Wolverton works face demolition
 

The historic railway works at Wolverton in Buckinghamshire is set to be knocked down to make way for 300 new homes.

Proposals put forward by land owner St Modwen would see a mixture of housing and retail built on the 37 acre site.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...herts-31645885

We are losing far to many historic railway sites.

I agree 100%. Where next? :mad::mad:

Trouble with most of these "historic" sites is that the land they are on is too valuable to let stand derelict.
And with housing desparately needed something is going to have to go.
And anyway the railway no longer owns the Wolverton site

It should be possible for the developer to retain some of the history if his arm is twisted (since most of them are philistines).

Admittedly the Derby Roundhouse was taken on by the college rather than a private domestic housing developer but they have made it a feature.

Why do politicians. planners and owners always try to make the discussion an "either/or" situation. The need for housing exists, but obviously one can use a large portion of the salvageable buildings as repurposed housing. This has been done elsewhere with great success. The old train station in Nashville comes to mind.
However, it IS easier and cheaper to just raze everything to the ground and start a new. Cheap bastards.
Cheers.

I always admire what they have done with the railway works in Swindon, but this was partly due to its close proximity to the town centre.
Wolverton however is a bit out in the sticks by comparison so retail and preservation would not yield the cash returns to make it a viable development.
Housing would however give greater short term revenue to the investors.

It is a shame what they plan to do but i have a facebook page called wolverton works heritage project please join and share ideas to save the oldest running Railworks site in the uk

"Wolverton however is a bit out in the sticks by comparison so retail and preservation would not yield the cash returns to make it a viable development".
Cribbs shopping centre was out in the sticks when it was built some years ago, but it very soon became a very busy place. A number of other retail outlets soon cottoned onto this fact and also built stores in and around Cribbs. Now there is even thousands of new houses been built all around the area, and the old Filton Airport is to be a new housing site with over a thousand homes and some shops and schools plus the Concorde museum.

Good point, so all is not lost, yet.
It would be great if the works could be preserved and developed, perhaps with the housing shortage they could further develop the area for dwellings. The main problem though is Wolverton's close proximity to Milton Keynes' shopping areas, which may cause some objections to retail development.
We can all hope though as some form of preservation is desireable to say the least.