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Signed on the front: " SEANDESS : MACCLESFIELD ", and also has a back label: " CARTWRIGHT & SHELDON LTD., MACCLESFIELD ".
together with a label giving some history of the bridge:
back label giving name of Cartwright & Sheldon as the weaver
back label giving details of the bridge:
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THE IRON BRIDGE 1779-1979
Taken from " A view of the Iron Bridge erected over the river SEVERN near Coalbrook-dale in the County of SALOP ",
by J. Edmunds, Madeley, c1780.
J. Edmunds was a local printer who issued a broadsheet about the Iron Bridge immediately after its construction.
The picture was printed from a woodcut of unknown origin and represents one of the earliest known images of the Iron
Bridge.
The broadsheet stressed the size and weight of the Bridge and the skill required to erect it. Contemporary observers
must have been amazed to witness the construction of a bridge of such proportions using cast-iron for the first time:
" The whole bridge is computed to contain 500 tons of iron. The parishes of Madeley and Benthal are the Atlasses
that bear the enormous load, one foot being placed in the first, the other in the last mention'd parish: where it now
stands an indisputable proof of the abilities of our mechanics and workmen. "
Picture number xxx of the 500 issue. Commissioned by 'Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust' Ironbridge, Telford, Salop.
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