Statement from Cinderloo 1821 on the Transfer of the Ironbridge Museums to the National Trust

As the Ironbridge Gorge Museums move into the care of the National Trust, the Cinderloo 1821 group welcomes the opportunity this presents to place working-class lives, struggles and stories at the heart of how we understand our industrial heritage.

For too long, the focus of interpretation at Ironbridge has favoured the visionaries and owners—the Darbys, the engineers, the industrialists—while the everyday labour, hardship, resistance, and resilience of working people has remained underrepresented. The communities of Madeley, Dawley, Donnington and beyond deserve more than to have their homes dismantled and displayed; they deserve to have their stories told with dignity and depth.

We believe that heritage is strongest when it is shared by the communities who lived it—and Cinderloo is part of that heritage.

The Cinderloo Uprising of 1821, in which colliers protested pay cuts and were met with fatal force by the Shropshire Yeomanry, is one of the most significant but overlooked episodes in the history of the region. It speaks not only to the realities of early industrial capitalism, but to the long arc of resistance and solidarity in this part of the world.

The Cinderloo banner, commissioned by Shropshire and Telford Trades Union Council and designed by Ed Hall in 2004, was created not to be housed behind glass, but to be marched through streets—to be a living banner, active in protest, celebration, and education. It has been carried at events across the country, keeping the spirit of Cinderloo alive and reminding us that we still, in the words embroidered at its base, “have a world to win.”

The banner is not currently held in the museum—nor do we believe it should be. It belongs in the streets and in the hands of those who remember the past not just as history, but as a call to action.

But Cinderloo’s presence in the museum should not be absent.

The National Slag Collection, held at the Museum of Iron, is another important legacy of the region’s industrial story. These vitrified fragments—by-products of smelting, forging, and coal-firing—speak volumes about the material processes that shaped modern Britain. They are also symbolic: slag, like the working people of the 19th century, was too often cast aside, overlooked, considered waste. And yet, it holds the record of the work itself.

As the National Trust takes on stewardship of these sites and collections, we urge them to:

Tell the full story of working-class life in East Shropshire—not just through artefacts, but through narrative, memory, and voice.

Recognise Cinderloo within the public interpretation of the industrial revolution.

Ensure access for local people, especially those whose ancestors shaped these landscapes with their labour.

Protect and interpret collections like the Granville Colliery NUM banner and the National Slag Collection in ways that centre workers, not just industry.


We are encouraged by early conversations with the Trust, and by the political support expressed by Shaun Davies MP and Lisa Nandy MP for putting people, not just property, at the heart of heritage.

But we know that good intentions are not enough. This must be a shared journey, shaped by dialogue and accountability.

Cinderloo 1821 stands ready to collaborate—with the National Trust, with the museum staff, and with the wider public—to ensure that the future of the Ironbridge Museums is a future rooted in the real lives of those who forged it.

Because heritage isn’t just what we inherit—it’s what we choose to remember.

#Cinderloo1821 #OurStoryToo #WorkingClassHistory #NationalTrust #Ironbridge