Coleham is a district of the town of

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, northwest of Wolverhampton, west of Telford, southeast of Wrexham and north of Hereford. At the 2021 United ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

, England. It is located just south, over the

River Severn The River Severn (, ), at long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in t ...

, from Shrewsbury town centre.

History

Coleham grew up as a village outside medieval Shrewsbury, with the nearest crossing over the Severn to the town being the Stone Bridge (now the

English Bridge The English Bridge is a masonry arch viaduct, crossing the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. The present bridge is a 1926 rebuilding and widening (re-using the original masonry) of John Gwynn's design, completed in 1774. A bridge is kn ...

Shrewsbury Abbey The Abbey Church of the Holy Cross (commonly known as Shrewsbury Abbey) is an ancient foundation in Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire, England. The Abbey was founded in 1083 as a Benedictine monastery by the Normans, Norman Earl of Shre ...

and its associated lands and buildings were nearby. The

Rea Brook The name Rea Brook can refer to either of two brooks in Shropshire, England. One of the brooks, which eventually becomes the River Rea, is in southern Shropshire. It is to the east of Brown Clee Hill. The other, described here, is a minor r ...

separates Coleham from the other old suburb on this end of town –

Abbey Foregate The Abbey Church of the Holy Cross (commonly known as Shrewsbury Abbey) is an ancient foundation in Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire, England. The Abbey was founded in 1083 as a Benedictine monastery by the Normans, Norman Earl of Shre ...

. The area gave its name to an island that sat between two streams of the river,

Coleham Island Coleham Island was an island on the River Severn just to the south of Shrewsbury, Shropshire. In the Middle Ages Coleham Island linked two separate bridges, the Stone Bridge linking the Island with Wyle Cop in Shrewsbury, and Monks Bridge (also kn ...

, now demolished. Coleham is centered on the Shrewsbury to

Longden Longden is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It is located southwest of Shrewsbury. Longden village There is a public house (the ''Tankerville Arms'') and a post office/shop, along with a church, and a primary school. The p ...

road, which as it passes through Coleham itself is called "Longden Coleham". The Victorian suburb of Belle Vue grew up south of Coleham, and the wealthy suburb of Kingsland (which centres on

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by royal charter, to replace the town's Saxon collegiate foundations which were disestablished in the sixteenth century, Shrewsb ...

) grew up west of Coleham. The first large scale industrial building in Shrewsbury arose in Coleham when in 1790 the firm of Powis & Hodge built three factory buildings on land bought from

John Carline John Carline (1730–2 March 1793) was an 18th-century English bridge-builder. Both his son (1758-1834) and grandson (1792-1862) continued the name - the former focussing on churches and church monuments but also building bridges. Life H ...

at the junction of Longden Coleham and Coleham Head beside the Severn. A waterwheel and

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

powered carding engines, spinning jennies and fulling facilities. The firm failed by 1799 but the buildings were sold in 1803 to

Charles Hulbert Charles Hulbert (February 18, 1778 – October 9, 1857) was an English businessman and writer. Life The son of Thomas Hulbert of Hulbert Green, near Cheadle, Cheshire, he was born in Manchester on 18 February 1778, and educated at the grammar ...

and partners from

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

for weaving cotton calicoes. It came to employ 200 people but it was given up after Hulbert, following reversals, left the cotton industry and handed the lease back to its lease-owner John Carline (Junior) in 1825. The buildings were converted by the Carlines into (now demolished) workers' cottages. In 1793 ironmaster

William Hazledine William Hazledine (1763 – 26 October 1840) was an English ironmaster. Establishing large foundries, he was a pioneer in casting structural ironwork, most notably for canal aqueducts and early suspension bridges. Many of these projects were ...

purchased land at Coleham, where he set up a larger foundry with steam-powered equipment. The foundry eventually employed several hundred workers. In 1796 he cast the frame for the

Ditherington Flax Mill Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings (previously the Ditherington Flax Mill), a flax mill located in Ditherington, a suburb of Shrewsbury, England, is the first iron-framed building in the world, and described as "the grandfather of skyscrapers".

Charles Bage Charles Woolley Bage (1751–1822) was an English architect, born in a Quaker family "Bage Way", part of Shrewsbury's 20th century inner ring road which links Old Potts Way to Crowmere Road, was named for him. References 1751 births 18 ...

, the world's first iron-framed building. The former Trouncer's Brewery was established in Coleham on the banks of the Severn in 1807: it closed in 1954 when acquired by

Ind Coope Allied Breweries was the result of a 1961 merger between Ind Coope (of Burton), Ansells (of Birmingham), and Tetley Walker (of Leeds). In 1978, Allied Breweries merged with the food and catering group J. Lyons and Co to form Allied Lyons. The brew ...

. The brewery buildings are listed Grade II and have since been converted to private residences. Today, Coleham is connected to the town centre by a pedestrian footbridge, the Greyfriars Bridge, though the nearest vehicular crossing remains the English Bridge. There are shops and

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

s along Longden Coleham, as well as a primary school. The

Coleham Pumping Station Coleham Pumping Station is a historical pumping station at Coleham in Shrewsbury, England. History The sewage pumping station was built at the end of the 19th century as part of a major upgrading of Shrewsbury's sanitary sewer, sewerage syste ...

is a visitor destination and is located on Longden Coleham. Greyfriars Bridge in Coleham is the starting point for Regional Cycle Route 32/33 to

Church Stretton Church Stretton is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, south of Shrewsbury and north of Ludlow. The population in 2011 was 4,671.

(and further on,

Craven Arms Craven Arms is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Shropshire, England. It is sited on the A49 road and the Welsh Marches Line, Welsh Marches railway line, which link it north and south to the larger towns of Shrewsbur ...

). The area suffered badly from flooding in 2000, which entirely took hold of Longden Coleham and other low-lying streets in the area. Since then a number of measures have been taken to alleviate flooding problems in the Coleham and Abbey Foregate areas.

Barnabas Community Church

The Barnabas Community Church is located on Longden Coleham, where it converted and extended a former Territorial Army drill hall, acquired in 1995, for its use. The Barnabas Centre within its premises is now a multi-use church centre with many community agencies using the facilities, such as an NHS pop-up

Blood Donor A 'blood donation'' occurs when a person voluntarily has blood drawn and used for transfusions and/or made into biopharmaceutical medications by a process called fractionation (separation of whole blood components). A donation may be of ...

clinic There are also many community projects run from the sub charity 'Barnabas Community Projects.' These include a foodbank, a money advice centre and a '360 Journey to Work' programme. Also run by the Church in term-time every week is a toddler group, 'Barneytots;' a youth group, 'Impact,' and a children's (aged 5–11) after school club, 'Kidzklub.'

Railways

The Welsh Marches Line (and

Cambrian Line The Cambrian Line (), sometimes split into the Cambrian Main Line () and Cambrian Coast Line () for its branches, is a railway line that runs from Shrewsbury in England, westwards to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli in Wales. Passenger train services ...

) runs through the area, partially on a long brick viaduct which crosses over the Abbey Foregate road, between

Severn Bridge Junction Severn Bridge Junction is the area of railway lines just south east of Shrewsbury railway station, in Shropshire, England. It is controlled by a mechanical interlocked signal box of the same name, which is the largest operational mechanical s ...

and Sutton Bridge Junction. There were once extensive engine sheds and other railway related activities in the area. There remains a

permanent way Railway track ( and International Union of Railways, UIC terminology) or railroad track (), also known as permanent way () or "P way" ( and English in the Commonwealth of Nations#Indian subcontinent, Indian English), is the structure on a Ra ...

depot – Coleham Depot – and in 2008 a new inspection shed for the Class 97/3 locomotives was built.http://daviddawson.fotopic.net/p53717815.html

Notable people

, later a writer, was a factory leaseholder in Coleham. *

Servant of God Servant of God () is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression ''Servant of God'' appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in ...

Mary Joseph Prout, founder of the

Passionist The Passionists, officially named the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ (), abbreviated CP, are a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men, founded by Paul of the Cross in 1720, with a special emphasis on a ...

Order of nuns, was born in Coleham in 1820.

References

{{Reflist Suburbs of Shrewsbury Rail transport in Shropshire Populated places on the River Severn

History

Barnabas Community Church

Railways

Notable people

See also

References