A huge thank you to everyone who took part in our Market Drayton Discovery Trail over the summer – and congratulations, because you certainly proved that you know your town!
The idea behind the trail was to encourage people to slow down, look up and take a closer look at some of the buildings, plaques, windows, signs and other features that are so easy to walk past without really noticing.
There were 20 answers to find as the trail made its way around the town centre. Some were well-known landmarks, while others were tiny details hidden above our heads or tucked away on familiar buildings.
What we particularly enjoyed when going through the completed trails was seeing the local knowledge behind some of the answers. People remembered old businesses, older names for buildings and details that aren’t necessarily written down on a modern map.
So how well did you do? Here are the answers, together with a little more about what you discovered.
The Buttercross and its fire bells
We started with one of Market Drayton’s best-known landmarks – The Buttercross.
The Grade II listed Butter Market dates from 1824 and was built as a small market hall. Sitting on its roof is a wooden bellcote containing a pair of copper fire bells, giving us our first two answers.
The bells are a perfect example of the sort of thing the trail was created to highlight. Thousands of people have walked beneath the Buttercross, but how many have stopped and looked at what’s sitting on its roof?
Answers 1 and 2: The Buttercross and Fire Alarm Bells
The Crown
The next answer was The Crown.
Pubs and inns have long been part of the story of a busy market town such as Market Drayton. The town’s market history can be traced back to 1245, when Henry III granted a charter for a weekly Wednesday market – a tradition that continues today.
Answer 3: The Crown
Graham Withers & Co
Next came the grand building on Cheshire Street occupied by Graham Withers Solicitors & Co.
This was another good example of the trail mixing the Market Drayton we know today with the older buildings that form its town centre.
Answer 4: Graham Withers Solicitors & Co
The Rotary plaque beside the Library
This was one of the questions that produced some interesting answers.
The plaque celebrates 60 years of Rotary service to the Drayton community and was unveiled in 2009. We asked what building the plaque was next to and how many silhouettes could be seen underneath it.
Most people identified the Library, while some gave us Parr’s Bank House, an established local building name. It was a good example of people knowing their town in different ways.
And the second part? There are four silhouettes.
Answers 5 and 6: Parr’s Bank House/the Library and four
The Hippodrome and Kwik Save
The date high above the next building led you to The Hippodrome.
This building has had quite a life. The Hippodrome Cinema opened in October 1927, later became the Regal Cinema and, after the cinema closed, became a bingo club. It was subsequently converted into a Kwik Save supermarket before eventually becoming the Wetherspoon pub we know today.
A few people gave us S&M, SM or SEM as the supermarket answer, which sent us away to investigate. We haven’t found evidence of a supermarket of that name operating there, but there is a fascinating connection: by 1944 the cinema was being operated by S. M. Super Cinemas.
Perhaps that’s a piece of Market Drayton’s collective memory that has become mixed with the building’s later supermarket years.
Answers 7 and 8: The Hippodrome/Wetherspoons and Kwik Save
The 1910 window on Stafford Street
The next clue was an attractive window dated 1910, and all we wanted to know was the street where you could find it.
The answer was Stafford Street.
The trail described the window as having looked out over Market Drayton since 1910. It’s another feature that is very easy to miss unless you remember to look above the modern shopfronts.
Answer 9: Stafford Street
Hair Station
The unusual old sign and little red postbox led you to Hair Station.
The building has served Market Drayton in several different ways over the years, and clues to one of its former uses can still be spotted today.
That’s exactly what the Discovery Trail was about – taking something familiar and encouraging people to look at it a little more closely.
Answer 10: Hair Station
The old Coca-Cola sign at Freddie’s
This turned out to be one of the most interesting clues of the whole trail.
The photograph showed the historic wooden shutters on 27 Shropshire Street, a Grade II listed timber-framed building also known as The Abbot’s House. Historic England records the building, while local photographic records describe it as a 17th-century house and one of the oldest in Market Drayton.
We asked what name was on the old sign, which gave us Coca-Cola.
But quite a few people answered Freddie’s – and they certainly knew what building we meant. Freddie’s was the name of the Chinese restaurant that traded from the building in the 1970s, and the name stuck locally long after the restaurant had gone.
So this was perhaps one of the best examples of the local knowledge that came back on the completed trails.
Answer 11: Coca-Cola – with Freddie’s accepted as the local name for the building
Joule’s Brewery
The distinctive symbol high above another building was recognised by plenty of you as belonging to Joule’s Brewery.
The trail deliberately made this one difficult by asking you to search above one of the town’s popular places to eat and drink.
The brewery and its distinctive cross have become a familiar part of modern Market Drayton, continuing the town’s long association with brewing.
Answer 12: Joule’s Brewery
The Stag
Next came The Stag.
This was another clue that took us into the older heart of Market Drayton, where buildings from different centuries sit alongside today’s shops, pubs and businesses.
The town lost many buildings in the devastating Great Fire of 1651, making the surviving historic buildings particularly important to Market Drayton’s character today.
Answer 13: The Stag
The Town Hall and Pézenas
For this one, you really did need to look up.
The unusual foal weather vane is on the Town Hall and was a gift from Pézenas, Market Drayton’s twin town in France.
The trail explains that the weather vane celebrates the connection between the two towns as well as a link with one of Market Drayton’s most famous historical figures.
It’s a small feature with a much bigger story behind it and another one that can easily go unnoticed from street level.
Answers 14 and 15: The Town Hall and Pézenas
Festival Community Gardens and Queen Victoria
The next clue took you to the Festival Community Gardens, where part of an old Victorian fountain survives.
The fountain commemorated Queen Victoria’s 60th anniversary on the throne – her Diamond Jubilee in 1897.
Although the original fountain no longer survives complete, some of its features remain. The trail was deliberately designed to include details like this because they show how pieces of the town’s past can survive even after their original surroundings have changed.
Answers 16 and 17: Festival Community Gardens and Queen Victoria’s 60th Anniversary
Midlands Air Ambulance
Not everything on the Discovery Trail was hundreds of years old.
The colourful artwork made from circles belonged to the Midlands Air Ambulance charity shop.
We wanted the trail to include today’s Market Drayton alongside its history. After all, the things being added to our streets today are part of the town’s continuing story too.
Answer 18: Midlands Air Ambulance
The Little Tea Room
The beautiful timber-framed building and leaded windows led you to The Little Tea Room.
The trail describes the building as believed to be one of the oldest surviving buildings in Market Drayton, standing on Shropshire Street and watching the town change around it for hundreds of years.
Market Drayton’s older buildings are particularly precious because so much of the town was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1651. The Town Council notes that the fire destroyed most of the predominantly timber-framed town.
Answer 19: The Little Tea Room
The War Memorial
The final clue was a decorative archway leading into one of Market Drayton’s peaceful green spaces.
The answer was the War Memorial, or cenotaph.
The trail described the archway as the entrance to a special place where people can pause, reflect and remember, surrounded by flowers and greenery but tucked away from the bustle of the town centre.
It was a fitting place to bring our journey around the town to an end.
Answer 20: The War Memorial or cenotaph
You certainly know your Market Drayton
What we enjoyed most when we went through the completed trails wasn’t simply counting up the correct answers.
It was seeing just how much local knowledge people have.
Some gave us today’s names, some remembered businesses that disappeared years ago and others knew buildings by names that have been passed down locally. Freddie’s was a brilliant example – and even the unexpected S.M. answer sent us off to discover another part of The Hippodrome’s history.
So a huge congratulations and thank you to everyone who took part in the Market Drayton Discovery Trail. We hope you enjoyed exploring the town and that, even if you already knew Market Drayton extremely well, you discovered at least one thing you’d never noticed before.
The trail may have finished, but all those details are still out there.
Next time you’re walking through Market Drayton, remember to look up. There’s an awful lot of the town’s story hiding above our heads.
