Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

For artists and collectors sponsored by Intercal...your mohair supplier and Johnna's Mohair Store

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Sophie Z'Ours
Sarthe, France
Posts: 2,770

lapousmor Aug 6, 2007

To those of you who wondered if I took pictures of the Ironbridge: yes I did.

But let's follow the chronology of our holidays!

The first time we stopped in Ironbridge (the town) we stopped in the car park pretty closed to Merrythought teddy bear factory.

So first stop was not for the bridge but for ... the teddy bear shop of the factory! bear_tongue

In the shop, we had a long chat with the woman working there. She even showed us the prototype of Buildwas, the bear made after the little town Buildwas and reserved for members of the Merrythought International Collector Club. I have already booked mine.

Isn't he gorgeous?

I fell in love for Anniversary Cheeky. He was the last one available in his size. I bought him (I know I am not serious, but well, I could not go to that shop without leaving with a Merrythought bear!!!).

These hobby horse near my Cheeky were some of the last ones still available, as they are not produced anymore. There were very few critters left from before the temporary closure of Merrythought factory.
The woman explained us that the day after the closure, there was a big rush in the shop as everyone wanted to own a Merrythought bear.

Cheeky and I posed in front of the gate of the factory.

We were unlucky as our visit happened during holiday period for Merrythought factory workers, so no visit possible.

We had no time to visit the Gorge museum which is in a beautiful buiding :

The water level of the river was especially high. I will discuss that matter later in my report.

And now, photos of the bridge. I really loved it. Amazing bridge. Beautiful bridge. Only pedestrians are now allowed to cross it. In the past, this was a toll bridge and every sould crossing it had to pay!!!

I took lots of photos, so please don't blame me for showing you most of them. I just could not make a choice...

Note how high the water is.

I told about high water level... Well, on the following photo, here are evidences about it!

What you see there is ... what's still visible of a bench. And more on the left but fully under water, is a bin.

Inside the water was a rule used to indicate the level of the water. There were only a few inches of it still visible. It used to be several feet visible when not in flood period!

The pathway at river level was fully flooded.

In a tea room in Irondridge, we had the best scones and hot chocolates ever! Plus the tea room shop part was so pretty. The tea room too was very nice.