Tudor Trade and Industry

Population growth in the Tudor period (Shrewsbury’s doubled in the century before the English Civil War) and the general progress of Shropshire agriculture promoted a notable increase in trade. The population of Shrewsbury had fluctuated between 3,000 and 3,500 in the first half of the 16th century but by 1587 this number was about 5,500 and it had grown to 7,000 by 1640. One consequence of this population increase was a growth in marketing and inland trade.

Toll receipts at the town and Abbey Foregate fairs almost trebled between 1560 and 1640, and by 1600 residents of Coleham and Abbey Foregate were complaining that the road approaching the Stone Bridge was being worn away by the numbers of country folk travelling to Shrewsbury’s markets.

Shrewsbury was the centre of Drover’s routes from Montgomeryshire and North Wales and was an important outlet for Welsh Cattle, although the largest proportion of cattle sold at the fairs in the town came from North Shropshire.

Shrewsbury was also well known for its horse fairs, which were frequently held in Frankwell and Abbey Foregate.

A growing river trade was also signalled by the construction of quays at Mardol (1606) and Frankwell (1608). Downstream cargoes included wool, cloth, ale, mead, cheese, honey, rope, hides and leather. Upstream came wine, alum (type of salt used to fix dyes), pig-iron, teasel (used in textile manufacturing), Broseley coal and malt.

The River Severn running through the town also proved commercially advantageous as it offered a direct trading route with Bristol. The River Severn is the longest river in Britain (220 miles) and is navigable for over 120 miles (the longest river navigation in Britain). Boats from Shrewsbury traded almost exclusively with Bristol and towns between. By 1625, two and sometimes three boats maintained a reasonably regular service at all times of the year, averaging 4 trips per week and carrying up to 10 tons of goods per trip.

The growth in trade was accompanied by a spectacular increase in credit court cases. This was probably due to people purchasing goods on credit and then being unable to pay for them. Lawsuits of this kind more than doubled between 1560-1610.

1560-1640 also saw Shrewsbury prosper greatly from its role in the Welsh Cloth trade, due mainly to the development of outlets in France. The town’s merchants participated in the trade only as middle men, purchasing the cloth at markets in Oswestry and Welshpool, finishing and preparing the cloth and then despatching it to dealers in Oundle, Peterborough, Newmarket, Derby and Upton on Severn.

Native cloth manufacture was also growing in importance. In 1588, there were 82 master weavers and their company was the third largest in the town.

Shrewsbury’s wool market was also sufficiently important to be included in a scheme to establish 27 wool staple towns in 1617, but the scheme proved abortive. Other Shrewsbury craftsmen participating in the wool trade, selling to local weavers as well as the stapler’s agents, included butchers, tanners and glovers. As one of the leading livestock markets in the Midlands, the town also supported a significant leather working industry. Among the town’s companies of tradesmen, the greatest increase since 1525, was registered by the Corvisors (this term originally applied to someone who worked with Spanish Cordovan leather but later came to mean a general leather worker).

Another trade to benefit from rising demand was that of wholesale brewing, assisted both by the rise of beer brewing using hops and by the growing number of alehouses. The number of ale sellers rose from around 70 in the 1560’s to 220 in the 1630’s. Although many brewed their own beer, production was increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few ‘common’ brewers. 2 common beer brewers existed in Shrewsbury in 1585 and by 1636 this had risen to 5, the greatest of whom was William Rowley, who built an impressive mansion in Barker Street.

Not every occupation in Shrewsbury prospered. The small capping industry of the town collapsed after 1550, as knitted head gear went out of fashion. Bowyers (archery bow makers) and fletchers (arrow makers) also suffered trade drops due to changes in demand for military equipment as the number of able bodied archers fell from 237 in 1573 to 55 in 1587.

Bow and arrow makers were members of the combined Bowyers’, Fletchers’, Coopers’ (barrel makers) and Stringers’ company, whose changing composition was recognised when the bailiffs added Turners, Joiners, Feltmakers and Haberdashers to their number.

There were several Guilds in Shrewsbury and the most important of these was probably the Drapers (those in the cloth trade), who were regularly elected to public office. Many of the Guilds in Shrewsbury had been in existence since the early 14th century and between 1483 and 1621 we have Bakers, Shearmen, Glovers, Butchers, Cooks, Millers, Tanners and Smiths all setting up Guilds in the town.
Despite the rising economy and greater variation of trades, Shrewsbury still suffered from occasional financial problems. The harvest failures of 1556, 1585-6, 1594-5 and 1596-7 all led to large increases in the prices of local grain and occasionally emergency imports had to be shipped in.

The Plague also had an impact on the trade of the town, as daily life came to a virtual standstill and markets and fairs were cancelled for fear of spreading the disease. All imports were also stopped in case they were infected and travellers were prohibited from coming within 4 miles of the town. Shrewsbury’s worst outbreaks occurred in 1526, 1536, 1576, 1604, 1631 and 1650. The worst outbreak in 1604 killed about ten per cent of the population.

The growth of population and the increase in profits from trade led to a great rebuilding in Shrewsbury after 1560. This is evident in the number of large mansion houses that date from this period, most of which were built for rich merchants and lawyers. Ireland’s Mansion, Owen’s Mansion, Jones’ Mansion, Proude’s Mansion, Perche’s Mansion, Rowley’s House and Mansion and Prynce’s Place all date from this time.


There was also a growth in markets at this time. Between 1566-1570, six timber-framed bays with lofts above were constructed in the Cornmarket to keep grain dry. However, these were taken down in 1596 and replaced by the present Market Hall.


Several other markets existed in Shrewsbury. The livestock market was held in Frankwell on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The apple market for selling fruit and vegetables was held at the High Street end of the Cornmarket, while butter, cheese, geese, pigs and poultry were sold at the High Cross.

In May 1594, the butter market was covered so that sellers and buyers could be protected from the rain. Meat could be bought from the fleshboards in Fish Street, except for Fridays, which was a fish day.


With all the trade that was happening in Shrewsbury it was a fairly self-sufficient town with inhabitants able to buy most of what they needed for everyday life. By the Tudor period it had also established communication and trade links with other parts of the UK and this would have both increased the range of goods on offer and brought in increased wealth. This in turn would have helped build up the trade and industry in the town