Historic Uttoxeter site to be 'redeveloped and enhanced'

Mar 18 2009 by Alun Thorne, Birmingham Post

Demolition work is set to start this month at an historic factory with manufacturing links to Uttoxeter stretching back almost 140 years.

The site in Pinfold Street was home to JCB Heavy Products until December last year when the business moved to its new £40 million production facility next to the A50.

Now demolition work is set to start on the old JCB Heavy Products next week which is scheduled to be completed in June. The work is being undertaken by Birmingham-based Armoury Demolition and Recycling Ltd to make way for a 22-acre redevelopment scheme.

London-based McDowell + Benedetti Architects was chosen as the winner of a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) design contest to devise the scheme’s final design master plan and JCB chairman Sir Anthony Bamford, who instigated the RIBA competition, has been personally involved in the project to ensure the redevelopment is “of the highest possible standard.”

A JCB spokesman said: “This is the end of an era but it paves the way for a development which will be more in keeping with the town centre location. It offers a unique opportunity to redevelop and enhance an important area of Uttoxeter.”

The Bamford family has links with Uttoxeter stretching back nearly 200 years. Sir Anthony’s family started in business in the town as blacksmiths in the 1820s. An application for outline planning permission has been submitted to East Staffordshire Borough Council. The Pinfold Street site has been linked to manufacturing from as early as 1871 when the agricultural machinery-makers Bamfords opened for business.