads, an abundance of fruits, and the return of well-known puddles on pavements and roads as the drought broke. Archaeological sites, too, have their own seasons. At Coalbrookdale, in Ironbridge, Shropshire, I have been watching the restoration of Abraham Darby's old blast furnace, the one where he successfuilly used, for the first time, coke to power an iron blast furnace, rather than charcoal.
