1. An annual Coracle Regatta is held every August on the River Severn at Ironbridge.

2. In the late 18th and 19th centuries, tar from the Tar Tunnel was made into "British Oil", which was used to treat rheumatism and skin complaints such as scurvy.

3. The Northumberland Vase is the largest piece of Coalport china ever produced. It was made for the 1862 International Exhibition in London, where it won Coalport a bronze medal, and can be seen in the Introductory Gallery of the Coalport China Museum.

4. The Merrythought traditional hand-crafted teddy bear company (established 1930) still has its factory on the same site in Ironbridge. The building was originally built by the iron foundry in 1898.

5. At Jackfield Tile Museum you can wander through an Edwardian Tube Station, a hotel bar, a children's hospital ward and a 1930s front room. Find out more about the London Underground here.

6. A half scale model of the original Bridge was made for a BBC2 Timewatch programme, screened in 2002. Soldiers from the Royal Engineers (51 Field Squadron) erected the scaffold and the ironwork to prove that sections had been raised from a barge - as a small watercolour sketch found in Stockholm had revealed - contradicting historians' assumptions that it was built from either bank.

7. Remarkably, nobody was injured during the construction of the Bridge - a feat almost unheard of even in modern major civil engineering projects.

8. Bank movement has resulted in more than 70 fractures in the Bridge ironwork. English Heritage carried out a full survey in 1999-2000.

9. While many of the Coalbrookdale ironmasters had their portraits painted, none exist of the Darbys because they were Quakers and considered it vain.

10. For a wedding with a difference, two sites are licensed to hold civil wedding ceremonies: Coalbrookdale and Blists Hill Victorian Town.