Friends of Ironbridge Gorge Museum celebrate a fundraising landmark

Chairman Geraldine King announced at the group's annual meeting that the Friends had donated over £1 million to the Ironbridge Gorge Museum over the group's near 50 years of existence.

She said it was an "astonishing achievement".

Re-elected for a second year, Geraldine said: "From the very beginning the Friends have supported the museum, not just in providing volunteers but also in generating funds from subscriptions, purchasing exhibits and allocating money to projects."

Reviewing some of the ways the Friends had helped, she said: "For the collections we bought works of art, Coalport and Caughley china, Jackfield tiles, Wrockwardine Wood glass and Coalbrookdale castings.

"The Friends paid for showcases at Coalport and Rosehill, and for the first Coalport site guide in 1976 and the 1999 Caughley exhibition catalogue.

"We funded the move of the locomotive 'Peter' from Coalbrookdale to Blists Hill in 2009, the restoration of the Museum of Iron clock tower in 2011 and the Boy & Swan fountain in 2012.

"We also allocated considerable funds to museum projects, including Coalport in 1975, 1976 and 1992. At Blists Hill we funded the original mine headgear in 1973 – and its replacement in 2016 – we paid for 'Bess' in 1978 and 'Prince' in 1983, the first horses on site, we contributed towards the goods shed in 2003, for the site upgrade in 2006 and for the loco shed that housed 'Peter' in 2009.

"More recently we paid for the digitisation of the oral history archive in 2010, in 2013 we funded all the donations boxes around the museums and in 2014 provided a book purchase fund for the Library.

"The total value of this support from 1973 to 2016 exceeds £1,000,000 – an astonishing achievement, for which we owe our thanks to our loyal members."

The Friends' organisation was founded in 1969 to support the conservation and development work of the museum, and to enable its members to become involved in that work. Its work includes staffing exhibits, buying additions for the museum's collections, and researching local history and recording memories.