Holy Trinity Church
 

Holy Trinity Church [14]

As you leave the Museum of Iron car park you will be directly across from Church Road.

It is a short drive up to Holy Trinity Church - nicknamed "The Jewel of The Dale".

After 3 generations of Darby’s being Quakers, Abraham Darby IV left the Quaker belief behind for the more modern Anglican beliefs and donated money to the town to construct this church. Built 1850-1854, it stands in a commanding position on Church Road.

The church has ironworks visible in the churchyard starting with the iron gates, gravestone surrounds, iron grave markers of varying designs, wonderful stained glass Flemish windows, ten bells in the clock tower which ring regularly, stone carvings of members of the Darby family above the carved pews, an amazing painted ceiling given by Muriel Cope-Darby in memory to her brother Lt. Morris Alfred Alexander Darby who fell in war overseas in 1915.

Since the Fourth generation of Darby’s converted to Anglicanism, they are buried in the churchyard as are the parents of Captain Mathew Webb, first man to swim the English Channel.

Even if you don’t have time to enter the church, the churchyard is worth a visit. Look for the graves of Abraham Darby IV and his wife. Can you find the headstone of William Saunders who rang the church bells for 40 years ? There are 10 bells in the tower and 10 bells are on his gravestone.

The views of the Coalbrookdale area from the churchyard is worthy of a short stop, just to imagine the noise, smoke, and sounds of the past and to reflect that although there is a working foundry in the Dale to this day, you do not see any sign of the black smoke of the years gone by.

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