Dawley (/dɔːli/ DAW-lee) is a former mining town and civil parish in the borough of Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire, England.

It is on the former Wellington to Craven Arms Line and originally closed in 1962, before being reopened by the Telford Steam Railway.

Clay extraction, for local industrial-pipe factories, brickyards and the pottery industry, have been major influences on the landscape.

There is still a local clay-pipe factory in the adjacent Doseley village; grey clay predominates on the immediate outskirts of Dawley.

The adjacent village of Horsehay was the site of a bridge and later a crane fabrication factory that exported around the world.

The Shropshire Star had a full-page spread article on that day's evening edition to honour the effort made by the locals.

As of midday on 8 June, over 1000 people had joined a Facebook group showing support for the sign, acknowledging the efforts of its creators, and in protest against the controversial redevelopment of the mount to move the Phoenix Academy (now the Telford Langley School) there.

Dawley town centre consists of a single pedestrianised street that was previously the main route from Bridgnorth in the south to Wellington in the north.

Other churches supposedly influenced by Thomas Telford during his work in Shropshire are at nearby Madeley and Bridgnorth.

Dawley was the birthplace in 1848 of Captain Matthew Webb who was the first man to swim the English Channel – his monument stands on the High Street.

Legend suggests that a pig stood up against a wall to watch the parade in Webb's honour that was held on his return.

Edith Pargeter (1913-1995), who in later life under her pen name of Ellis Peters wrote the Brother Cadfael novels, went to school in Dawley.

[14] She grew up with her family in King Street, Dawley and published her first novel in 1936 while working at a chemist's shop in the town.

[16] Thomas (aka Tommy) Nicholls (1931-2021), boxer, lived at Brandlee, Dawley at time of his Olympic appearances in 1952 and 1956.