NT – Redditch New Town Gallery

NT – Why Redditch New Town?

This set of galleries that record the history Redditch during the New Town development by presenting different topics which each highlight one aspect of that period of Redditchhistory.

Go To Gallery

NT – New Town Development Overview

Once the New Town designation was announced in 1964, the next twenty years saw the town change forever. The starting point was the New Town Development Plan.

Go To Gallery

NT – The New Town Story

New Towns conjurer up a vision of a modern town built on a
greenfield site, but in the case of Redditch that’s not true. When Redditch was designated a new town in 1964 it already had a population of 24,000 with a history stretching back 800 years. So the developers of “Redditch New Town” faced some unique challenges, not the least was how to integrated the old with the new.

Go To Gallery

NT – Key Milestones in Building Redditch New Town

A major project such as the New Town development required a great detail of planning and the work was broken down into manageable “bites” of the overall task. This section sets out the milestones of each of those bites.

Go To Gallery

NT – New Town Promotion

Three key areas of the plane were housing, industry and facilities. Housing was about overing families modern properyies in which to live. To attract those families, jobs were required, so there was an extensive programme of promoting the town to attract new businesses to the area.

Go To Gallery

NT – New Town Photo Gallery

The photographic opportunities in such a project were enormous. However, in addition to recording the new builds, care was taken to record what was being removed to make way for new develeomenst.

Go To Gallery

NT – New Town On Film

Cine pictures were another of the promotional tools used to “Sell” the new town. There were also oral histories recorded of what change meant to existing residents and footage of life going on as normal such as fetes and carnivals.

Go To Gallery

NT – Redditch Development Corporation Scrap Books

During the new town development the Redditch Development Corporation kept a record of key events and these were publish in the form of “ScrapBooks” of photographs and newspaper cuttings.

Go To Gallery

NT – The New Town In The News

The local newspapers kept residents informed on the progress of the new town build and the Development Corporation also produced regular newsletters and pamphlets detailing major events and milestones.

Go To Gallery

NT – Redditch New Town – Success or Failure?

Although today Redditch is recognised as one of the successful new towns a conversations with residents of old Redditch will often include words like “ruined” and “spoiled”! Read and judge for yourself.

Go To Gallery