Welcome to Saltash

History 2000 onwards

<< History 1975 to 2000

Saltash Heritage, formed in 1986, finally achieved one of its original aims in 2000 when it opened the Saltash Museum and Local History Centre in Lower Fore Street. The museum has a small permanent display about the history and well-known 'characters' of Saltash, and also mounts a different temporary display each year during the summer months.

2001 saw the long-awaited opening of Saltmill Park. Originally the location of a tidal mill and mill pond, and later a municipal tip, the site lay derelict from 1983 until the Saltmill Millennium Project began to transform these 17 acres of landfill into a park and recreation area. Public artworks, including three major sculptures commissioned specially for the site, are interwoven with the landscape design.

Four decades after its completion in 1961, at which time it was the longest suspension bridge in the UK, the Tamar Bridge made history for the second time. In the late 1990s it was decided that the three-lane bridge needed to be strengthened and widened. Engineers the world over watched the ensuing three year project closely, because it is unique in bridge technology. The Tamar Bridge is the world's first suspension bridge to be widened using cantilever platforms, and the world's first bridge to be strengthened and widened while remaining open to traffic. The engineering work was completed in December 2001, and the newly-widened five-lane bridge was officially opened to the public on the 26th of April 2002.

Meanwhile, plans for the regeneration of the Waterside area continued. The project was such a massive undertaking that it was separated into two phases, the first concentrating on improving facilities upstream from the bridges. The Saltash Waterside Phase 1 scheme has made many improvements to the area. A new all-tides floating pontoon off Jubilee Green now provides moorings for up to five visiting craft of 30' or less, with short stays being free. Improvements to the existing slipway have made it more accessible and easier to use. The access has been widened and adjusted to allow twice as many boats to be brought ashore and launched side by side, and the leading edge has been tapered to make the slipway more accessible at low tide. Better boat, trailer and car parking facilities have been provided, plus a larger recreational green for events and children's play. Environmental enhancements include new lighting and landscaping, as well as a notice board, town map interpretation panel, and signs directing visitors to local attractions and facilities. Phase 2 focuses more around the area to the south of the bridges, where a toddlers play area has already been constructed and other improvements are planned for the near future.

Elsewhere in the town, a new Fire Station was built in 2003 on the same site as the previous combined ambulance and fire station which dated from the Second World War, both the Burraton Methodist and the Roman Catholic Churches were demolished and rebuilt in 2007, and new housing continues to go up at various locations.

The Saltash district has a long and varied history; the location of a Celtic tribal capital, a thriving Manor in the 11th century, the first port to be established on the system of estuaries reaching inland from Plymouth Sound, and a place of strategic importance during the Civil War. The original planned medieval settlement has become one of the largest towns in Cornwall, providing services for the surrounding agricultural area. Despite all the changes of the last 800 years the town is still on a major route into the county, retains its medieval street pattern, has kept a number of historic buildings, and on the whole continues to fulfill the expressed wish of Queen Elizabeth I "that the said town, in all times to come, may be, and remain a town of peace and quietness, to the dread and terror of the bad, and the reward of the good".

<< History 1975 to 2000

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