Historic Telford hall to be preserved for affordable retirement homes

Telford & Wrekin Council is due to strike a deal with Wrekin Housing Trust that could see Haybridge Hall in Hadley turned into 10 affordable homes.

In the plans the façade of the hall will also be preserved using the £475,000, which will come from the borough council.

Councillor Richard Overton, the council's deputy leader and cabinet lead for housing, said: "The proposed scheme will secure an important heritage asset in Hadley and I know this will be welcomed by the wider community.

"The grant funding will deliver affordable homes for local people and also contribute to the trust's retirement living on the site, which has communal facilities and gardens.

"I am delighted that our negotiations with Wrekin Housing Trust have got us to this point which could prevent the demolition of Haybridge Hall's historic façade and bring a historically significant building back into use."

Under the section 106 agreement in the plans the fund can only be used to deliver affordable housing, alongside funding from the Homes & Communities Agency and WHT, to make the scheme viable.

The council's funding would help provide affordable homes for the elderly at the hall.

Haybridge Hall closed some years ago and has since remained vacant. Telford & Wrekin Council refused a planning application to demolish it and build four new bungalows in January this year.

Since then, the council's cabinet has approved the issuing of an article that would result in any demolition needing a full planning application. But this has not been served pending the outcome of ongoing discussions with Wrekin Housing Trust to bring the building back into viable use.

The last private resident of the home was Graham Murphy of the family behind the Wrekin Brewery.

He bequeathed the hall to the people of Hadley saying that the front of the hall was not to be altered in any way.

The custodians of the building were members of the former Wellington Rural District Council, who turned it into a home for the elderly people. It changed hands over the years and was owned by Wellington Council, Wrekin Council then Telford & Wrekin Council before it was given to Wrekin Housing Trust.

Eventually it was closed down and has been left abandoned for a number of years.

Councillor Pat Smart, a long-time resident of Hadley and member of Hadley and Leegomery Parish Council said it is excellent news to hear the council want to retain the building.

Councillor Smart, who is married to the chair of the parish council John Smart, said: "Before we retired John and I made stained glass windows and we went to the building to repair a door after it had been damaged and it was such a beautiful building.

"It was a real gentleman's stately home on a smaller scale. The doors and fireplaces were stunning, it had some really beautiful features.

"It infuriated me that it has just been left because if it had been looked after it would not have got so bad."