Calls to rebuild historic workshop on Coalbrookdale AGA site after demolition over safety concerns

Shropshire Homes purchased the vacant plot, the former home to the Coalbrookdale AGA foundry, back in 2018. 

In April 2021, they applied for permission to build 101 homes on the site, a plan that looked to be going full steam ahead until the International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos), a body which makes recommendations to Unesco over world heritage sites, intervened. 

The chairman of the Icomos-UK World Heritage Committee warned that the development would transform the site "into a dense, high-rise housing estate" and led the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to warn that the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site could be placed at risk, and might ultimately be delisted if the proposal went ahead.

After almost three years of stagnation, Shropshire Homes asked for the scheme to be determined by a planning inspector, who ultimately dismissed the appeal - refusing planning permission for the site.

Now, as part of their continued attempts to successfully redevelop the crumbling former factory, Shropshire Homes have applied for retrospective planning permission for the demolition of the Pattern Shop, and the partial demolition of another - the Wing Shop.

In Shropshire Homes' original proposal, the Grade II-listed Pattern Shop - where a replica (or pattern) of the final cast iron piece would have been made - was one of the historic buildings proposed for conversion.

According to the documents, the structures were already in an "advanced state of dilapidation" when the site was purchased.

Seven months after the original application was submitted, the building control manager for Telford & Wrekin Council wrote to Shropshire Homes to report the buildings as being dangerous, ordering work to be undertaken.

A position statement to the DCMS from the local authority noted the rapid deterioration of both buildings, stating: "Our building control manager has undertaken a site visit (November 18, 2021) and had ordered that the Pattern Shop must be dismantled in its totality and the Wing Shop roof must be removed and the building propped. These actions are being made immediately."

Demolition began on November 25, 2021 and was completed by Christmas Eve 2021.

Responding to the plans, some Gorge residents have called for the buildings to be reinstated, including Telford & Wrekin Councillor Carolyn Healy, who said: "This is a retrospective application and so my objection cannot stop the Pattern Shop being demolished.

"However, the Pattern Shop is part of the Grade II listed Erecting Shop and Assembly Shops and as such should be rebuilt. Whilst the architectural merit of the Pattern Shop building may have been low compared to the rest of the listed structure, it's use was integral to the cast iron process and therefore the building is an important part of the story of the works.

"Together with the compressor house and the assembly shops, the entire listed structure provides and an opportunity to interpret the process of casting the iron products that shaped the modern world. During the previous planning application process for the whole site, Historic England supported the reconstruction of the Pattern Shop and that should be the position of the LPA and conditioned to this application.

"Conditioning in this way would also ensure consistency with applications made by residents who have to adhere to the strict planning regulations in order to protect the OUV of the World Heritage Site."

The applications can be viewed online on Telford & Wrekin Council's planning application using reference numbers TWC/2025/0104 and TWC/2025/0106