Since 1968 the five towns of Wellington, Oakengates, Dawley, Madeley and Ironbridge, along with smaller villages and hamlets, have been melded into the new town of Telford. Even so the planners and the local population have done their utmost to preserve the identities of these settlements, some of which pre-date the Norman Conquest. It was an area of great contrast, from the rural character of Wellington in the north to the heavy industrialisation of Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge in the south.

Each settlement developed its own unique history and local folklore, which this book has tried to capture. The pace of change has been great over the past forty years, but with the aid of over 200 rare photographs of the Telford area we look back to the era before those changes began, as well as charting the growth of the new town.