Shrewsbury Drapers Company

Shrewsbury Drapers Company
	Drapers Hall, Shrewsbury, now a boutique hotel
Formation	1462
Founded at	Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England
Type	Charity
Registration no.	Charity No: 1132671
Legal status	Active
Purpose	Operation of almshouses
Headquarters	1 Frankwell, Shrewsbury, SY3 8LG
Coordinates	52°42′39″N 2°45′34″W / 52.710946°N 2.759567°W
Region	Shrewsbury
Services	Low-income housing
Website	shrewsburydrapers.org.uk

The Shrewsbury Drapers Company was a trade organisation founded in 1462 in the town of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The members were wholesale dealers in wool and later woollen cloth. The Company dominated the trade in Welsh cloth and in 1566 was given a regional monopoly in the Welsh Wool trade. In the seventeenth century the trade had difficulties particularly during the English Civil war and then further declined in the eighteenth century with the industrialisation of cloth production and the improvement of transport infrastructure. This made it practical for merchants from Liverpool and elsewhere to travel into Wales and purchase cloth directly from the producers. The Reform Acts of the early nineteenth century took away the power of the trade guilds and the trade ceased. Since that time the Shrewsbury Drapers Company has survived and continues as a charity that runs almshouses in Shrewsbury.

Please note

The image shown in the infobox on the right is not Drapers Hall it is The Old House on Dogpole just around the corner from Shrewsbury Drapers` Hall.