IT WAS revealed last week that plans to transform the Church Wharf area of Bolton town centre have been revived.

Almost a decade after an ambitious £226 million project to regenerate the area was shelved amid the financial crisis, 500 homes are now earmarked for the site under Bolton Council’s latest designs.

Should the development go ahead, it will help to restore a part of the town centre that has fallen into disrepair.

The north east section of the town centre was once bustling with housing and industry which gradually disappeared as the character of the area changed over the years.

REVEALED: Multi-million pound regeneration of Church Wharf, in Bolton town centre, is back on council's agenda

The picture above, taken in 1959, showcases the area, including the Church Wharf Health Centre, as seen from Church Bank.

The nearby former home of Booth Industries and later The Wharf Foundry was demolished in 2014 over safety concerns, having lain derelict since the early 1980s and become a target for break-ins and theft.

Built in 1873, the foundry was used for engineering and metal works and in its heyday was a major employer supplying factories and mills around Manchester.

Church Wharf was also one end point of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal, but the waterway was filled in and buried as construction began on St Peter’s Way during the 1960s.

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In 2008, the council, alongside partners Ask Developments and investment firm Bluemantle, moved to turn the area into a massive leisure and retail complex.

The huge development plans included a 126-bedroom hotel and public square bordered by Brown Street, Manor Street and Folds Road, as well as a multi-screen cinema.

Church Wharf would also have been home to up to 720 apartments in six buildings, two multi-storey car parks, and a collection of restaurants and cafe bars in a square by Bank Street Unitarian Chapel.

40+ pictures of locations around Church Wharf planned for town centre houses

When the plans were first revealed, the leaders of Bolton's three main political parties issued a joint statement saying that Church Wharf had "potential to become a catalyst for the transformation of the townscape of Bolton".

That project never went ahead, but a more modest plan is now in the works — although the council's talks with developers remain at an early stage — and could see life returning to Church Wharf in the coming years.