to answer best", and others were "light and insufficient." The main market for the Atlantic trade was at Shrewsbury. During the 18th century the turnpike system improved the roads and Welsh businessmen began to control production, causing a decline in the importance of the company. Factors from Liverpool and Bristol took control of the trade away from Shrewsbury. Instead of the weavers carrying their cloth to the market towns, the factors came to them to buy the cloth. The factors would extend credit to the poorer weavers so they could buy wool. The Shrewsbury Drapers were fast losing their control of the trade by 1770. An author wrote of Shrewsbury in the 1790s, From around 1790 individuals other the Shrewsbury drapers began to go direct to the cloth makers to buy their products, taking advantage of the improved roads. By the end of the century the market in Shrewsbury had almost ceased, and in March 1803 the Company gave up the great room in which the trading had been conducted. In 1804 report by Mr. Evans of his tour through north Wales said, An 1824 gazetteer noted that domestic production of cloth by small farmers had greatly declined due to the introduction of spinning mills. The Thursdays webb market was no longer operational and the drapers bought the cloth through their agents in the country. As the Industrial Revolution developed in the 19th century the trade guilds became irrelevant, and their regulatory powers were removed by the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835. Later years: 19th century to present After 1835 the Company retained ownership of Elizabethan Drapers Hall with its 17th century furniture and the almshouses. These were assigned to a charitable trust. By the end of the 19th century the company's role was simply the trustee of the almshouse buildings in Longden Coleham. In the late 1960s the Company agreed to take responsibility for the Hospital of St Giles almshouses, which they rebuilt. By the 1990s maintenance of the Drapers Hall, which was partly rented out for residential use, was becoming a drain on the charity's resources. The Hall was sold to the London Drapers, who restored it and converted it into a boutique hotel. In 2013 it was reported that the Shrewsbury Drapers Company was planning to create 21 sheltered apartments for elderly people in Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury. Notes Sources 1462 establishments in England Clothing companies of England