49 Cheshire Street, Market Drayton - 01630 653114 arketdrayton.scf@shropshire.gov.uk

The town is promoted as 'the home of gingerbread'. The oldest recorded mention of gingerbread in Market Drayton goes back to 1793 At its peak, the traditional biscuity gingerbread, which contained rum, was made by four bakers in the town. Today the leading gingerbread maker is Image on Food which produce nearly one million novelty gingerbread figures for Britain's leading retailers.

It is also home to Palethorpe's, now part of the Pork Farms Group who are the town's largest employer producing pork pies, hot eating pies, sausage rolls and other chilled pastry products and the Müller Dairies making yoghurts.

The town is also the home of Tern Press, a highly respected and collectible small press publisher of poetry.

Recent developments in the local service industry include the retailers Argos, Wilkinsons, Subway and B&M Bargains which have all brought new employment to the town.

There are a number of 17th and 18th century half-timbered buildings in the town centre, as well as a restored Norman church, St. Mary's, next to the Grammar School of 1558.

The town's marketplace is ancient, with a market charter granted from 1246, and the market continues today. The great fire of Drayton destroyed almost 70% of the town in the 17th century. It was started at a bakery, and quickly spread through the timber buildings. 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.

Ancient local sites include: Audley's Cross, Blore Heath the site of a major Wars of the Roses battle; and several Neolithic standing stones, "The Devil's Ring and Finger", just three miles (5 km) from the town.

Other notable landmarks in the area include: Pell Wall Hall, Buntingsdale Hall, Salisbury Hill, Tyrley Locks on the Shropshire Union Canal and the Thomas Telford designed aqueduct. Fordhall Farm, consists of 140 acres (0.57 km₂) of community-owned organic farmland located off of the A53 between the Müller and Tern Hill roundabouts. The farm trail is open to the public during farm shop opening hours, and included along the path is the site of an ancient motte and bailey structure which overlooks the River Tern valley.

Many of the streets in the town are named after famous castles, such as Balmoral Drive, Caernavon Close, Windsor Drive, Warwick Close, and many others.

In Domesday, it was simply Draitune from Old English draeg (drag) and tun (enclosure). Hence the enclosure where they dragged things (presumably into the River Tern which rises in Mid Wales and runs through South Shropshire and into the Severn near Worcester).