Fifty-five Stafford College students spent four years photographing the town centre rebuild. The seven books go to Stafford's libraries and sell for the hospice.

Fifty-five staff and students from Stafford College spent four years photographing the town centre being knocked down and rebuilt. They have turned the work into seven books, and handed them to the leader of Stafford Borough Council last month.

The photographers were on the college’s BTEC Photography course, and did the project in their own time. Between them they took tens of thousands of pictures, before and after demolition. The sites included the derelict former Co-op department store, the refurbishment of Market Square and the construction of the Institute of Technology. (Stafford Borough Council, 28 August 2026)

Retired photography lecturer Sue Bowdery and two former students, Grace and Tom, presented the books at the Civic Centre on Friday 21 August. The seven titles are:

  • Stafford Market Square
  • Guildhall Shopping Centre
  • Co-op Department Store
  • Stafford Station
  • Lakeside
  • Palmbourne
  • Institute of Technology

Tom, 19, photographed the Institute of Technology throughout construction and then edited that book. He now studies there. “Our first shoot at the IoT was when there was only two poles in the ground,” he said. “I had no idea what the building would eventually look like.”

Grace, 20, contributed to all seven and is now studying Concept Art at Staffordshire University. She picked out the former Co-op. “I enjoyed getting inside a building that had been abandoned for so long, and taking pictures of what it had become,” she said.

Sue Bowdery said the point was the archive rather than any single picture. “We were keen to photograph these sites for posterity before redevelopment (or time) changed them for ever,” she said.

Where you can see them

The council says sets of the books will be available in the college and town centre libraries and at the Staffordshire History Centre. Copies will also be sold to raise money for Katharine House Hospice.

It has not said when the books reach those shelves, what a copy costs, or where to buy one. The council’s press office takes enquiries on 01785 619230 and at publicrelations@staffordbc.gov.uk.

The two public venues named are both in the town centre:

  • Stafford Library, Staffordshire Place, Tipping Street, ST16 2DH. Open Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm, Saturday 9am to 4pm and Sunday 1pm to 4pm. (Staffordshire County Council)
  • Staffordshire History Centre, Eastgate Street, ST16 2LZ. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm. Using the research room needs a booking. (Staffordshire County Council)

Images from the project are also posted on the college photography course’s Instagram account, @nscgstafford.photowex.

The hospice the sales go to

Katharine House Hospice is on Weston Road in Stafford, ST16 3SB, and is registered charity number 1011712. It began as Stafford Hospice at Home in 1989, opened a day care unit in May 1993, and took its first in-patient in September 2000.

It now has more than 250 staff and more than 240 volunteers, and covers mid-Staffordshire. Every service is free to patients. The hospice says it relies on the local community to generate two thirds of what it needs, which is more than £5 million a year. (Katharine House Hospice)

What the four years covered

The programme the students were photographing runs on just over £14.3 million from the Future High Streets Fund. Three dated pieces of it are finished. (Stafford Borough Council, Stafford Regeneration)

Four dated milestones in the Stafford town centre programme the students photographed

  • 2023. The £1 million refurbishment of Market Square was completed.
  • 2025. The approach and entrance to Stafford railway station were improved.
  • 2 September 2025. The Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Institute of Technology opened to its first cohort. The £22.5 million three-storey building was put up by contractor Speller Metcalfe and is run by Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group. Employer partners including Dell, MOOG, Siemens and Hitachi Energy donated around £500,000 of equipment. (NSCG, 2 September 2025)
  • 21 August 2026. The seven books were presented to council leader Aidan Godfrey at the Civic Centre.

Two of the buildings in the books no longer exist. The council bought the former Guildhall Shopping Centre, the former Co-operative department store and neighbouring units, and the former Wilko store, and has since demolished the Guildhall centre and the Co-op. On 24 August it said demolition of the former Wilko, earmarked for the college, was still taking place. (Stafford Borough Council, 24 August 2026)

Council leader Aidan Godfrey said the books would outlast the work. “We are currently going through the biggest transformation of the town centre in a generation and these books will play an important role in showing that regeneration journey,” he said.

What it means for you

If you want to see the books, the two places open to the public are Stafford Library and the Staffordshire History Centre, both free to walk into. Neither has a date yet for when the sets arrive, so it is worth ringing ahead.

If you want to buy a copy, there is no published price or outlet. The purchase raises money for Katharine House Hospice, so if you want to give to the hospice now rather than wait, it takes donations directly.

If you want to comment on what comes next in the same streets, the council’s drop-in sessions on its town centre blueprint are running this week at the Guildhall Shopping Centre. Three are left: Wednesday 2 September and Thursday 3 September, 11am to 3pm, and Saturday 5 September, 11am to 1pm. (Stafford Borough Council, 1 September 2026) We set out what the blueprint actually proposes, site by site, in our report on the Stafford Town Centre Development Framework.

For anything already lodged for decision on these sites, see our running guide to Stafford planning applications. If you are driving in to visit the library or the History Centre, our guide to parking in Stafford sets out the car parks and tariffs.

Sources