The Square

Ironbridge Market Square – Butter, Chemists, and Change

It’s hard to picture now, with cafés, shops, and cars packed in around the edge, but Ironbridge Market Square was once the beating heart of the town.

After the opening of the Iron Bridge in 1781, the old Madeley market was relocated here to a brand-new Georgian Butter Market, built to give the growing settlement of Ironbridge a proper commercial centre.

The Butter Market

The Butter Market, with its neat line of brick arches, was used for the Friday market, where locals bought and sold butter, cheese, eggs, poultry and vegetables. The covered stalls kept traders dry and gave the town a permanent marketplace.

Those arches still survive. Over time, parts were infilled or adapted for new uses, but the footprint of the old Butter Market is still visible if you know where to look.

Butter Market origins (early 1800s)

• The covered arcades (those brick arches you’ve spotted in your photos) were designed for perishable goods like butter, cheese, eggs, poultry, and sometimes meat.

• These kinds of stalls were common in Georgian market towns.

Friday market

• By the 19th century, Ironbridge had a regular Friday market (sometimes still called the “Madeley market” after it moved from Madeley).

• You’d expect fruit and vegetables, fish, bread, household goods, tools, and textiles, alongside dairy produce.

• Period accounts note that traders came in from the wider Coalbrookdale, Broseley, and Madeley areas.

Later memories

• In the early 20th century, locals recalled stalls selling hardware, crockery, and second-hand goods, alongside traditional food stalls.

• Some remembered travelling salesmen setting up carts.

Post-war decline

By the 1950s and 60s, the open-air market in the Square was shrinking. Shops were taking over more trade, and the area was increasingly used for cars and buses, which eventually pushed the market out.

Pharmacy

Fronting the Square, the pharmacy building has perhaps the most colourful story.

Originally part of the Butter Market, it was later adapted into a chemist’s shop. In the 19th century, the arched opening faced directly onto the Square. Photographs from the late Victorian and Edwardian eras show the arch open and prominent.

By the mid-20th century, it had been bricked in, and the building was home to Williams’ Pharmacy.

• In the 1960s, it bore the name “The Pharmacy, Williams M.P.S.”, with the shopfront facing directly down the Bank.

• By 1969, R. L. Williams had taken over and repainted the building a bold yellow.

• The last day of Williams’ trading in Ironbridge was Saturday 2 August 1969, before the business moved to Wensley Green, Woodside.

The shop later became Ironbridge Pharmacy, and in 2013 the Post Office moved in from next door (formerly in Moonshine & Fuggles).

The shop immediately left of the old Post Office was a hardware shop run by Mr Branford, then a fishing tackle and bait shop in 2007, later becoming The Ironbridge Bookshop (addressed as No. 5).

The building’s paint has been through many guises: yellow in the 1960s, green around the 2000s, and today cream with red detailing.

The infilled section behind it had been a hair salon for many years, but has housed Donutology since September 2022, while the main shop continues as a pharmacy with the Post Office.

Market buildings – the row of shops through time

c. 1790s – Butter Market beginnings

• Built as an open arcade for butter, cheese, eggs, poultry and veg.

• Arches later infilled to form permanent shopfronts.

Early 20th century

• One arch clearly signed “Café”, suggesting food and refreshment alongside the market.

1930s–50s – Slater & Co era

• Big pediment signage reads “PRINTERS • STATIONERS”.

• Upper fascia: SLATER & CO.

• Ground units in the same row show:

1960s – Wozencroft period

• Likely a continuation of stationery and printing trade, but under the Wozencroft name.

• The go-to for school books, pens, posters, and duplicating.

1970s – Mixed-use retail

• Signs in photos show:

• Reflecting a shift from everyday essentials to antiques and speciality produce.

2000s–2020s – Independent shops

• The Ironbridge Bookshop established in one of the arches, and later expanded with The Book Nook.

Not all of the Square’s shops are about history in the distant past. Some are making their own.

Housed in a Grade II listed 1791 building right by the Iron Bridge, Bears on the Square has become one of the UK’s most recognisable teddy bear shops. For more than 30 years it’s been part of the Square’s story, drawing visitors from around the world.

The Bartlett Fountain – a forgotten gem

The Reverend John Bartlett became vicar of Buildwas in 1823. Living at Marnwood, just outside Ironbridge, he was deeply concerned about the health of Ironbridge residents, who often drank straight from the River Severn when sewage was being tipped into it.

John Bartlett married Susanna Ball Reynolds, daughter of William Reynolds, one of the great Quaker ironmasters of Coalbrookdale. After John’s death in 1861, Susanna paid for a red granite drinking fountain to be erected in Ironbridge Square the following year (1862) in his memory.

Local accounts have sometimes differed on where the water originally came from. Newspaper reporting from the time gives a clearer sequence:

• February 1862 (Shrewsbury Chronicle): Bartlett was praised for supplying water to Ironbridge at his own expense, and a memorial fountain was being planned by his widow.

• July 1862 (Wellington Journal): the fountain was unveiled in Ironbridge Market Square with hymns, a children’s procession and a hand-over by Mrs Susanna Bartlett. The water supply came, through the kindness of Mr Darby, from the Strethill grounds via iron pipes.

• April 1863 (Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Times): after townsfolk asked for a “more convenient and important site”, Mrs Bartlett agreed, and the fountain was moved within the Square to the centre of the steps beside the Tontine Hotel.

So the core facts are:

• The fountain was erected in 1862 by Mrs Susanna Bartlett, in memory of Rev. John Bartlett.

• The water supply came from Strethill, not Marnwood.

• The supply came through the kindness of Mr Darby.

Removal (1960s)

When Telford Development Corporation restructured the Square for buses, the fountain was deemed “in the way.” It was dismantled and re-erected in a car park behind Waterloo Street, with benches around it and planted borders, maintained by the Gorge Green Gang.

Campaign today

A campaign is raising funds (around £40,000) to reinstall it as a working fountain in the Square with a seating area. It will not look exactly like the original, as the surrounding steps and pedestals will not be incorporated. In September 2022 there were ground work investigations about relocating it.

GoFundMe campaign:

• https://www.gofundme.com/f/return-bartlett-fountain-to-ironbridge-square

The Bank (No. 1 Market Square)

• Late 1700s: the building was constructed. It is now Grade II listed.

• Late 19th century: the ground floor was altered with a bank-style frontage.

• 1874: Lloyds bought the building.

• 1891 (Kelly’s): Edward Montagu Webster listed as Lloyds manager.

• 1916: Lloyds Roll of Honour includes John Leslie Dain, “Lloyds Bank, Iron Bridge.”

• 1983/84: ceased bank use and became a shop.

• 1990s: converted into flats, “Lloyds Bank Chambers.”

• Today: ground floor is Severn Hospice Shop, Ironbridge’s only charity shop.

1971 redevelopment

By 1971, redevelopment plans noted the importance of realigning the Bank and High Street and recorded the changing uses of the old Butter Market buildings.

Despite many adaptations, the heart of the Square, as a place of gathering, trade, and remembrance, has survived.

Still standing

Today, the arches remain one of the most distinctive sights in the Square.

Once Café → Slater & Co → Wozencroft → Antiques & C. Ellis → Post Office → Bears on the Square.

Now a mix of independents, carrying the row’s story from butter and books to lattes and donuts.