19 nostalgic pictures from the last 50 years of Telford's shopping centre

The New Town development of Telford celebrated the opening of the Telford Shopping Centre in October 1973.

Plus

Published Jul 6

Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565

Spencer's Mall, Carrefour, the green fountain - over the last 50 years Telford Shopping Centre has made its fair share of changes.

Today, the shopping centre is among the 25 largest malls in the country and welcomes around 15 million visitors each year.

We've had a dive through the archive to see what Telford treasures we can turn up.

Building begins

The 52-acre indoor shopping centre and its surrounding facilities were built largely over the old town of Malinslee - more specifically, Malinslee Hall.

The hall, and the ruins of a Norman chapel, several homes and a farm were flattened to make way for the new complex (thankfully, the ancient chapel was rebuilt years later in Telford Town Park - where it remains today).

Malinslee Hall, pictured on August 10, 1962. The hall was destroyed during the building of Telford town centre - the hall stood around halfway between the cinema and the magistrates courts.

The ruined Norman chapel would have stood directly beneath the main shopping precinct - the rebuilt chapel can still be found in Telford Town Park

Residents of the community of Dark Lane, with terraced homes and a chapel, were also moved out as part of the creation of the new town centre.