Madeley Through Time

Madeley is a fascinating East Shropshire town with a proud agricultural and industrial heritage that can be traced back to Saxon times. The development of coal mining in the rich seams that surrounded the town led to a significant increase in the population as the men left the fields for the guarantee of regular work. The town grew up to support them and their families, but began to decline in the early twentieth century as the coal was exhausted. In the mid 1960s the town was torn apart to create the brave new world of Telford New Town. According to Telford Development Corporation, 'The new development of shops, dwellings, and office accommodation was more suited to the twentieth century than the early nineteenth.' This book captures 'Old Madeley', 1960s Madeley and the Madeley of 2010 in photographs and memories from the people who know best - Madeley folk.