is a
New Town in the borough of
Telford And Wrekin and
Ceremonial County of
Shropshire ,
England . It is named after
Thomas Telford , a famous
Civil Engineer .
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 ,
Trench ,
Stirchley , Brookside,
Donnington ,
Oakengates ,
Wellington ,
Leegomery ,
Shawbirch and
Madeley . A shopping centre,
Telford Town Centre , was constructed at the New Town's geographical centre, along with an extensive
Town Park . Telford also incorporates the northern half of
Ironbridge Gorge , a scenic tourist destination. Telford has three railway stations -
Wellington ,
Oakengates and
Telford Central - on the
Shrewsbury To Wolverhampton Line .
With
138,241 inhabitants, Telford is now the largest town in Shropshire, although it missed the original target of 250,000 by the year
2000 . This target was curtailed by Central Government in
1976 when it was realised that it was too optimistic in the long term and migration from the large cities of
Birmingham and
Liverpool started to have an effect on parts of those cities.
Telford has no town council - the town is divided amongst various
Civil Parish es, some of which are towns themselves - Dawley, Wellington, Oakengates and Madeley. Therefore the Mayor of Telford and Wrekin Borough is the mayor of the town.
The New Town was first designated in
1963 with no name decided, although suggested names were Dawley New Town, Dawelloak and Wrekin Forest City. It was re-designated in
1968 taking in the historic area of
Ironbridge Gorge . Eventually it was named Telford after the Scottish-born civil engineer
Thomas Telford who, in 1787, became Surveyor of Public Works for Shropshire.
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.
In
1983 the
M54 Motorway was completed, connecting the town to the
M6 and thence the rest of the UK's motorway network. The
A5 also runs through the town on its way between
Cannock and
Shrewsbury .
Telford has attracted several large IT companies (
EDS ,
Cap Gemini and
Fujitsu ) who all employ a significant number of staff in the area.
The town has its own football club,
A.F.C. Telford United . The club was formed in May 2004 by supporters of
Telford United when it became clear that the club would cease to exist.
