15 years ago, the LIA began a campaign to have the famous Ironbridge professionally illuminated and finally on September 19th this year, the lights were turned on.
For years the bridge was occasionally washed with a dim yellow sodium light and when floods damaged the fixtures, they often weren’t replaced so at night, the bridge was all but invisible.
The original campaign began with Keven Verdun MBE, the then CEO of the Lighting Association and was then taken up in 2008 by Peter Hunt. Despite many meetings with the Ironbridge Trust and English Heritage, the project was thwarted at every turn.
Finally, thanks to persistence by Liz Peck and Bob Bohannon, both LIA trainers, they got the go ahead for a lighting scheme with funding from Telford and Wrekin Council, the Arts Council and English Heritage. The lighting scheme evokes a historical reference to the furnace which is at the heart of the area's industrial history.
The lights will be turned on every weekend and in our opinion, are a credit to the lighting designers and a major improvement to the famous world heritage site.
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