Take a trip back through the decades with this collection of pictures capturing some of the people, places, jobs and everyday moments that helped shape life across Shropshire.
From early-morning delivery rounds and rural trades to telephone exchanges, road openings, changing communities and fashions, these images offer a fascinating glimpse of life in years gone by. Some scenes may still be instantly recognisable, while others have long since disappeared - but each one offers a little window into Shropshire’s past.
The pictures are in no particular order.
Which images bring back memories for you? Share your memories in the comments.
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5. Checking out the birth of a superstore
Dressed in mini skirts and platform shoes, checkout staff gather ahead of the grand opening of Carrefour at Malinslee in September 1973 - the very first hypermarket in the town's emerging city centre. Shared by former employee Estelle Emms (pictured on the second row left with long hair), the team underwent 10 weeks of fun training before opening day. Estelle, then just 18 and newly married, recalled that the surrounding landscape of the developing town centre looked almost like the surface of the moon outside the massive new store. Do you recognise any of the smiling faces lining the checkouts in this pioneer Carrefour team? Were you among the thousands of eager shoppers who lined up to visit the hypermarket when it first opened its doors back in 1973? | Picture shared by Estelle Emms
6. A morning milk run on the estate
Standing beside a classic Unigate electric milk float, 15-year-old Paul Nicholls poses while doing his delivery round on the Manor Park estate at Shifnal in 1978. Early morning milk rounds were a popular rite of passage for local teenagers, who braved all weather conditions to help deliver fresh glass bottles to doorsteps before school. Do you remember the distinctive hum of the electric milk float making its early morning rounds through your neighbourhood? Did you ever do a morning milk run or paper round around Shifnal or Shropshire during your teenage years? | Picture supplied
7. Two deliveries a day on two wheels
Lined up with heavy post bags strapped to their bicycles, postal workers gather outside the sorting office in Ellesmere during the late 1890s. At a time when the Postmaster was a Mr Bickley, this dedicated team delivered and collected mail twice daily across the local area. Can you imagine receiving two postal deliveries every single day? Does anyone in your family have memories or stories handed down about the postmen who cycled the rural routes around Ellesmere in decades past? | Shropshire Star archive
8. Small-town innovation for a lucky spud
Shropshire farmer Mike Thomas inspects his newly invented 'Spud-O-Matic' potato grading machine in full flow at Stoke Manor, near Market Drayton, in August 1991. Fed up with bruised crops, local inventor Mike flipped traditional grading methods completely "back to front," designing a clever contraption that sorted out stray stones and pebbles before they could damage the potatoes as they passed down the line. Do you remember hearing about local farming inventions that helped change the trade back in the 1990s? Did anyone in your family work in agricultural engineering or potato farming around Market Drayton? | Shropshire Star archive