PLANS are in the pipeline to restore the iconic Linotype and Machinery Works and convert it into a block of apartments.

A planning application for 121 new dwellings on the Broadheath site, plus the conversion of the existing boiler house and traveller bay building to provide 41 further apartments, was approved in July 2015.

Now the developer, Wilmslow-based Morris Homes North Ltd, wants to redevelop the former Linotype and Machinery Works office building, a listed building.

An application has been submitted this week to Trafford Council for the conversion of the 1,350sqm, three-storey redundant office building into 11 apartments – three one-bed apartments and eight two-beds.

In the planning document, it was noted that there have been recent thefts of lead from the building by travellers who had been illegally camped on the site earlier this year.

There will be a loss of 10 spaces, bringing the parking provision from 60 to 50. None of the apartments will be offered as affordable housing as it is ‘unviable’ due to high costs but there is scope for this provision elsewhere.

In the planning documents, Rachel Hollins, partnership housing manager for Morris Homes, stated: “The requirement is to replace decorative features and materials on a like for like basis in this listed building is having a significant impact on costs.

“It is proposed that the delivery of 22 affordable housing units across the wider 178-unit housing scheme adjacent to the site will be satisfactory.”

The Linotype Company was formed in 1889 as a British offshoot to the Mergenthaler Linotype Company, an American corporation founded in 1886.

In 1897, the company built a large factory in Broadheath, dubbed the ‘world’s first industrial park’, having been founded by the Earl of Stamford in 1885.

At the height of their success the company had over 10,000 employees manufacturing linotype machines, and constructed 185 homes adjacent to the factory to house staff. This development still exists today, and provided two football grounds, four tennis courts, two bowling greens, a cricket ground, a playground for children, and allotments. This is now recognised as the Linotype Estate Conservation Area.

During both world wars the factory manufactured munitions, gun parts, aeroplane engines, and tank parts. During the 1970s and 1980s the company struggled under increasing competition, and separated from the American corporation in 1983, rebranding as L&M.

Until recently the company still operated from the Broadheath premises until it was acquired by Morris Homes North Ltd.