All Round the Wrekin - Wellington

Medieval Heritage

Wellington's medieval street grid is unique in east Shropshire and links to the town's distant past can still be traced, with several street names providing clues to long vanished trades and industries. Cloth manufacturing would once have been an important part of the local economy and Walker Street is likely to have been the place where the process of fulling was carried out, with workers quite literally walking on the cloth to make it heavier and more compact. Ten Tree Croft, the footpath from Church Street to Bridge Road, was originally called Tentercroft and it was here that cloth was stretched out on tenterhooks and left to dry after it had been washed or dyed. Leather making was another important medieval industry in Wellington and Tan Bank takes its name from a Tannery that once existed there, on a site near to the modern day Belmont car park.