It’s full steam ahead to sell unique Telford hotel - with pictures
A former Telford railway station has gone on the market – complete with holiday homes built inside former train carriages.
The Station House at Coalport has gone on the market for £950,000, giving buyers the chance to buy a Shropshire landmark and business in the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage setting.
With over two acres of grounds, the Station House is currently a main family home and was once the station for Coalport which was opened in 1863.
The station itself has a hallway, cloakroom, toilet, kitchen, three reception rooms, two ground floor bedrooms with shared en-suite shower and toilet, three first floor bedrooms, an en-suite toilet and family bathroom, as well as a waiting room on the opposite platform currently used by the vendors as an office.
There are also two equipped self-catering railway carriages, two railway standard goods vans are also included which are used as workshops and storage and two standard garden sheds used as bicycle storage and guest equipment.
Tania Hems, from Nick Tart estate agents, which is selling the property said: "Over 14 years ago the present owners gave up their hectic lives in London and bought Coalport Station.
"Although the station was closed in 1963 it had been lived in as a family home ever since.
The current owners’ previous working lives had been involved with interior design of aircraft, autos, railways and clothing design. They applied their knowledge and experience to restore the beauty of the station and develop a holiday letting business by bringing on site vintage MK1 Great Western Railway carriages and renovating the grounds.
"The original outside livery has been restored and the interiors renovated into modern luxury holiday accommodation.
"The owners have marketed the carriages to guests who value the quiet, rural atmosphere found at the property and the history of the local area. While guests enjoy the novelty of staying in a railway carriage they also appreciate the wildlife and woodland walk created and nurtured by the owners."
The business is ready for a "seamless transition to the new owners" and has been a profitable and rewarding business for over 13 years and year on year profits have increased.
Ms Hems added: "This is an ideal opportunity to retain the current usage of Station House as a main family home with a unique profitable business. There could also be further potential to convert the main house for additional guest accommodation and develop the site further as full planning permission has been granted to increase the house to include three further bedrooms all with en-suite bathrooms.
Elsewhere a station has been successfully converted into a new business is Albrighton.
Last year, part of the station was transformed into a pub and it has become so successful that is has just been awarded the Telford & East Shropshire CAMRA branch Pub of the Season in Spring 2017.
Opened in July 2016, inside the former Stationmaster’s building at Albrighton station, the pub is the brainchild of two families – Emma and Paul Thompson and Alison and Craig Taylor.
With the support of Albrighton Civic Society, they secured the listed building for use as a micropub.
The two couples have invested £30,000 bringing the Grade II Albrighton building, part of the village’s rail station, back to life. It had been unused for about seven years before it was converted into the pub.
