The New Town was originally designated in 1963 with no name decided, although suggested names were Dawley New Town and Wrekin Forest City . It was re-designated in 1968 taking in the historic area of Ironbridge Gorge. Eventually it was named Telford after Scottish born civil engineer Thomas Telford who, in 1787, became Surveyor of Public Works for Shropshire.

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, Donnington Wood, Oakengates, Wellington and Madeley.

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 the now Unitary Authority of Telford and Wrekin.

This page was last updated: 12 September 2005

Town history extracts are taken from Wikipedia and are licensed under GFDL