Gorge Museum to reveal wonders of Prince Albert's Great Exhibition

One in three people in the UK visited the first Great Exhibition in 1851 and now the Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust is trying to capture some of the wonder of the event its own new exhibit.

The Great Exhibition of 1851 was the first international show of manufactured products. Organised by Henry Cole and Prince Albert, it was held in the revolutionary glass and iron Crystal Palace in London's Hyde Park.

After its closure many of the exhibited objects were used as the first collection for the South Kensington Museum which opened in 1857, and later became the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Though the event was held nearly 180 miles away from Shropshire, the county had a key part to play in the event, with the Coalbrookdale Company manufacturing a huge set of gates for the Queen's Entrance at one end of Crystal Palace, which measured 60 foot wide and are still in place in Hyde Park Today.

It also made a huge iron dome which covered the statue of the Eagle Slayer, which was also made out of cast iron by sculptor John Bell.

They would also have had a manufacturers stand where they displayed its wares, many of which were awarded medals.

The Coalbrookdale Company had a huge write up in the event's programme.

David Eveleigh, Director of collections and learning at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum said the museums have a number of pieces in their archive relating to the exhibition which will be on display from now until February 2017.

He said that the decade before the Great Exhibition saw the building of the railways, the birth of photography and colour printing, which came together to make the Great Exhibition a spectacle of which many people would not have seen before, attracting people of all social classes.

He said: "There were a number of 80 year olds at the event, including one 84 year old Fish wife who walked all the way from Penzance to see the Great Exhibition.

"She would have been about 16 when the Ironbridge was opened and I think it is amazing that the gap between these two major events was just one lifetime.

"I like to think that someone might have seen the Iron Bridge and then taken advantage of the new railways and seen the Great Exhibition as well."