We visit the Telford estate with a troubled past that people still judge - but residents say they’re wrong

The Woodside estate, with its distinct V-shaped blocks of 1960s terrace homes, was one of the first council housing projects in the development of the new town Telford.

It was a bold vision. Designed using the Radburn concept - where frontages of homes faced green spaces and footpaths rather than roads - the first residents of the estate had access to a community centre, shops, play areas and a health centre.

Plentiful employment at the newly built Tweedale and Halesfield industrial estates brought hundreds to Woodside, with people relocating from all over the country to the social housing utopia.

But the fantasy didn’t last, and by the turn of the century Woodside was one of the most deprived places in England.

Efforts to regenerate Woodside have been ongoing for more than two decades. In the early 2000s, rundown and crime-ridden flats were torn down, along with ageing shops and the 1960s community centre.

They were replaced by the Park Lane Centre, housing a wide variety of community services, and a modernised parade of shops.

In reality, the Radburn design that dreamt optimistically of communities sharing green spaces devoid of motor vehicles actually just led to unlit alleyways, cars parked on grass verges and a nightmare for emergency services, so that began to go too.

While Woodside is still among the most deprived areas in the country, the change over the last two decades has been remarkable.

Most of the residents living here today have no memory of the crime-ridden block of flats or terrifying trips to the shops down dark alleyways.

“It’s a lovely area,” said Rachel Griffiths, 49, who moved to the area from Wellington around 10 years ago.

“The people are lovely and there’s a lot of green spaces, we’ve got everything we need here with the shops.”

Kelly Lake has worked at Woodside’s pub, The Elizabethan (known locally as the Lizzy) for the last seven years, and said it was a shame some people had a low opinion of the area.

“I think it’s amazing, we’ve lived here 13 years and I’ve made such amazing friends.

“The customers here are such lovely, genuine people. We’ve raised around £22,000 for charity in the last four years - that’s all from customers’ donations.

“There’s loads of things for people to do in Woodside too, the Park Lane Centre has loads of good stuff going on.”

There’s more investment yet to come for Woodside, too. In September last year, it was announced that the area was one of three south Telford neighbourhoods that were receiving £30 million of investment over the next ten years.

It’s the latest chapter in a long effort to turn the page on Woodside’s troubled past. Whether it will finally be enough to shift perceptions remains to be seen - but for the people who live here, the estate is already a very different place from the one that was making headlines two decades ago.

If the next 10 years delivers on its promise, the estate that once symbolised Telford’s growing pains may yet become one of its greatest comeback stories.