The name of Caughley is first attested in 901, as an estate-name among lands acquired by the minsters of Much Wenlock, cahing læg.

Mining of limestone, coal, and ironstone, with associated iron production, was underway already in the sixteenth century; Thomas Munslow had established an ironworks there by around 1523.

Ambrose Gallimore (from the Staffordshire potteries) made traditional course and slip-coated wares.

This became the Salopian China Manufactory, making porcelain by 1775, flanked by coal mines to the south-west of Inett Farm to the east of what was then the Caughley hamlet of Darley.

Caughley came to prominence as an industrial centre, employing the noted porcelain engraver Robert Hancock and supplying the Salopian China Warehouse, which opened in London in 1783.