The role played by a new housing development in regenerating Trowbridge’s former Ushers brewery site has been recognised with a prestigious award for ‘town enhancement’.
After unveiling a plaque on the former brewery, Mayor of Trowbridge Cllr John Knight paid tribute to developer Newland Homes for creating a scheme with 100 homes that transformed the derelict town centre site and rescued an historic 1820 Georgian façade – incorporating it into the structure.
While Ushers may have left the town, he said, the brewery’s part in the town’s industrial heritage will not be lost.
“It was a dark day for all of us when the brewery closed,” said Cllr Knight. “However, the people of Trowbridge never lost sight of what was possible here – and this area always played a big part in our shared vision for the future … a masterplan to enhance the town’s prosperity and environment in line with its status as Wiltshire’s county town.
“Today, we stand in front of a housing development that has physically – and symbolically – helped transform our town centre and become an integral part of our on-going regeneration into a vibrant, modern market town.”
Cllr Knight also commended the part played by the town’s planning department and the Civic Society. “This development has been made possible through partnership, and is surely a template for how planners and the private sector can work together to achieve shared aims for the common good,” he said.
Cheltenham-based Newland Homes won a similar award in 2005 for its development of 65 homes on the nearby former bus station site at The Conigre. The firm is now looking to build on that double success with another scheme in what is now referred to as The Brewery Quarter with a further four apartments and 75 houses on the site of the former brewery’s bottling plant.
Pictured, from left: Mayor of Trowbridge Cllr John Knight with Newland Homes associate director Tim Sergeant and project manager Dale Martin
