Saddlers Shopping Centre is celebrating its 40^th birthday this month, and what a fantastic 40 years it has been serving the Walsall community!

A mainstay of Walsall town centre since it opened on July 18^th 1980, our centre has witnessed major events in Walsall through the years, from various visits by the Royal Family to the Olympic torch passing through the town and Walsall’s Ellie Simmonds winning double Olympic gold in Shanghai in 2008.

We have welcomed lots of famous faces including Barry McGuigan, Ronald McDonald and the Gladiators, seen queues for the number one Christmas gift change from Cabbage Patch Kids to iPhones.

More recently Saddlers has served the people of Walsall by keeping essential stores open during the Covid-19 pandemic. Excitingly, despite the current challenges the centre has new stores being announced this week and a key role in the future of Walsall’s strategic masterplan.

The centre’s history and key moments in Walsall’s last forty years have been celebrated with a timeline installed around the centre.

Commenting upon the milestone birthday, centre manager Melvin Glasby said, “We are excited to celebrate 40 years of Saddlers Shopping Centre. Saddlers is a really important part of the community  and despite the challenges of the last few weeks it’s good to reflect on all that has happened here and in the town. Birthday celebrations might have been hampered a bit by Covid-19, but the centre has been spruced up with our birthday timeline and our retailers have been given a treat with a special birthday cake to say thank you to our retail key workers.”

Here’s to the next 40!