River Severn At Ironbridge

United Kingdom Coastal 4 - Poor

The River Severn flows south through Ironbridge on its way to the Bristol Channel. The bathing water is located around 450m upstream of the Iron Bridge, entry is by the beach behind the Museum of the Gorge and the Ironbridge Tourist Information Centre. The bathing area is centred on this location and the sampling location is located from the nearby jetty side. The bathing site is easily accessible from the main road by foot or bicycle.

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Water

Inland bathing water

Location

Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire

Season

Designated bathing water since 2024. Official monitoring season runs from May to September.

Water Quality

Poor (2025). Assessed under rBWD

Risks

There are a number of permitted storm overflows that discharge into the River Severn upstream of Ironbridge. There is one storm overflow at Dale End Pumping Station, within the 1km section upstream of the designated bathing water. When these outfalls are operating, they discharge diluted effluent into the river which may result in reduced bathing water quality.

Localised rainfall can lead to the operation of storm overflows in and upstream of Ironbridge; these are short term issues and although they can have a significant impact on bathing water quality when they are operating, once they stop discharging the pollution soon passes. However, EA investigations have shown that the bacteria levels in the river can remain high for up to 120 hours after rainfall which suggests that bathing water quality could be influenced by the whole of the River Severn catchment upstream.