This former 18th century iron foundry stands in a site of outstanding beauty in the heart of Cornwall alongside the A39 running between Truro and Falmouth. It had been neglected and semi-derelict for forty years prior to Brian Tanner and private investors acquiring it in 1995 following which they secured a planning permission for a major Heritage Centre supported by retail.
The grant support needed to match private funding was lost and in 2005 Wharfside acquired the freehold in a joint venture with the William Pears Group.
Wharfside and the William Pears Group negotiated a new planning permission based on residential , a mixture of refurbished listed buildings and new build with a reinstated small foundry facility and an art gallery space. Dransfield Owen De Silva are the architects and their sympathetic design and proposed methodology of construction were critical in securing the support of English Heritage and the planners.
Full detailed planning, with listed building consent was secured in December 2007 however the downturn in the residential property market, as a result of the banking crisis and the recession, made the scheme unsustainable.
In the summer of 2010 the Pears Group decided that the scheme should be brought forward and works commenced.
