Wolverton is a uniquely valuable national heritage asset. It is above all a railway works town - indeed, the world’s first railway works town built on a greenfield site.

Wolverton was the plan and social model upon which Brunel based the great Swindon Works in 1843. The Railway was one of the most important industries of the 19th and early 20th centuries and it is important that this is recognised in the preservation of our national heritage.

Wolverton, despite losing a substantial amount of its earliest pre-Brunel works, has much to commend it as a national railway heritage resource. In a compact area lies an enormous amount of physical evidence of our railway heritage, perhaps in a more complete form than anywhere else in the country. It also includes the Grand Union Canal that was superseded by the railways but which helped the Directors of the London & Birmingham Railway Company to decide to build a central station and depot here as the early railway builders relied on the canal system to carry materials for their construction

Over the next few years there are likely to be major changes to Wolverton, particularly on the derelict land and buildings once occupied by the Railway Works alongside the canal, and on the western edge of the town. It is imperative that the unique distinctiveness of Wolverton is recognised and safe-guarded for the future as part of that change and that the new developments do not merely take this heritage into account but both reflect and enhance it.