The Tuckies is a hamlet in the eastern part of Jackfield, lying on the south bank of the River Severn, in the Ironbridge Gorge, and opposite the village of Coalport. The purpose of this article is to capture its historical importance during the Industrial Revolution and provide links to the people and culture that once thrived here. The lower part of The Tuckies, in Ferry Road, is still badly affected by flooding and head-height water levels are clearly displayed in a doorway at The Boat Inn where the 1922 memorial footbridge crosses the River Severn to Coalport. The Severn Valley Railway, operated by GWR, ran through The Tuckies and the original railway bridge, now forming part of the Severn Valley Way, still crosses the road there, at OS grid reference 693024.
The boundaries to The Tuckies are not well defined and may be disputed owing to 16th and 17th Century references only pointing towards the Tuckies as being the manor house, which, for the purposes of limiting information in this Encyclopedia entry, will be considered as its southern boundary. However, other references below use "The Tuckies" and "Tuckiesfield" to describe locations extending to The Werps to the east, The River Severn to the north, and Ferry Road which leads to the main part of Jackfield village, to the west.
Remains of the settlement today A late 19th Century photograph pictures a row of 5 cottages at the Tuckies together with The Duke of Wellington Inn, its brewhouse and a riverside road running between The Boat Inn and a neighbouring settlement at The Werps, both just off the photograph to the right and the left respectively. Of the 5 cottages pictured, the smallest (leftmost) cottage (originally No.235) was demolished and replaced with a modern garage as part of No 234 (now Puddleduck Cottage) which was also knocked through into what was once 233. Numbers 231 and 232 have also been merged into one (becoming No.231) and so visitors to the picturesque cottages at The Tuckies today can easily be confused by 231 and 234 being next door to one another. Reference in 1851 to the Duke of Wellington being in Tuckiesfield rather than The Tuckies could originate from when Tuckies House, a mansion just south of the settlement, was split apart from it by the coming of the G.W.R. railway (now part of the Severn Valley Way) but this speculation is unproven. Tuckies House is described in more detail in its own sub section.
Pubs at The Tuckies The Duke of Wellington Inn
Today, residents of The Tuckies are fortunate to have a public house, The Boat Inn, virtually on their doorstep but prior to 1964 they had at least one, even closer. The Duke of Wellington, a prominent building, was located immediately to the left of a row of 5 cottages, shown in the photograph. Prior to its demolition in 1964, it was owned by Banks Brewery, who also owned the neighbouring Boat Inn, but the photograph indicates that the prominent 3-storey Duke of Wellington had its own brewhouse and locals refer to it as having also had a pig sty. Upon demolition, the old cellar was used as a landfill site for the bricks from the old inn and more recently the new landowners have excavated the old bricks and piled them up at the left hand side of the site once occupied by The Duke of Wellington. As of early 2011, the entirety of the old cellar, complete with arch and steps is completely exposed.
In 1922 landlord Ralph Rockingham, who never really recovered from First World War wounds resulting in a foot being amputated, died of a haemorrhage at The Duke of Wellington, aged just 33. A keen bowls player, he had only been there about 3 years and upon his death, his wife Mrs Rockingham then took on the licence. Earlier, in 1910,, the Landlord of The Duke of Wellington was recorded as Walter E. Parcel, his wife Mrs Parcel being the landlady and Fanny Kersley being the barmaid. Prior to that, in September 1903, the Duke of Wellington was sold at auction (at the Tontine Hotel, Ironbridge with Barber & Sons as the auctioneers) to the Lichfield Brewery Company for £1,050, plus an extra £40 5s for fixtures. The adjoining piece of land was sold at the same time to Messrs. Maw for £90. The auction followed the death of landlord Mr James Daniel Smith whose funeral was held in Jackfield church by Rev. J. Marsden Edwards (Rector of Jackfield). J.D. Smith had been landlord for at least 6 years owing to his existence in The Wellington Journal back in 1897 when it was reported that he had been instructed by the council's surveyor to attend to the nuisance caused by drainage problems with the cellar there. Further back in 1871 Matilda Cranage is listed as landlady of the Duke of Wellington Inn, but located at Tuckiesfield rather than The Tuckies. An earlier record, Jackfield in 1851, based on the census returns of that time, show that a John Jones was the innkeeper and that he had a dual occupation, the other as being a China Potter. Samuel Bagshaw, also 1851, possibly confuses records by mentioning the Duke of Wellington as being at the lost village of The Werps although Werps is known to have been further east, along the river bank towards Preens Eddy.
Boat Inn
Bearing the distinctive slogan "Unspoilt by Progress" in large letters painted directly underneath its name sign on the front of the building, The Boat Inn is today, one of only 3 pubs remaining in the Jackfield area, and the only one in the Tuckies part of Jackfield. It regularly floods when river water rises, sometimes almost as high as the entrance door, but peculiarly, the rising water tends to emerge first through its quarry tiled floor as a result of a raised water-table level. This has the effect of opposing the dirty river water rising on the outside and although still destructive, is something that landlords and regular customers have become accustomed to. The Ironbridge Gorge Pub Guide contains a number of photographs of The Boat Inn during times of flood and a 1925 photograph of the footbridge during a time of flooding shows The Boat Inn heavily flooded on the right as well as The Duke of Wellington Inn on the far left behind the telegraph pole, as well as the Brewhouse and old Engine House at higher elevations in the Tuckies. The 1871 trade directory for the Broseley parish lists Amt Oswell as the tradesperson at the Boat Inn as well as being a shopkeeper at Tuckies. The Boat Inn's web site gives more details about the current landlady, Jenny Alexander, as well as regular activities and live music events held in the summer on their outdoor, riverside stage.
These two names appear in a publication called Broseley and its Surroundings by John Randall which lists pubs that ceased to exist in the 60 years up to 1879. It is unclear as to whether these were earlier names for The Boat and/or the Duke of Wellington or if not, what their precise locations were. What the publication does tell us is that a Jno. Challenor was landlord of the Tuckies Inn in the mid 19th Century.
Tuckies Ferry and Memorial Footbridge Ferry Road takes its name from the Tuckies Ferry (AKA Coalport Ferry) which connected Jackfield with Coalport for 120 years. The ferry ceased to operate when the memorial bridge was constructed by Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company at a cost of £1,046, taking 9 weeks to build. It links Tuckies (part of Jackfield) at The Boat Inn on the southern bank of the Severn, to Coalport (by the Tar Tunnel) on the northern side. Opened in 1922 it was built as a war memorial to the sons of Jackfield who fell in the First World War. In 2000, the bridge was refurbished after some years of neglect. A 360-degree panoramic viewShropshire – Panoramic image – Ironbridge Gorge – Jackfield – View from the Jackfield Memorial Foot Bridge. BBC (18 October 1994). of The Tuckies, Tuckies Lane, The Boat Inn, Ferry Road, the Jackfield Memorial Footbridge, the River Severn and entrance to the road to nearby lost village of Werps (now a footpath), is photographed from roughly the same point as where the old ferry would have crossed the Severn and is available for public viewing below, courtesy of the BBC's website. The old ferry itself can be seen in a separate photograph before the bridge was built.Jackfield and Coalport Memorial Footbridge: Photographs – South Telford Heritage Trail. Walktelfordheritage.co.uk. In this picture the Hay Incline Plane is visible in the background and the Tuckies riverbank in the foreground.
In 1799, The Tuckies ferry sank with a great loss of life. See section on "Disasters and serious accidents".
Some speculation exists,Journal of the Wilkinson Society No.9 : 1981 as to whether one of the many barges, deliberately sunk in the River between The Werps and Preens Eddy, possibly to minimise the effects of local landslides, could be the remains of the old Ferry. The 9th Journal of the Wilkinson Society, dated 1981, publishes part of a letter from Ron Miles of Jackfield, who wrote in June 1980, that the barges were lying on the river bed directly opposite the Coalport China Works. Miles explained that 25 years previously, he had obtained information from a Mr. George Harrington who was at the time, living at the Tuckies, Jackfield, informing that the barges (which he referred to as "lighters") were filled with stones and rubble and sunk there by the G.W.R. Company. Miles reports to have subsequently taken pictures of them himself when they became visible during a very dry summer in 1958 and had one of the shots and a small article published in the Express and Star that year. He reported measuring one of them and found it to be 35 feet in length and six feet wide.
Disasters and serious accidents Tuckies Ferry Disaster, 1799 On 23 October 1799, the Tuckies Ferry overturnedThe Shropshire Gazetter, WEM : Printed & Published by T. Gregory and also sold by Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, London, 1824. and although water flow at this point is very rapid, the cause of the accident has never been satisfactorily explained. There were forty-one persons on board the vessel, most of whom had just finished at 9pm, at John Rose, & Co. China Works. Of these, thirteen only escaped, the remaining twenty-eight, were all drowned. In the darkness of the night, it was impossible for friends and relations to render effective help at the river bank and many of the bodies were recovered the next morning, at a great distance from the ill-fated spot; some remained under water a month, and a few were never found.
Tuckies ferryman drowned 1900 On 20 January 1900, Mr. John Harrison, aged 72, who has had charge of the ferry-boat between the Tuckies and Coalport China Works for over 20 years, was in the act of lighting his lamp on the boat when he fell backwards into the river (witnessed by school teacher Jane Ellen Blocksidge) and was swept away by the swollen waters (witnessed by Henry Wild, boatman), only to be discovered 41 days later, badly decomposed in the Severn at Bridgnorth.
Landslide disaster, 1952 The instability of land in the area led to a giant landslideJackfiield photo. Broseley.org.uk. in 1952 which destroyed many houses and commercial properties near the centre of Jackfield itself, about one third of a mile upstream from The Tuckies. Video footage of the aftermath effects on Jackfield in general, are captured in a video newsreel film preview at http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=60102. However it is not clear if there was any direct impact on properties or people in the Tuckies settlement itself. Maps contained within "A Geological Trail through the landslides of Ironbridge Gorge"A Geological Trail through the landslides of Ironbridge Gorge show the landslide zone extending through the area on which The Tuckies resides together with underlying rock structure, photographs and the positions of some disused mine shafts which contribute in part to the landslip problems of the area.
Recorded crime