Those Who Just Got Born Lucky
How can a place that looks and feels so peaceful have such a wretched past?
There is, of course, no honest way to answer such a question these days without someone, somewhere, taking offence. Because the price for peace today has always been paid by the working class men and women of the past. People who were barely appreciated during their lifetimes, other than as disposable commodities, and rarely remembered today. The type of people who lived squalid and tough lives through no fault of their own other than simply being born poor.
When we visited Ironbridge last week we found an idyllic place, a village on the River Severn enclosed by thick, lush woodland. A place that exuded calm and tranquility and beauty. But also, as we discovered, an historic location, the birth place of the industrial revolution and an important world heritage site. But as we walked and learned about the past, the people we heard about were, without exception, the rich and the powerful. The ones with land and money and influence and, of course, the privilege to do more or less as they wished.
And, as is so often the case, those with such privilege fixed their roles in history by frequently hiring artists to paint their portraits to remind future generations of their importance.
So it made me smile just a little to hear that the family most associated with Ironbrige and Coalbrookdale, the Darbys, with plenty of the already mentioned power and money, refused to have their portraits painted for religious reasons as they believed it was a vile display of vanity. A rare and interesting display of humility and self awareness from a class not often known for such things.
But beneath the beautifully presented, tourist focused surface, behind the history and the museum displays, who was it that worked in the hell of the Bedlam and Coalbrookdale blast furnaces in such appalling conditions? Who mined the coal, poured the molten metal, worked the boats and risked their lives every single day, in order to build such wonderful, breath taking structures of historic importance. That allowed the rich, even if they were self-aware Quakers, to increase their wealth and status yet barely earned enough money themselves to put food on the table for their families?
We all know the answer to this question.
It was the real people, the working people, with no opportunity to show the vanity or self awareness of the wealthy, that really deserve to be remembered.
There is no doubt in my mind that history can be a fascinating and powerful thing to explore. To know and understand the incredible discoveries from the past that helped to shape our lives and those of our predecessors. But sometimes I wish that we could remember the real heroes, the people that often paid the ultimate price for such advances in knowledge and technology, rather than those who just got born lucky.
