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. Early years: 12th–15th centuries Shrewsbury in 1334 was the 7th wealthiest town in England outside of London, and was well situated to handle trade from north and central Wales in time of peace. The drapers took the role of middlemen when the trade in raw wool was replaced by trade in woollen cloth. In the late 12th and 13th centuries all trade in Shrewsbury was controlled by the Guild Merchant. Following other guilds the Drapers took steps to become independent from the guild Merchant. The first step was taken by an independent draper in 1444, when Digory Watur, founded almshouses in front of the west tower of St Mary's Church, that housed 13 residents. He also approached the trustees of the religious guild of the Holy Trinity of St Mary and then asked Edward IV to merge the trade and religious guild into The Shrewsbury Drapers Company. was incorporated in 1462 by a royal charter The new guild was described in the charter as "A Fraternity or Gild of the Holy Trinity of the Men of the Mystery of Drapers in the town of Salop".As part of the religious charter a chantry priest was appointed by the guild to say Mass for the guild in the chapel of St Mary's Church. The Company erected an altar in the chantry chapel of St Mary's in 1501, part