Spotlight on Market Drayton

While south Shropshire towns like Ludlow are synonymous with good food, Market Drayton depends on it.

The small market town in north Shropshire is famed for being the home of gingerbread.

The oldest recorded mention of gingerbread in Market Drayton goes back to 1793 and at its peak, the traditional biscuity food, which contained rum, was made by four bakers in the town.

Market Drayton still has big employers who work in the food sector. Palethorpes, now part of the Pork Farms Group, produces pork pies, hot eating pies, sausage rolls and other chilled pastry products.

The company has been baking savoury delights since 1931 and produces three million hot and cold delicacies every week.

It cooks pies and pastries for all taste buds, with a range of pork pies, rolls, savoury eggs, and slices.

Pork Farms has a 2,500-strong workforce, though many of those also work at its other plants in Shaftesbury and Nottingham.

The company is heavily involved in the local community, drawing supplies of milk from local farmers and also getting involved in a series of events.

Each year, it organises a 10km run, that winds through the town and draws a large crowd of enthusiastic onlookers.

Not all of Market Drayton's claims to fame, however, are food-related. The settlement sits on the River Tern, and also hosts the Shropshire Union Canal, National Cycle Route 75 and the A53 road.

Despite its proximity to Wales, it is described as being the most central town in England by means of a geometric exercise: A rectangle just touching the north, south, east and west extremities of the country, creates a central point two miles south of the town, near the village of Woodseaves.

Bibliophiles also know the town for being the home of Tern Press, a highly-respected small press publisher of collectible poetry.

Market Drayton is steeped in history and has a number of 17th and 18th century half-timbered buildings in the town centre, as well as a restored Norman church, St Mary's, next to the grammar school of 1558.

The town's marketplace dates from 1246 and the market continues today. A great fire destroyed almost 70 per cent of the town in the 17th century, inevitably starting in a bakery.

But the town has also created headlines in more recent times. Market Drayton was home to the UK's most famous poacher of the 20th century, Poddy Podmore.

He entertained the public for many years with a series of pranks and stunts. Such was his popularity, that there was even a fan club to him in Philadelphia called Pod's People.

Poddy was a self-confessed poacher and one of his most celebrated stunts was just before Christmas in 1977.

Dressed as Santa Claus, he climbed on to the roof of Shrewsbury jail with a sack of cigarettes and tobacco for the inmates.

For over an hour he bellowed "Merry Christmas" from his lofty perch and he only returned back to earth when a Green Goddess fire engine arrived with ladders to allow give prison officers and police access to the roof.

Poddy also gained notoriety by appearing in court dressed as a frogman after his infamous world frog swallowing record attempt in 1974, when he swallowed a live frog at a Market Drayton pub and washed it down with a pint of black and tan.