Market Drayton

Market Drayton is a market town and electoral ward in north Shropshire, England, close to the Cheshire and Staffordshire borders. It is on the River Tern.

Market Drayton
Market town
Shropshire Union Canal at Market Drayton, Shropshire
Market Drayton is located in Shropshire
Market Drayton
Market Drayton
Location within Shropshire
Population11,773 (2011)[1]
OS grid referenceSJ673321
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townMARKET DRAYTON
Postcode districtTF9
Dialling code01630
PoliceWest Mercia
FireShropshire
AmbulanceWest Midlands
UK Parliament

Market Drayton is on the Shropshire Union Canal and Regional Cycle Route 75. The A53 road by-passes the town, which is between Shrewsbury and Newcastle-under-Lyme.

History

Prehistory

"The Devil's Ring and Finger" is a notable site 3 miles (5 km) from the town at Mucklestone. These are across the county boundary in neighbouring Staffordshire. There are also and several Neolithic standing stones.

Medieval

Drayton is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as a manor in the hundred of Hodnet.

It was held by William Pantulf, Lord of Wem, from Roger de Montgomery, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury. Drayton is listed as having a population of 5 households in 1086, putting it in the smallest 20% of settlements recorded.[2]

Domesday also lists Tyrley,[3] which was the site of a castle later (52°54′00″N 2°28′45″W).

In 1245 King Henry III granted a charter for a weekly Wednesday market, giving the town its current name. The market is still held every Wednesday. To the south-east near the A529 an 18th-century farmhouse stands on the site of Tyrley Castle, which was probably built soon after 1066 and later rebuilt in stone in the 13th century.

to roses one white one red being the symbols of this war
The Battle of Blore Heath was fought near the town in the Wars of the Roses

Nearby Blore Heath, in Staffordshire, was the site of a battle in 1459 between the Houses of York and Lancaster during the Wars of the Roses. Audley's Cross, Blore Heath is located close by.

Tudor
A Tudor statesman in his chains of office and gown
Sir Rowland Hill

Rowland Hill of Soulton, the first Protestant Mayor of London came was of a prominent ancient local family and came to have very significant property in the area. He is possible inspiration for Shakespeare and ran the Geneva Bible[4] translation project. The Old Grammar School, in St Mary's Hall, directly to the east of the church, was founded in 1555 by him and contains a sixteenth century bust of his face. To this day a charity exists in the town for supporting the education of young people.[5]

Elizabeth Wriothesley, Countess of Southampton (1572 – 1655) is a daughter of the prominent local Vernon family. Her husband is supposed inspiration of part of Shaker pear's sonnet sequence.[6] She was one of the chief ladies-in-waiting to Elizabeth I in the later years of her reign.

An Elizabethan aristocrat lady
Elizabeth Wriothesley, Countess of Southampton

Restoration and later

In the 1730s Robert Clive attended the grammar school, and a school desk with the initials "RC" may still be seen in the town. He was expelled from the school,[7] and his record is today contested.[8]

The great fire of Drayton destroyed almost 70% of the town in 1651.[9] It was started at a bakery owned by D. MacTavish, and quickly spread through the timber buildings.

Evidence for a skirmish in the English Civil War around 1643 has recently been found.[10]

The buttercross in the centre of the town still has a bell at the top for people to ring if there was ever another fire.

Culture

The town has an active arts and culture scene organised through Drayton Festival Centre.[11] This centre was established in 1984 and is run by volunteers. Over 30 years it has expanded considerably and now includes a cinema and theatre, an art gallery and a range of meeting rooms.

The Drayton Arts Festival is held every year in October and looking forward to its 10th Anniversary in 2023.[12]

Landmarks in the area include: Pell Wall Hall, Adderley Hall, Buntingsdale Hall, Salisbury Hill, Tyrley Locks on the Shropshire Union Canal and the Thomas Telford designed aqueduct.

Media

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West Midlands and ITV Central. Television signals are received from either The Wrekin or Sutton Coldfield TV transmitters. [13] [14]

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Shropshire, Free Radio Black Country & Shropshire, Greatest Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire, Capital North West and Wales and Pure Gold, a community based radio station. [15]

The Shropshire Star is the town's local weekly newspaper.[16]

Education
St Mary's Hall plaque

Today, Market Drayton has four schools:

Grove School is a large secondary school of about 1,100 pupils, all of whom live within 12 miles (19 km) of the town.

Industry
Tudor House Hotel, Market Drayton

In 1965, sausage maker Palethorpe's built a new factory employing 400 people in the town. Purchased by Northern Foods in 1990, the company was merged with Bowyers of Trowbridge, Wiltshire and Pork Farms of Nottingham to form Pork Farms Bowyers. The sausage brand was sold in 2001 to Kerry Group, but the factory remains open as the town's largest employer. It produces various meat based and chilled food products, under both the Pork Farms brand and for third parties, including Asda.

Müller Dairy have a factory making yogurts. The town is also the home of Tern Press, a collectible small press publisher of poetry.

Recent developments in the local service industry include the retailers Argos, Wilko and B & M which have all brought new employment to the area. The town is widely considered to be the "Home of Gingerbread".

Supplied by a water source running under the town, two breweries operated in the town during the early 20th century. In 2000, Steve Nuttall started a microbrewery, Joule's Brewery Ltd, a revival of a previous Joule's Brewery at Stone, Staffordshire which had been discontinued in 1974. The new company bought the 16th century Red Lion, a pub that formerly belonged to the earlier company, where the brewery was built, completed in 2010. It produces three core ales on the site as well as a number of seasonal beers.[17]

a farm house
Ford Hall Farm is a community owned farm to the east of the town

Fordhall Farm has 140 acres (0.57 km2) of community-owned organic farmland located off the A53 between the Müller and Tern Hill roundabouts. The farm trail is open to the public during farm shop opening hours, and on the path is the site of Fordhall Castle, an ancient motte and bailey structure which overlooks the River Tern valley.

Sports

Market Drayton Town F.C. play on Greenfields Sports Ground in Market Drayton, which has capacity for 1,000 spectators.

Market Drayton Rugby club play at Greenfields Sports ground, on Greenfields Lane, and are in the Midlands Division- Midlands 4 West (North).

Market Drayton Tennis Club is also based at Greenfields and has three all weather floodlit courts; the club plays in a number of Shropshire leagues.

Transport

Arriva Midlands operates route 64 through Market Drayton between Shrewsbury and Hanley (Stoke-on-Trent), at an irregular service pattern. Beginning on 7 September 2012 Bennett's Travel Cranberry Ltd run an evening service 164 to Hanley on Fridays and Saturdays with a day service to Newcastle-under-Lyme on Sunday. Arriva used to provide services 341/342 to Wellington from Monday to Saturday, but this was stopped in August 2016, due to the council withdrawing funds.[18]

Shropshire Council ran a number of bus services under the 'ShropshireLink' brand in addition to the regular 301 and 302 Market Drayton Town Services but these were withdrawn due to council cutbacks. Services 301 and 302 are now operated by Lakeside Coaches.[19]

Market Drayton had a railway station which opened in 1863 and closed during the Beeching cuts in 1963. The railway station was located on the Wellington and Drayton Railway and Nantwich and Market Drayton Railway of the Great Western Railway network and was also the terminus of the Newcastle-under-Lyme line of the Stoke to Market Drayton Line of the North Staffordshire Railway network.

Climate

Market Drayton was struck by an F1/T3 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.[20]

St Mary's Church, Market Drayton from the south

Religion

The town currently has five churches. The largest is the Church of England parish church which is St Mary's Church; it dates from 1150, although it was largely rebuilt in 1881–1889.[21][22]

The Roman Catholic Church of St Thomas Aquinas & St Stephen Harding dates from 1886.[23] There is also a Methodist Church[24] and an Orthodox church.[25]

Christ Church, an Anglican parish church, is in Little Drayton, to the west of the town.[26]

Notable residents

Sport
a scarlet coated english officer in the army; he is fat
'Clive of India'

Robert Clive

Nearby at Styche Hall[30] is the birthplace of Robert Clive, first Lord Clive, "Clive of India", (1725–1774), part of whose schooling was in the Grammar School then in Market Drayton.

The Georgian house, designed by Sir William Chambers, the architect of Somerset House, replaced the half-timbered house where Clive was born. It was built for his father and paid for by Clive from the income from his Indian career.

Twin towns

Market Drayton is twinned with:[31]

  • Aqueduct
    Aqueduct
  • Clive and Coffyne, Shropshire Street
    Clive and Coffyne, Shropshire Street
  • St Mary's Church
    St Mary's Church
  • Tyrley Locks
    Tyrley Locks

See also

References
  1. "Town population 2011". Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  2. Powell-Smith, Anna. "Drayton - Domesday Book".
  3. Powell-Smith, Anna. "Tyrley - Domesday Book".
  4. The Holy Bible ... With a General Introduction and Short Explanatory Notes, by B. Boothroyd. James Duncan. 1836.
  5. "SIR ROWLAND HILL'S EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION - Charity 528389". register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  6. "The Mysterious Identity of the 'Fair Youth'". Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. 14 September 2018. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  7. http://www.archivezone.org.uk/subjects/famous-people/clive-of-india/
  8. Mohdin, Aamna (19 November 2021). "Clive of India statue in Shrewsbury should go, says descendant". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  9. Williams, Jack N. (18 April 2021). "History of the Town —". Market Drayton - Eat, Drink, Shop & Explore. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  10. Neal, Toby (7 August 2021). "Geoff's fresh eye discovers unknown Shropshire battle". www.shropshirestar.com. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  11. "Drayton Festival Centre". Archived from the original on 5 July 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  12. "DraytonArtsFest". Archived from the original on 11 January 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  13. "Full Freeview on the The[sic] Wrekin (Telford and Wrekin, England) transmitter". UK Free TV. 1 May 2004. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  14. "Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) Full Freeview transmitter". UK Free TV. 1 May 2004. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  15. "Pure Gold". Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  16. "Shropshire Star". Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  17. "Cheers as brewery marks its success, Business with roots in medieval past now one of county's biggest". Shropshire Star. 29 July 2016. p. 16.Report by James Pugh.
  18. "Petition calls for return of bus service between Telford and Market Drayton". www.shropshirestar.com. 30 August 2016. Archived from the original on 1 August 2017.
  19. "Local Bus Timetable - Lakeside Coaches". 9 March 2023.
  20. "European Severe Weather Database". www.eswd.eu.
  21. "St Marys Church Market Drayton". www.stmarysmarketdrayton.org.uk.
  22. "Church of Saint Mary". Archived from the original on 11 January 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  23. "Saint Thomas and Saint Stephen". Archived from the original on 27 October 2017. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  24. "Homepage MDMC". Market Drayton Methodist Church.
  25. "Shrewsbury Orthodox Church - 1 Spring Hill, Kiln Bank Road, Market Drayton, Market Drayton - Establishment, church and place of worship". market-drayton-shr.place-advisor.co.uk.
  26. "Christ Church, Little Drayton". Christ Church, Little Drayton. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  27. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 18, Felton, William (1713-1769) Archived 25 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine retrieved December 2017
  28. SoccerBase Database Archived 25 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine retrieved December 2017
  29. SoccerBase Database Archived 25 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine retrieved December 2017
  30. Website of Historic England Archived 2 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine retrieved Jan 2017
  31. "Arlon Twinning on Council site". Archived from the original on 3 October 2011.
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