Celebration of community, history and music at Dawley Day event

Hundreds of families turned out for the annual event at the Doseley Road fields, taking advantage of the sunshine to learn about local charities, support small businesses and play games.

Live music played on a specially made stage at the free event, while lines of busy stalls filled the field.

It was a far cry from just two weeks ago, when Great Dawley Town Council had to cancel one of its other flagship events, Malinslee Day, because of rain.

Councillor Malcolm Randall, mayor of Great Dawley, said: "Hopefully a lot of those will turn up here and make it a wonderful day.

"Our council staff work hard to run these events, and I have the utmost respect and admiration for them.

"We try to make Dawley Day the best we can each year, we try and introduce something different to keep the general people coming. It's a good chance to show off Dawley."

Organisers said the event was about communities working together and supporting one another, as well as a way to say thank you to residents.

The Warner family, who live in Dawley, visited the fields especially for Dawley day. Mason, 6, played games and posed for pictures on giant deck chairs.

Stefan Warner, Mason's dad, said it was a fantastic event.

The 36-year-old installer said: "It's really good, especially for the kids. And they run for free, so it's good for the people who can't afford stuff.

"It was a shame about the stuff at Telford Town Park, where it was just rained out. We haven't had a good summer so far, so it's nice that it's sunny for the kids."

Among the stalls, representatives of the Cinderloo 1821 Remembered spoke to people about how the town has changed over the last two centuries.

They showed visitors where their houses are on old maps, and were displaying all the old pubs, railways, churches and collieries in the area.

In 1821, about 3,000 men and women travel from all corners of what is now Telford in protest of a cut in wages at nearby collieries.

The little known piece of local history saw many of those marching injured or even killed during a clash with the Shropshire Yeomanry, near to where the Forge retail park stands today.

Pete Jackson, part of Cinderloo Remembered, said: "The reaction we have had has been fantastic.

"Everyone wants to point to where they were born or where they live. It's changed a lot, but people are very much associated with the places where their fathers and grandfathers would have worked, so it's a great way to start a conversation about what's great about Dawley.

"Part of our project is to mark Cinderloo, and it's about raising awareness about those events but also the communities that used to be active in the area so that people can recreated those communities now. Dawley Day is great to get people together, talking and mixing, and that's what Cinderloo was about. IT was about people sticking together, solidarity and about people working together for a common purpose."