The green team behind Telford's landscaping triumph
They were the green team who transformed Telford.
And Allan Howard was one of that group which planted the seeds, more or less literally, for the town which this year is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
If you want to see their legacy in Telford, well, look around.
Allan, who lives at Harley, near Much Wenlock, is a landscape architect who from 1973 worked for Telford Development Corporation, the body which was charged with creating the new town. He was principal landscape architect as head of the landscape team from 1982, with David Wassell being the chief landscape architect.
A few weeks ago all the team met up again for a reunion after 30 years at the visitor information centre in Telford Town Park.
"The scope of the job was enormous, because 'landscape' involved work related to all the new extensive road and building projects, and all the open space areas, including the town park, along with care of existing woodland," said Allan.
"Here was a part of Britain in decline, a former mining and industrial area going back as far as the Victorian industrial revolution.
"Everything had to be upgraded and in most areas completely built afresh. The resulting landscape had to match and complement the tremendous efforts being made in the building of housing, industry, and the creation of a completely new town centre."
Lord Northfield, the TDC chairman, was an ambassador, and in his own words an evangelist and, says Allan, was a visionary who inspired the whole enterprise.
He appreciated the unenviable task facing the landscape department.
According to Lord Northfield, in an article written on his retirement, the breakthrough and change of image came around 1982.
"The years of landscaping by the best team in Britain really hit us. The environment changed dramatically to a green and open place which people were proud of and anxious to preserve. The town centre blossomed and buoyed confidence, and the M54 was built at last," he said at the time.
"We stuck to our plans for large areas of green open space and in the process showed how public and private housing could live together in a fine setting," Lord Northfield had added.
Allan identifies the mastermind of the process as David Wassell, the chief landscape architect during the entire period of the corporation's life - it was eventually wound up in 1991.
"He put forward a bold vision of a totally encompassing landscape, a whole town structure which was integrated by a matrix of urban forestry, in his words, 'a forest city,' a town of trees."
There was also money to do it. In the 1980s the landscape budget for new works was around £2 million a year, out of a total corporation budget of around £25 million.
On top of that, the extensive tree planting linked to new roads was paid for from the roads budget.
"By the time the development corporation closed over seven million trees had been planted, along with over six million shrubs.
"It surely can be claimed that the patient, consistent and talented work of the many landscape architects and support staff, along with the essential efforts of capital works, maintenance, and outside landscape contractors, who physically carried out the work spread over the early years, set the standard and gradually transformed the town," says Allan.
One area earmarked for special treatment was Ironbridge, which Lord Northfield had described as Telford's "jewel in the crown."
In the early 1970s, says Allan, Ironbridge was largely derelict. A small team of expert landscape architects worked alongside other professionals to preserve, restore, and improve the area, showing great invention and developing new skills in the process.
Allan added: "Before the closure of Telford Development Corporation, senior members of the corporation were asking the question: 'Have we done enough to ensure success in the future?'
"Joe Boyce, the general manager at the time, said that he thought we were 'over the hump' and that the town had now developed enough impetus to carry it forward, although the job was by no means finished. Lord Northfield, in his retirement article, reiterated these words.
"These sentiments have been amply justified by the continuing success story of Telford today."
