I recently heard that it is the intention of the powers that be that Castle Gates should be a housing only area,and that the Sorting Office,Morris Lubricants,Quick Fit,the fire station and others will eventually go,has anyone heard similar stories.

I'm sure others will have a better knowledge of this than myself but I think plans where in place to move the fire station to the Shrewsbury business park with a smaller satellite station located in Battlefield if I can remember correctly.

The new houses/apartments in Castle Foregate blend very well into the area, although Kwick Fit does stand out like a soar thumb so I hope they do relocate that business. The old coal merchants buildings/shacks are now also empty.

I think there may have been a thread on the forum back last year that the current sorting office may be relocated to Battlefield as well.

It funny how years ago everyone moved out of the town and now people want to move back in again!

Firstly, the title of this thread is misleading. "Castle Gates" is the street that runs up the hill from the railway station to Castle Street.

The area you are talking about is Castle Foregate/St. Michael's Street.

And yes, there is a general shift of land use away from industry/commerce in this area to residential. This can be found in towns and cities across the country.

The fire station was to move to Emstrey, but the government failed to stump up the money required. So it's not going to move now, or at least not for some time. Which is a bit stupid as the current site delays fire response times due to the congestion on St. Michael's Street.

Still, there's going to be tons of redevelopment soon, with the sorting office possibly moving out to Battlefield, the coal merchants and railway yard now closed and other sites such as the Kwik Fit and Morris Lubricants becoming very tempting to the house developers.

Good news as we need more apartments and small houses in Shrewsbury, rather than the large 5 bedroom £300,000 mansions on the edge of town.

Castle Forgate (and for the record, that really is how it's spelled, unlike Abbey Foregate) is already half-and-half anyway, as on the opposite side from Morris's it's still almost all residential. In between Morris's and the Sorting Office there are actually quite a few flats on the upper levels, too.

If they get rid of the Sorting Office they should rebuild the Eagle (I think that was the name...) and other such places that used to be on the corner of Howard Street, too :-)

I've seen it spelled both Castle Foregate and Castle Forgate.

It will be interesting to see what happens because that area has quite a few businesses and business centres so some incentive would need to be given to the businesses to move.

There is much talk about possible re-developments around that area and that the re-location of the royal mail building to another site (possibly battlefield) is one that has been around for a couple of years now and there is new talk everyday although officially royal mail has not recieved any offers for the site nor have plans been made to close and move the operation to another site.

The local CWU (communication workers union) echo this information but it is no secret that many of the staff would favor a move to battlefield for instance but its not a decision that would be made locally.

So have I, but I suspect that's down to the influence of the better-known Abbey Foregate (which I've also seen spelled "Forgate" - the same thing happening in reverse!). The Royal Mail seem happy with it being "Forgate", though; the Sorting Office is where their (national) address management service is based, according to Google.

The Morris's building has been there since 1905 at least (when the Perseverance Ironworks was gutted in a fire). At some point even industry starts becoming historical buildings, and I wonder if the clock tower arrangement would have to stay no matter what.

No. 70 still has the parquet floor and ballroom ceiling from its days as the Co-op Social Club, as well, although it's almost entirely covered up. That might cause ructions if someone decides to trash it any further too...

There's a photo of the Perseverance Ironworks shortly after that fire in many of the local pictorial history books for Shrewsbury.

Its got a girl looking towards the camera with a cap/hat on if I remember correctly.

It was in the Star not too long ago, I think (one of the old photos on the letters pages).