A revolutionary headquarters for hundreds of home-based entrepreneurs was today open for business in Telford.

The £760,000 Enterprise HQ project was officially launched yesterday by the Mayor of Telford and Wrekin Councillor Bob Groom, together with Councillor Eric Carter.

And 300 years after Abraham Darby first smelted iron in the Ironbridge Gorge, a member of the eighth generation of the family was a special guest at the Enterprise Centre.

Sophie Darby Dolding, who lives in Edgmond, cut a ribbon at the historic John Rose building in Coalport which will be a base for home-based enterprise, offering facilities, advice and back-up to help make business dreams come true.

The Telford Enterprise HQ, the first of which was opened in Shrewsbury in 2007, has been designed as a corporate home to serve the needs of new businesses thanks to a European funded refurbishment scheme to create specialised space for local entrepreneurs.

Project director Fay Easton told guests that 200 years ago barges and trains containing goods made in Britain left Coalport for export, making Britain rich.

She said: “It’s going to happen again. This will be a focus for world class enterprise, the businesses we represent are absolutely high-quality, trading with the world and they are going to revive the British economy.

“If we can be positive and inject some entrepreneurial energy into the equation, the economy will come back.”

Enterprise HQ, with Telford & Wrekin Council, hopes to help 100 businesses a year to start-up and by Christmas 2009 there will be 1,000 members of established businesses benefiting from the venue and its support system.