๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Architect/Furniture/Tile Designer George Edmund Street is associated with Telford. He was one of the leading figures in the Gothic Revival movement in Britain.
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Telford is a large town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. Telford is the largest town in Shropshire, and one of the fastest-growing towns in the United Kingdom. It is named after civil engineer Thomas Telford, who engineered many road and rail projects in Shropshire. The town was developed in the 1960s and 1970s as a new town on previously industrial and agricultural land and towns. Like other planned towns of the era, Telford was created from the merger of other settlements and towns, most notably the towns of Wellington, Oakengates, Madeley and Dawley.
Telford Shopping Centre, a modern shopping mall, was constructed at the new town's geographical centre, along with an extensive Town Park. The M54 motorway was completed in 1983, improving the town's road links with the West Midlands conurbation.
On Telford's southern boundaries is the Ironbridge Gorge, a scenic tourist destination and UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town advertises itself as "The Birthplace of Industry", due to it having Coalbrookdale and other places in the Ironbridge Gorge area, within its boundary. These areas are internationally recognised as being important to the Industrial Revolution, and being to a large extent constructed on the Shropshire Coalfield.
The notable hill near the town called The Wrekin is part of the Shropshire Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. To the south of the town is the Ironbridge Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Places around the Ironbridge Gorge area, which were developed into the town itself, are internationally recognised as being "The Birthplace of Industry" being to a large extent constructed during the Industrial Revolution on the Shropshire Coalfield.
The M54 motorway was completed in 1983, improving the town's road links with the West Midlands conurbation, Wolverhampton is 19 miles (31ย km) south east and Birmingham is 28 miles (45ย km) in the same direction. In the 2011 census, the town had a population of 142,723 while in 2017, the wider borough had an estimated population of 175,271. It is the most populous settlement in Shropshire, Shrewsbury is second and is 15 miles (24ย km) to the west of the town. It is near Staffordshire: Stafford is 21 miles (34ย km) to the east and Stoke-on-Trent is 25 miles (40ย km) north east from the town.
The town is polycentric, having been designated under the New Towns Acts in 1963 and 1968 and developed between the 1960s to the 1970s. Centred on a shopping centre and a public park, the new town is named after Thomas Telford, a civil engineer on many road, canal and rail projects in the county. It was originally designated under the name Dawley New Town, Dawley being to the south of new-town's centre. As well as multiple villages and Dawley, the other constituent towns are Wellington, Madeley and Oakengates.
1History Early settlement in the area was thought to be on the land that sloped up from the Weald Moors (an area north of the town centre) towards the line along which the Roman Watling Street was built. Farmland surrounded three large estates in the 10th century, namely Wellington, Wrockwardine and Lilleshall.
From the 13th century there was urban development in Wellington and Madeley, where Wenlock Priory founded a new town. Six monastic houses, founded in the 11th and 12th centuries, had large interests in the area's economic growth. They collectively acquired almost half of the area and profited from coal and ironstone mines and iron smithies on their estates.
The area was the site of the 1821 Cinderloo Uprising, which saw 3,000 people protest against the lowering of wages for those working in the local coal industry. The protests resulted in the deaths of three striking colliers.
1Modern history The New Town was first designated on 16 January 1963 by the Conservative administration as Dawley New Town, covering 9,100 acres (37ย kmยฒ) of Dawley, Wenlock, Oakengates, Wellington Rural District and Shifnal Rural District. Development started, guided by the Dawley New Town Development Corporation, with the first homes on the new Sutton Hill housing estate being occupied in 1967. Initial planning and design concepts for Dawley New Town were produced by the Birmingham-based John Madin Design Group.
The Minister proposed an extension of 12,000 acres (4,900ย ha) in 1968 (taking in the historic area of Ironbridge Gorge). The Dawley New Town (Designation) Amendment (Telford) Order was made on 29 November 1968, extending the New Town area by 10,143 acres (4,105ย ha) of "land lying within the urban districts of Oakengates and Wellington and the rural districts of Shifnal and Wellington". The Order also renamed the new town Telford, after the Scottish-born civil engineer Thomas Telford, who in 1787 became Surveyor of Public Works for Shropshire. Other suggested names at the time were Dawelloak and Wrekin Forest City.
Most of the infrastructure was constructed from the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, with the major housing and commercial development occurring over three decades up to the early 1990s when the Development Corporation was wound up to be replaced by the Commission for New Towns, later English Partnerships, and most of the property was handed over to the then Wrekin District Council. Telford was now 25 years old and was firmly established as one of the most important towns in the region. There is a Retail Park called Wrekin Retail Park in Wellington.
In 1983, after fierce opposition and three public enquiries, the M54 motorway was completed, connecting the town to the M6 and thence the rest of the UK's motorway network. Other major roads are the A5, A518 and A442, which is commonly known as the Eastern Primary or EP, and is officially branded Queensway.
Many of the new town's residents were originally from the West Midlands conurbation, which includes Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Dudley and Walsall. A majority of the council house tenants in Telford were rehoused from inner-city Birmingham. The rehousing affected existing communities, who were sometimes resentful of the changes. As a result some individuals still refuse to put Telford in their address, instead using the original local name (such as Wellington or Dawley) and often citing the existence of town Councils as support for the argument "you can't live in a town in a townโ, e.g. Wellington (Town) Telford (Town). The new town's residents who arrived in the 1960s and 1970s earned the unwanted nickname 'overspill' from people living in the existing towns and villages.
In 2007 a ยฃ250 million regeneration plan for the town centre was announced, which includes the pedestrianisation of the road surrounding the shopping centre and the creation of new cafรฉs, bars and shops which would lead to 1,750 new jobs. The reason for the expansion is that the original 'centre' was only ever a shopping place with no real heart. As the 'centre' closed early in the evening there was no nightlife at all in the area, the only major local entertainment areas being in Oakengates and Wellington.
The first phase of the town-centre development, named Southwater, was completed in 2014. The official opening ceremony, on 18 October 2014, included live music and fireworks. The area includes a refurbished library, various chain restaurants, Cineworld IMAX Cinema, a bowling alley/arcade and a new multi-storey car park.
1Geography Telford town centre lies about 16 miles (26ย km) east/south-east of Shrewsbury and 20 miles (32ย km) north-west of Wolverhampton. The town covers 7,803 hectares (30.13 square miles) and its southern and eastern parts, between the Severn Gorge and Donnington Wood, include the East Shropshire coalfield. North and north-west Telford lie beyond the coalfield's boundary fault on sandstone beds which, along with other Triassic formations, prevail over much of the North Shropshire plain. The town centre stands on a watershed, with land to the south draining towards the River Severn and to the north sloping gently down towards the Weald Moors. The town is dominated by the Wrekin, a large hill of 407ย m (1335ย ft), south-west of Wellington, straddling the border with the unitary Shropshire Council (before the latter's creation in 2009 the borough of Shrewsbury and Atcham).
1Economy During the economic crisis of the late 1960s (with unemployment doubling nationally during the second half of the decade), unemployment in the then-new town was initially high.
However, in 1967 Halesfield Industrial Estate was founded on the south-eastern edge of the town โ the first real answer to Telford's unemployment problems. Other large estates followed, in 1973 with Stafford Park just east of the town centre and in 1979 with Hortonwood, to the north, helping ease the unemployment crisis in a decade which saw an almost unbroken rise in unemployment.
In total, half a million square metres of factory space were provided between 1968 and 1983, making Telford an attractive investment area.
By 1976, Telford had begun to recruit industry from the US, Europe, and Japan. The foreign firms required larger factories, and they began to be built at Stafford Park. By 1983 over 2,000 jobs in Telford were provided by around 40 (mostly American) foreign companies. In contrast to industry in the Black Country at the time, these new companies focused on high-technology industries rather than the heavy and metal-finishing industries.
The new arrivals included the American company Unimation and three firms from Japan: Nikon UK Ltd., which opened a warehouse at Halesfield in 1983; videotape manufacturers Hitachi Maxell at Apley Castle in 1983; and office equipment manufacturers Ricoh, who took a 22-acre (89,000ย mยฒ) site for a factory at Priorslee next to the M54, and formed the first in Telford's new enterprise zone.
Consequently, from the later 1970s, Telford began to attract high-technology firms and to diversify its industry, and the promotion of the Service industry also began to prosper, in the Telford Town Centre area. However, a deepening national recession meant that, despite the creation of new jobs, there were net job losses from 1979. Unemployment grew from 3.4 per cent in 1969 to over 8 per cent in 1972 and 22.3 per cent (almost double the national average) in 1983; long-term unemployment rose even faster. Nevertheless, the rate of increase in unemployment was slowing down by 1983 and was making some progress against national and regional trends.
Unemployment in Telford was still around the 20% mark โ nearly double the national average at the time โ as late as 1986. The Lawson Boom of the next three years saw that figure fall dramatically by the end of the decade, only for it to rise to a similarly high figure again by 1992 as a result of the early 1990s recession. In recent years the local economy has matured, the median gross weekly earnings for full-time workers who work in Telford and Wrekin was ยฃ563 in 2019 (West Midlands ยฃ552.50 and England ยฃ591.40).
Telford has attracted several large IT services companies, including EDS who support the MOD contract from the Euston Park site, as well as a vast array of clients across the world from the Plaza building. Also Capgemini and Fujitsu employ a significant number of staff in the area, mainly supporting their governmental client, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The expansion in these job sectors provided a great asset to Telford's economic recovery after 1992. By August 2007, the success story of Telford's economy had seen unemployment shrink to 3.3% โ a fraction of its peak 15 years earlier.
However, the subsequent recession meant that unemployment in the area had risen to 5% by February 2011, although this was still well below the national average.
The Shropshire Star evening newspaper is based at Ketley, Telford. There is a free local paper the Telford Journal which is also published by the Shropshire star.
There have been job losses, with the movement of 500 Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO) jobs at the MoD base at Sapphire House, Telford, to Bristol. The sugar beet factory at Allscott closed in 2007.
In 2019 a joint venture called Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land installed itself in Telford, not far from Babcock DSG. Together they are responsible for the Challenger 2 Life Extension Project.
1Southside Aqueduct, Brookside, Dawley Bank, Doseley, Hollinswood, Heath Hill, Horsehay, Lawley, Lawley Bank, Lightmoor, Little Dawley, Malinslee, Newdale, Old Park, Overdale, Randlay, Stirchley, Sutton Hill, The Rock, Tweedale, Woodside.
1Northside Arleston, Donnington, Donnington Wood, Hadley, Hartshill, Haybridge, Ketley, Ketley Bank, Ketleybrook, Ketleyhill, Leegomery, Muxton, Priorslee, Priorslee Village, Red Lake, Snedshill, St Georges, Trench, Trench Lock, Wombridge, Wrockwardine Wood.
1Surrounding subtowns & villages Blists Hill, Coalbrookdale, Coalport, Dawley, Ironbridge, Jackfield, Madeley, Newport, Oakengates, Wellington, Admaston, Bratton, Dothill and Shawbirch.
1Industrial areas Hadley Castle, Halesfield, Hortonwood, Stafford Park
1Landmarks The commercial centre of the town is Telford Town Centre, located off Junction 5 of the M54 motorway, completed in the 1980s. It is home to the administrative headquarters of Telford & Wrekin Council, which are now based at Addenbrook House on Ironmasters Way, after moving from the old Civic Offices (dating from the mid-1970s) in December 2012. The large Telford Shopping Centre (and the accompanying Town Park), various office blocks, such as the blue office towers (Telford Plaza), and the Windsor Life building. The Forge retail park and a large Odeon Cinema are also located in the area. Telford also houses one of the Midlands' few ice skating rinks near the Telford International Centre (TIC). The TIC comprises a number of exhibition halls and event spaces. It holds parties, conferences, concerts and was formerly the venue of the UK Snooker Championship.
A major Shropshire landmark, also now part of Telford, is The Iron Bridge, located in Ironbridge. It was the first bridge of its size in the world made out of cast iron. In the same area is the Ironbridge Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The most important landmark in the area is The Wrekin hill. There is also the Lilleshall Monument erected on Lilleshall Hill to the north-east, to the 1st Duke of Sutherland.
1Education Telford has a number of primary and secondary schools. These range from academies such as the Telford Langley School to City Technology Colleges like the Thomas Telford School. 8 miles (13ย km) to the north are Adams' Grammar School and Newport Girls High School selective schools located in nearby Newport. Wrekin College, an independent co-educational boarding and day school, is located in the Wellington area of Telford.
Further education was handled by Telford College of Arts and Technology (TCAT) and Telford New College, a sixth-form college located in Wellington. In September 2017 the two colleges merged to form Telford College. There are four other sixth forms located at Haberdashers' Abraham Darby, Holy Trinity Academy, Madeley Academy and Thomas Telford School.
Telford is home to The University of Wolverhampton Business School (UWBS) campus and the School of the Built Environment. Harper Adams University, a university specialising in land-based education is located 9.5 miles to the north-east at Edgmond, near Newport.
1Media Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West Midlands and ITV Central. Television signals are received from the nearby Wrekin TV transmitter situated south east of Telford. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Shropshire, Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire, Greatest Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire and Capital North West & Wales. The Shropshire Star is the town's local weekly newspaper.
1Transport Telford is situated at the terminus of the M54 motorway, a spur of the M6 linking the town with Wolverhampton and the West Midlands, and on the A5 road between Shrewsbury and Cannock.
Telford Central railway station is situated on the Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton Line. The town also has Oakengates railway station and Wellington railway station on the same line. All three stations are serviced by trains from Transport for Wales Rail, West Midlands Railway, and Avanti West Coast.
In May 1998, Virgin Trains West Coast introduced a service from Shrewsbury to London Euston. It was withdrawn in 2000. A service to Walsall was introduced from Wellington via Wolverhampton but proved to be unprofitable and was withdrawn by London Midland in December 2008. A new service from Wrexham General to London Marylebone was launched by Wrexham & Shropshire in 2008. The venture however proved unprofitable and ceased to operate on 28 January 2011, leaving Shropshire as the only English county without a direct train link to London. Virgin Trains re-launched a direct Shrewsbury to London Euston service in December 2014. In addition, there are three further stations isolated from the national network, Spring Village, Lawley and Horsehay & Dawley, at Telford Steam Railway, situated at Horsehay.
Telford's rapidly growing population still has a relatively low car ownership. In 2004 Telford & Wrekin council was awarded 'Beacon Status' for improving access to public transport. Being a new town with a planned transport infrastructure, the town features relatively few traffic problems, in comparison to the urban areas of Birmingham or medieval streets of Shrewsbury. The M54 reduces through-traffic on local roads, and the A442 Queensway acts as a northโsouth artery road.
The majority of bus services in the area are operated by Arriva Midlands from its garage at Stafford Park, which replaced the original Midland Red garage in Wellington. Banga Bus operate service 891 to Wolverhampton via Shifnal and Tettenhall, replacing the original service operated by Midland Red which was latterly operated by Arriva Midlands. Between 1 June 2021 and January 2022, Chaserider launched service X14 to Cannock and the McArthur Glenn West Midlands Designer Outlet. but was withdrawn due to low usage.
A number of council contract services operate under the 'Travel Telford' brand, including Arriva Midlands service 99, Chaserider services 100, 102, 103 and 104 and Select Bus service 101. These were introduced to link local employment opportunities, schools and villages previously without bus services. Notably the 100 (nicknamed 'Express 100') runs seven days a week and on evenings.
1Telford has a population of over 155,000 people. Telford also forms part of the wider Telford and Wrekin District which has a population of over 185,600 people. It is also a part of the larger Shropshire County. It is estimated there are around 6,015 businesses in Telford.
To set up a UBI Lab for Telford see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Architect/Furniture/Tile Designer George Edmund Street is associated with Telford. He was one of the leading figures in the Gothic Revival movement in Britain.
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Dareham 52.681
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Dereham 52.681
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Lichfield 52.682
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Cannock 52.691
๐ณ๐ฑ Dijk en Waard 52.667
๐ณ๐ฑ Heerhugowaard 52.666
๐ต๐ฑ Wลocลawek 52.653
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Crewe -2.44
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Dorchester -2.437
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Bolton -2.429
๐ง๐ซ Ouahigouya -2.417
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Clitheroe -2.392
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Sandbach -2.367
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Weymouth -2.457
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Blackburn -2.482
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Kingswood -2.512
๐ซ๐ท Lamballe-Armor -2.517
๐ฌ๐ฌ St Peter Port -2.537
Locations Near: Telford -2.44876,52.6754
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Codsall -2.192,52.627 d: 18.1
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Shrewsbury -2.751,52.707 d: 20.7
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Wolverhampton -2.133,52.583 d: 23.6
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Kidderminster -2.271,52.389 d: 34
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Stafford -2.117,52.807 d: 26.7
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Stourbridge -2.148,52.458 d: 31.6
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Brierley Hill -2.125,52.48 d: 30.9
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Dudley -2.089,52.508 d: 30.6
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Newcastle-under-Lyme -2.228,53.011 d: 40.1
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Stoke-on-Trent -2.183,53 d: 40.3
Antipodal to: Telford 177.551,-52.675
๐ณ๐ฟ Dunedin 170.474,-45.884 d: 19102.9
๐ณ๐ฟ Otago 170.483,-45.867 d: 19101.6
๐ณ๐ฟ Balclutha 169.75,-46.233 d: 19104.5
๐ณ๐ฟ Christchurch 172.617,-43.517 d: 18933.4
๐ณ๐ฟ Canterbury 171.58,-43.543 d: 18908
๐ณ๐ฟ Invercargill 168.373,-46.413 d: 19055.6
๐ณ๐ฟ Queenstown 168.658,-45.033 d: 18946.4
๐ณ๐ฟ Wellington 174.767,-41.283 d: 18731.1
๐ณ๐ฟ Hutt 174.917,-41.217 d: 18725.6
๐ณ๐ฟ Lower Hutt 174.917,-41.217 d: 18725.6