Owners of a Gloucestershire's engineering success story have sold a 45-acre site for a major housing development.

It is understood that Mabey Group, which owns Lydney-based world-wide bridge manufacturer Mabey Bridge, has sold the site on the River Wye to Barratt Home.

The former Fairfield-Mabey factory site in the town of Chepstow, which straddles the English and Welsh borders at the foot of the Forest of Dean, has changed hands for an "undisclosed sum".

Known also as National Shipyard No1 the site was used during WW1 to manufacture ships and in WW2 to manufacture landing craft and until recently by the Lydney business, which ships its bridges around the globe.

The site, off the A48, was part of Fairfields Shipbuilding and Engineering Company from 1914 to 1965, becoming the Fairfield Mabey factor site from then on until 2009.

Gareth Carter, a director of Savills Cardiff, which oversaw the sale of the property, said: "Mabey Group, and our in-house planning team initially guided a master planning process, culminating in the delivery of an outline planning permission in November 2017.

"The site marketing during 2018 generated strong interest from national and regional developers, and following a shortlisting process, Barratt Homes emerged as the preferred bidder."

Remedial work is expected to begin on the site - which has uninterrupted access to a 1km stretch of the River Wye - in the late spring, with building work expected to start in the later summer.

It is thought the scrapping of the Severn Bridge tolls will make the homes even more attractive.

Steve Williams, Barratt Homes' regional managing director, said: "As the UK's leading housebuilder, we are delighted to have acquired such a large and prestigious site. This development will create valuable new homes and support many jobs during the construction and sales phase of development.

"We will now be working closely with the local council on detailed plans for the site and believe that the recent scrapping of the Severn Bridge tolls will boost the attraction of Chepstow as a place to live. At the present time we plan to begin remediation work in the spring with construction due to begin in the summer."