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This article is about the British town. For the smaller American town, see Telford, Pennsylvania. Telford is a new town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire in the West Midlands region of England. It is named after Thomas Telford, a famous civil engineer. It was built in the 1960s and 1970s as a new town in a former coal-mining area and enveloped a number of pre-existing towns and villages, such as Dawley, Trench, Muxton, Stirchley, Brookside, Donnington, Oakengates, Wellington, Leegomery, Shawbirch and Madeley. A shopping centre, Telford Town Centre, was constructed at the New Town's geographical centre, along with an extensive Town Park. Telford also incorporates the northern half of Ironbridge Gorge, a scenic tourist destination. Telford has three railway stations - Wellington, Oakengates and Telford Central - on the Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton Line. In addition, there are two further stations, Spring Village and Horsehay & Dawley, at Telford Steam Railway, situated at Horsehay. Telford is situated at the end 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 Stafford. With 138,241 inhabitants, Telford is now the largest town in Shropshire, although it missed the original target of 250,000 by the year 2000. This target was curtailed by Central Government in 1976 when it was realised that it was too optimistic in the long term and migration from the large cities of Birmingham and Liverpool started to have an effect on parts of those cities. Town planners now hope to drastically expand and improve the town over the next 14 years, again hoping to reach a 250,000 population by 2020. Telford is entirely parished and parished into many parishes - see the list of civil parishes in Shropshire. Telford has no one town council because of this and the Mayor of the Borough of Telford and Wrekin is the de facto town's mayor.
History The New Town was first designated on January 16, 1963 as 'Dawley New Town', covering 9,100 acres of Dawley, Wenlock, Oakengates, Wellington Rural District and Shifnal Rural District. Development started, guided by the Dawley New Town Development Corporation, with people moving into the new Sutton Hill estate in 1967/1968. The Minister proposed an extension of 12,000 acres in 1968 (taking in the historic area of Ironbridge Gorge), which saw objections and a public inquiry take place. The 'Dawley New Town (Designation) Amendment (Telford) Order' was made on November 29, 1968, extending the New Town area by "10,143 acres of land lying within the urban districts of Oakengates and Wellington and the rural districts of Shifnal and Wellington". This 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 installed during 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 New Towns Commission and most of the property was then handed over to Wrekin Borough Council. In 1983 the M54 motorway was completed, connecting the town to the M6 and thence the rest of the UK's motorway network. The A5 also runs through the town on its way between Cannock and Shrewsbury. Telford has attracted several large IT services companies (EDS, Cap Gemini and Fujitsu) who all employ a significant number of staff in the area. In recent times there has been significant job losses, with the movement of 500 Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO) jobs at the MOD base at Sapphire House, Telford, to Bristol. The planned closure of the local sugar beet factory at Allscott is another recent example. The town has its own football club, A.F.C. Telford United. The club was formed in May 2004 by supporters of Telford United when it became clear that the club would cease to exist. Telford is also home to University of Wolverhampton Business School campus and the School of the Built Environment. Telford hosted the UKIP annual conference in 2006. John Plant lives there. See also | ||||||||
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