Is celebrated all the world over for its pipes, a branch of manufacture
for which it is now as famous as of yore. Partly in this parish and
partly in that of Benthall, and only about 300 yards from the station,
are the geometrical, mosaic, and encaustic tile works of the Messrs. Maw.
They were removed here a few years since from Worcester, the better to
command the use of the Broseley clays, since which they have attained to
considerable importance, and now rival the great house of Minton.
On leaving Ironbridge, the line passes by a sea wall the foot of Benthall
Edge--a limestone ridge, continuous with that of Wenlock, so famous for
that class of silurian fossils to which the town of Wenlock has lent its
name.
Benthall is a name significant of its elevated position--_Bent_, meaning
the brow, and _al_ or _hal_, a hill.
Benthall Hall, the property of Lord Forester, and in the occupation of
George Maw, Esq., F.L.S., F.S.A., is a fine specimen of Elizabethan
architecture, built by William Benthall in 1535, on the site of a former
house.