Eagles Meadow - Under Construction (2007)

Grid reference: SJ337501
Co-ordinates: 333735, 350060
Bearing: N

Eagles Meadow was once, believe it or not, a meadow. With an inn called The Eagles on it (we are nothing if not severely logical hereabouts).

During World War II, the area was used for storing US Army vehicles, and later it was the site of the Monday open-air market.

It was subsequently the site of an Asda supermarket for over twenty-five years, but when that moved, the area became derelict.

In the mid-2000s, it became the site of yet another of those 'exciting' and 'innovative' shopping developments. Debenhams and Marks & Spencer became the main occupants and, such is the nature of these things, parts of it were still empty some four years after it opened. Moreover, it has pulled business away from the town centre itself, large portions of which are now boarded up or turned over to those lichen-like growths on the rotting trees of the retail sector, the 'pound shop'.

The photograph above shows the construction site from the southern approach on Salop Road.

Grid reference: SJ335501
Co-ordinates: 333580, 350140
Bearing: E

The second picture shows it from the Yorke Street side:

© Nigel Stapley