Plans have been lodged to bulldoze the old Crewe Corporation Electricity Works, a site left to rot since 1967, for a new care home development.

On 12 December, applicant, Mr Michael Vernon Wildman, submitted prior approval for the demolition of the old Manweb Depot, Electricity Street.

Once demolished, SH Care Limited plans to construct a 64-bed care home complex with 10 extra care apartments.

The Crewe Corporation Electricity Works were built in the early 1900s, using steam engines to drive the DC generators, which were in use until the late 1950s.

SH Care Limited plans to construct a 64-bed care home complex with 10 extra care apartments (SH Care).

Manweb took over the site after the industry was nationalised in 1947.

Gradually the town was upgraded from DC to AC generators. The DC network was retained until all properties received their AC supply.

Following this, the machinery was cleared out and the building became the district stores, until Manweb relocated in 1967 to a new purpose built depot on Macon Way.

Originally, the coal for the boilers came from horse and cart from the Thomas Street coal yard in Crewe.

These carts tipped the coal down a chute, near to the bank of the Valley Brook, which was itself used to cool the water supply to the plant.

A hand operated crane remains at the site to this day, with a complete 33kV substation remaining inside the delapidated building.

The Crewe Electricity Works site has been vacant since 1967 when Manweb relocated to Macon Way (Wiki Commons).

Network Demolition Services LLP plan to tear down the old Manweb depot to slab level. An exclusion zone will be in place, with any asbestos safely removed.

A demolition method statement reads: "The mechanical demolition will begin on the former Manweb, Crewe to create an open end.

"The operator will work in a top to bottom manner, carefully removing smaller, manageable roof sections until the roof has been removed completely. (roof, purlins etc down to column bases)

"He will then continue to demolish the structure itself, working at an approximate 45 degree angle, removing internal walls and components, internal supporting walls, outer wall components.

"All the previous items are steel work with limited brickwork on site.

"This safe systematic manner ensures all down takings are processed in the correct manner with the main areas of stability, that is the stairwells being the final areas to be processed on each floor, thus preventing spillover on the east areas and ensuring the stability of the structure throughout the floor by floor demolition process.

Network Demolition Services LLP plan to tear down the old Manweb depot to slab level. An exclusion zone will be in place, with any asbestos safely removed (Cheshire East Planning).

"All components are to be processed into small manageable sections and placed in the laydown area at the east face, between the machine and the structure.

"Mechanical demolition will cease intermittently to allow our other smaller machine(s) to clear the laydown area, separating the components into their relevant waste streams and loading the materials into pre-positioned skips in the area."

It is anticipated the demolition application will be decided by Wednesday 15 January. To view the plans click HERE.

READ MORE: Work starts on new Crewe retail park health and beauty store.

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