The Buttercross was built in 1824 to provide cover for the sale of butter and cheese. There was great demand for cheese in the expanding industrial towns of Lancashire. By the 1920s Shropshire was one of the top cheese producing counties in the country. More than a quarter of all Cheshire cheese produced was made in Shropshire and more was sold in this county than in Cheshire itself. During the 1930s the demand for milk grew. After the war cheese production declined until in the 1960s only about 20 farms were still productive in the Market Drayton and Whitchurch area.