Shropshire Routes to Roots

Trade directories: Produce and manufactures of Shropshire (Kelly's Directory, 1895)

The produce of Shropshire, 1895 [Shropshire Archive reference: Kelly's Directory, 1895]

The produce of Shropshire consists of coal, barites (mainly sulphate), iron ore, iron pyrites, lead ore, a small quantity of zinc ore, limestone, calc-spar, fireclay, potters' and brick earth, pipeclay, oak, timber and bark, charcoal, wheat, barley, oats, peas, beans, vetches, turnips, potatoes, orchard fruits, hay, cattle, sheep (of which the shire gives name to a modern breed now much in favour), butter, cheese, wool; and in the rivers, salmon, trout, grayling, pike, perch, carp, shad, chub, and grudgeon.

The Coalbrookdale coalfield affords the material for valuable manufactures; it lies between Wenlock, Wellington, Lilleshall and Shifnal. The Shrewsbury coalfield is of less extent and value. The Oswestry coalfield as at present developed, is likewise small, but also has workable coal, and being adjacent to valuable mines in Denbighshire, probably will be extensive. The dislocated formations around the Clees Hills may be considered as constituting another field. Wyre Forest constitutes a fifth field. Discoveries of coal have been made on the property of the Lilleshall Company. The quantity of coal raised in the county is stated in the "Mineral Statistics" for 1893 to be 636,628 tons, valued at £254,651.

Ironstone of various kinds is extensively distributed in the Coalbrookdale coalfield, and is there worked; it is found also in the Clee Hill district. Iron mining and the iron manufacture are carried on at Coalbrookdale and elsewhere in the Madeley district and in the Wellington district. The quantity of iron ore raised in 1893 was 54,596 tons, of the value of £27,298: the character of the ore is that known as Argillaceous Carbonate. The amount of pig iron manufactured in the county in the same year was 39,504 tons, the produce of 10 blast furnaces, of which half were in blast: nails are also made.

Lead mining and the lead manufacture exists chiefly in the Atcham district with a portion in Clun. Lead mines have been profitably worked by the Snailbeach and other companies. The amount of lead ore raised in the county in 1893 was 1,800 tons, producing 1,382 tons of lead, and valued at the mines at £11,171; iron pyrites, 370 tons; barytes, 5,852 tons, valued at £5,119; 8,836 tons of fireclay, valued at £3,314.

Stone and limestone quarries and lime burning are carried on chiefly in the Wellington, Oswestry and Newport districts, but the limestone trade in the Shrewsbury, Wellington and Madely districts. Limestone produced in 1893 was 2,990 tons and 751 tons calc spar.

The earthenware and china manufacture is at Coalport, in the Madeley district.

Bricks and tiles are manufactured on a large scale in the Broseley district, which is also the seat of the mosaic and encaustic tile trade. Tobacco-pipe making is carried on at Broseley.

The other manufactures are small. The carpet and rug manufacture at Bridgnorth; at Shrewsbury, the manufacture of linen yarn and thread; agricultural implements at Wellington, Ludlow and Wenlock, Shrewsbury and Oswestry; and there are small paper mills in various places.

Malting is on a considerable scale, but little is done in brewing, and that chiefly in Shrewsbury,

The soil in the valleys is good: on the right bank of the Severn it is red clay and gravel - the debris of the new red sandstone formation. Wenlock Edge and the neighbouring hills admit of tillage, and so does Clun Forest; but some of the hills on the Welsh borders are too high and bare even for sheep feeding. The lofty Clee Hills are almost wholly cultivated or depastured; but their alluvial geological nature will account for their fertility. On the Severn are many water meadows.