Call to save town’s railway heritage
Tuesday 11th May 2010, 1:22PM BST.
Campaigners today called on bosses at English Heritage to save Oswestry’s Cambrian Railway buildings amid fears that the town’s industrial heritage could be lost forever.
Some of the buildings on the site have been earmarked for development as part of Richard Burbidge Limited’s supermarket proposal.
The firm is behind one of four bids to build a supermarket in the town but the Campaign to Protect Rural England and Oswestry Civic Society said today the buildings were too important to the town’s history to be lost.
Saffron Rainey, chairman of Oswestry and District Civic Society, said: “This is a unique railway landscape that has huge potential for the future of Oswestry.
“It’s unacceptable that it could be seriously damaged by proposals for retail development. Oswestry needs to champion its heritage which could bring great economic benefits to the town.”
She called on English Heritage to upgrade the site to grade II listing.
The campaign groups said according to renowned heritage architects Donald Insall Associates, Oswestry boasts “the best and most complete surviving example of a regional railway headquarters in Great Britain”.
Mike Bullen, chairman of CPRE’s Oswestry district group, called for Shropshire Council to evaluate the significance of the site “as required by the new heritage planning guidance”.
The council earlier this year deferred a decision to allow for more talks.
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I quite agree with these comments, as it would be a great shame that they are to be turned into a supermarket/cinema. Why not bring them back as manufactoring units,or divide them up into smaller industrial units which would no doubt employ more people that what a supermarket/cinema would do.
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Correction. Saffron Rainey is a he not a she.
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Perhaps someone should inform her that it is already Grade 2 listed!
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its a great shame that the railway society cannot get further on than they are doing
this site has been in the same state for the 20-odd years that i have been visiting on
my holidays but in my opinion oswestry dosent need another supermarket there anyway it could be built–for instance-at st martins to serve the outer regions better
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