Donnington, Telford

Coordinates: 52°42′54″N 2°26′10″W / 52.715°N 2.436°W / 52.715; -2.436

Donnington shown within Telford in Sky Blue.

For other places named Donnington, see: Donnington

Donnington was not part of the new town of Telford but part of the already oudated Wellington Rural District which had built many council houses from the 1920s onwards. It is located in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. Aside from the rest of urban Telford, which is to the south west, Donnington is surrounded by fields and countryside.

The original Donnington village was to the north east of the current centre of Donnington and was under the 'Duke of Sutherland Estate'. It was a minor industrial centre where "Walker's works" (C&W Walker Ltd) produced components of gasometers and ship's engines. The Clock Tower restaurant commemorates the landmark Walker's Clock which now sits on a road island near where "Walker's works" once was & just a hundred metres from the centre of Old Donnington. Old Donnington was the location of a coal wharf linked by rail to the Granville Colliery, Shropshire's last deep coal mine. This industrial heritage links the original Donnington village to the Industrial Revolution that Telford proudly asserts began with the first large scale smelting of iron using coke in the Coalbrookdale area of Telford.

The current centre of Donnington is actually the centre of New Donnington a house development that began in the late 1930s to provide housing for the workers who would work at the then new MOD Donnington British Army Depot. The farm land for the New Donnington housing estate was purchased by the MOD.

The MOD Donnington is a military base of the British Army located immediately to the north of Donnington. It was once one of the largest military stores in Europe but since the end of the Cold War it has declined in both importance and size.

Recently Donnington has added an Asda superstore and an Aldi supermarket to the Coop supermarket that already existed and a Morrisons supermarket has replaced the Netto supermarket in the centre of Donnington on the site of the old pub "The Champion Jockey" named after Gordon Richards of Wrockwardine Wood, making Donnington one of the best food retail served suburbs in the country. The Telford International Railfreight Park has been recently developed on a 48 acres (0.19 km²) site of the former MOD depot, given rail access by rebuilding 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of the former Shropshire Union Railway west towards Wellington. It is expected this development will attract more light industry to the industrial estates near Donnington. As at 2011, the rail freight terminal, which is in Trench, near the busy Hortonwood industrial estate visited by many juggernaut-type trucks, seems to attract no trains.

Donnington is home to a small amateur dramatics company "The Little Theatre" and each year Donnington football playing fields play host to a popular free Guy Fawkes fair & bonfire night. Saturday 12 November 2011. Bonfire and fireworks free, funfair usual funfair prices. Good, though!

External links

• The Little Theatre, Donnington

See also

• Donnington Wood
• Muxton