Market Drayton, Staffordshire

Description
Market Drayton (formerly Drayton-in-Hales) a market-town, the head of a poor-law union and county court district in Drayton-in-Hales parish, Salop, near the river Tern, the Shropshire Union Canal, and the boundary with Staffordshire, 14 miles NW of Newcastle-under-Lyme, 16 N of Wellington, and 180 by railway from London. It has a station on the main line of the G.W.R. from London to Manchester, and upon the Stoke-upon-Trent, Newcastle, and. Market Drayton branch of the North Staffordshire railway. Population of Market Drayton, 2125 ; and including Little-Drayton, 4303. It is an old-fa&hioned town with broad. streets and black and white houses with carved fronts. It occupies the site of a Roman station and is mentioned in Domesday book as Draitune. There are a meat market, a cattle market, two banks, a head post office, a constitutional club, and a workhouse. A weekly newspaper is published. Markets are held on Wednesdays, and a meat market on Saturday. Fairs are held on 19 Sept. and 24 Oct. A large business is done in corn, cattle, and horses; brewing is carried on; and agricultural implements are manufactured. The town is supplied with water from Burnt Woods, Ashley, Staffordshire. The parish church is ancient, and was restored in 1884; it has a fine Norman doorway. Emmanuel Church was erected in 1882. There are Roman Catholic, Primitive Methodist, Wesleyan Methodist, Baptist, and Congregational chapels and a cemetery. The grammar school was founded in 1558 by Sir Rowland Hill, Lord Mayor of London, and, was restored in 1877. Lord Clive was educated at this school. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield; net value, £200 with residence. See DRAYTON-IN-HALES and DRAYTON, PARVA.