Wellington Market

Wellington Market is the definitive Shropshire market. It opens four days a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday) and runs daily in the week prior to Christmas. The vast Market Hall houses over 80 stalls, with many more spilling out into the surrounding grounds, offering everything from cream cakes to continental cheeses and paintings to pipe tobacco.

In addition to the regular market, a farmers' market is held on the third Saturday of every month in the Square - the market's historic home.

Wellington’s first medieval markets were held on The Green, just north of the parish church on land now occupied by the NatWest Bank and the Charlton Arms. With the granting of a market charter from the Crown in the 13th century, lord of the manor Giles d’Erdington moved the market a few hundred yards to the south, laying out the Market Square in its present location. The market at this time would have extended down Duke Street, Crown Street and Bell Street (then ‘Swinemarket’), where permanent buildings eventually came to replace stalls.

A timber-framed market hall stood in the Square in the mid-17th century, and may have been there much earlier. This housed a butter market at street level and a guildhall above, where criminals were tried and town officials – including ale tasters and rat catchers – were appointed. Lord of the manor Lord Forester had the hall dismantled and sold in 1800. Traders spent half a century without permanent premises, but in 1856 the Market Company purchased the charter rights from the Forester family, and ten years later constructed the Market Hall that stands today.

Wellington Market Company is now one of Britain’s largest market operators, managing sites all over the country – you can even find its share price quoted in the Financial Times.