DRAYTON-in-HALES, or MARKET-DRAYTON,
a parish, comprising the market-town of Drayton
in Hales, Drayton division of the hundred of BRADFORD
(North), county of SALOP; and the townships
of Ahnington, Bloore in Tyrley, and Hales, in the
northern division of the hundred of PIREHILL, county
of STAFFORD, and containing 4426 inhabitants, of
which number, 3700 are in the town of Drayton
in- Hales (including the hamlet of Little Drayton),
19 miles (N. E. by N.) from .Shrewsbury, and 159
\N..W- by N.) from .London. Nennius endeavours
to identify- this with the Caer DraUhon:. of the Britons,
enumerating it as one of the principal cities belonging
to that people;  and the correctness of his opinion
has not been arraigned by any succeeding writer. It isevident,
from the discovery of the foundations of several
houses in the adjoining fields, that the town anciently
occupied a more extended site than it does at present.
In the record of Domesday it is mentioned by the
name Draitune. The manor was successively in the
possession of the abbot of St. Ebrulph, in Normandy,
and the abbot of Combermere, in Cheshire; the latter,
in 1246, received the grant of a market to be held at
Drayton, on Wednesday, and a fair on the eve, day, and
morrow, of the nativity of the Virgin Mary. At
Bloreheath, about two miles from the town, but in
the county of Stafford, a sanguinary encounter occurred,
on the 23rd of September, 1459, between five
thousand Yorkists under the command of Richard
Neville, Earl of Salisbury, "and ten thousand Lancastrians
under that of Jaines Touchet, Lord Audley j
although the numbers were thus disproportionate, the
latter were defeated, and their general and two thousand
four hundred men slain: after this the earl pro-
ceeded to join the Duke of York at Ludlow, whither h
was hastening when interrupted by the opposite party.
During the parliamentary war, this neighbourhood was
the scene of a skirmish, on the 25th of January, 1643,
when Prince Rupert routed the enemy, who were commanded
by Sir Thomas Fairfax. The town stands on
the north-western bank of the river Tern; it is clean
and moderately well paved, and the houses present a
neat appearance. There are manufactories for paper,
and for hair-cloth for chair-bottoms, and some .business
is done in malting; but the trade, which was formerly
very considerable, has declined, in consequence <of the
construction of the Grand Trunk canal. The market,
formerly of greater repute than at present, is on Wednesday.
Fairs, for horned cattle, horses, sheep,  pigs,
and hempen and woollen cloth, are held on the Wednesday
before Palm-Sunday, Wednesday before June
22nd, September 19th, and October 24th. The petty
sessions for the Drayton division of the hundred are
held here.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of
Salop (except that portion of the parish lying in the
county of Stafford, which is within the peculiar jurisdiction
of the courts leet and baron of the manor of Tyrley),
and diocese of Lichfield and.Coventry, rated in the king's
books at £ 12.10. 7., and in the patronage of Richard
Corbet, Esq. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, was
built, with the exception probably of the steeple, in the
reign of Stephen 5 it consists of a nave, aisles, a chancel,
and a square tower supported by buttresses and adorned
with battlements and pinnacles; the whole of the
building, except the tower, was- thoroughly repaired in
1787; and it has lately received an addition of
one hundred and fifty sittings, one hundred of which
are free,. the Incorporated Society for the enlargement
of churches and chapels having granted £ 100
towards defraying the expense. Here are places of
worship for Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyan
Methodists. A free grammar school was founded in
1554, and endowed with a rent-charge of £22 pe
annum by Sir Rowland Hill, and £10 per annum
by Lady Lake, for a master and an usher, whose
offices were consolidated by a decree of the court of
Chancery in 1816, arid the master's salary fixed at £26
per annum; the school is open to all the boys of the
parish, the usual number of scholars being about sixty.
In 1730, the Rev. Richard Price left property producing
£8. 14. per annum, for teaching children, and
other purposes; and John Bill bequeathed £240, for
teaching and apprenticing ten boys. There are also
various smaller benefactions, for apprenticing poor children,
and other charitable purposes.