COMMUNICATIONS.
Great Dawley was crossed from north-west to south-east by the main
Wellington-Worcester (and Bridgnorth) road,
turnpiked 1764. (fn. 17) In 1752 the road entered the
parish at Dawley Bank and ran by Dawley Green
Lane (later Bank Road and King Street), Dun
Cow Bank (New Street), and Finger Lane to
Southall. (fn. 18) By the early 19th century it had been
diverted from Lawley by Ball's Hill, near Heath
Hill, to Dawley Green. (fn. 19) The parish's commercial
centre grew up at the junction between the old
and new routes at Dawley Green, the road
through the settlement being known at High
Street by 1851. (fn. 20) A second major route was the
Wellington-Coalbrookdale turnpike, opened c.
1817. (fn. 21) Across the south-west corner of the parish
it was made by improving a road that followed
parts of the former Horsehay-Coalbrookdale
waggonway. (fn. 22) The stretch along Loamhole dingle
was known as Jigger's Bank, at the foot of which
was a tollhouse. (fn. 23) The Wellington-Worcester
turnpike was diverted to follow the new road, a
new section being built c. 1827 from the older
route at Ball's Hill to the new road at Lawley. (fn. 24)
Brandlee Lane, the road from Dawley Green to
Horsehay, was described in 1780 as the road to
Much Wenlock. (fn. 25) It seems to have been taken over
as a private toll road by the Coalbrookdale Co.,
who put up a turnpike gate at Horsehay, but it
was transferred to the parish in 1840. (fn. 26) The
scattered nature of both early agricultural settlement and 18th- and 19th-century industry gave
rise to a complex network of minor lanes, tracks,
and footpaths by the early 19th century. (fn. 27)
From 1970 the road pattern underwent major
changes. The centre of Dawley was bypassed in
1976 by the new Spring Hill Road skirting from
Heath Hill to Portley, and in 1980 High Street
was pedestrianized. New major roads in the Old
Park and Dawley Bank areas linked the Wellington-Bridgnorth route to Telford town centre and
the new housing estates in Malinslee.
The growth of industry in the late 18th and
early 19th century superimposed a new network
of communications on the existing road pattern.
The earliest industrial routes were the wooden
railways built c. 1755-6 to link the Coalbrookdale
Co.'s new Horsehay furnaces to their mines in
Ketley and Lawley and to Coalbrookdale itself.
That from Ketley and Lawley was 16 ft. wide and
entered the parish at Dawley Bank; it ran northwest of Dawley Green to Horsehay. (fn. 28) That from
Horsehay to Coalbrookdale ran a short distance
through Little Wenlock parish before re-entering
Dawley and running down Jigger's Bank to
Coalbrookdale. (fn. 29) Both had rails of oak or ash in
the 1760s, replaced by iron rails from the 1770s. (fn. 30)
In 1788-9 the Hollinswood-Southall length of
the Shropshire Canal was built down the eastern
edge of the parish, a branch from Southall by the
head of Horsehay dingle to Brierly Hill, at the
head of Coalbrookdale, being opened c. 1792. (fn. 31)
Building capital was raised principally from the
local coal and iron masters, over 30 per cent being
subscribed by the Coalbrookdale Co. partners.
The canal became the main artery for the coal and
iron industries, linking Coalbrookdale and Horsehay to Old Park, Ketley, and Donnington. At the
Brierly Hill canal terminus two shafts were sunk
120 ft., down which iron crates were lowered to a
tramway driven into the hill at the head of
Coalbrookdale. The disadvantages of transhipment at Brierly Hill led first to the replacement of
the shafts by an inclined plane in 1794 and, c.
1801, to the construction of a railway along the
towpath from Brierly Hill to Horsehay. Thereafter
the canal south-west of Horsehay fell into disuse.
Further railways were built from mines and
ironworks in Dawley to wharves on the canal. The
longest were the Coalbrookdale Co.'s waggonway
from Brandlee to Dawley Castle wharf, with feeders from Portley and Deepfield collieries, built by
1817; (fn. 32) that from Old Park ironworks to the canal
at Hinkshay, probably built by 1812; (fn. 33) and that
from Coalbrookdale by the Lightmoor valley to
the canal near Dawley Castle, built in 1810-11. (fn. 34)
The canal remained the central line of freight
transport until standard gauge railways reached
the area in the 1850s. The Madeley branch of the
Shrewsbury & Birmingham Railway (later
G.W.R.), opened in 1854, cut across the southern
edge of the parish at Lightmoor. (fn. 35) The Wellington
& Severn Junction Railway, in which the Coalbrookdale Co. held about three quarters of the
shares, was laid from Ketley Junction to Horsehay in 1857 and thence to Lightmoor c. 1858. An
extension to Coalbrookdale opened in 1864.
There was a station at Horsehay with 10 sidings
serving the area's ironworks and other industries,
and halts at Lightmoor (from 1907), Doseley
(from 1932), and Green Bank (from 1934). (fn. 36) The
line closed to passengers in 1962 and to goods in
1964, (fn. 37) but the section from Horsehay to Light
moor was reopened for freight in 1965. (fn. 38) The
Coalport Branch Railway (later L.N.W.R.), built
along the line of the canal down the eastern edge
of the parish, opened in 1860. (fn. 39) Dawley was
served by Malinslee station, at Dark Lane, and
Stirchley (from 1923 Dawley and Stirchley) station, in Stirchley. The line closed to passengers in
1952 and entirely in 1964. (fn. 40) Between 1908 and
1959 the G.W.R. had a goods line, originally
called the Old Park line, between Hollinswood
and Stirchley. (fn. 41)