There is relatively little to say of Quatford. Situated on a probably ancient routeway along a steep slope descending to the east bank of the River Severn, it was identified in Domesday Book as a borough within the manor of Eardington (mainly on the west bank of the Severn), held by Earl Roger de Montgomery, but given no further attention than to indicate that no taxes were then due from it, suggesting it was a very recent foundation. Historians debate whether a temporary Danish camp, followed by a Saxon burh, at Cwatbrucge was technically at Quatford, at nearby Bridgnorth, or somewhere in-between, but Bridgnorth seems to have the greatest support [the evidence is examined in some detail by Jane Croom The pre-medieval and medieval human landscape and settlement pattern of south-east Shropshire, unpublished Ph.D thesis, University of Birmingham, 1989, pp.294-314]. In 1086 Quatford's manor-house was newly-built, its collegiate church still under construction (and therefore not mentioned in Domesday), and a bridge, mentioned in the church's foundation document, was in existence, though probably new. Roger endowed his church with land in Eardington, from which endowment the borough itself and the land before the bridge were specifically excluded, though later he gave other land in exchange for Eardington and added an endowment of a tithe of the market tolls of the borough. A castle was also built in the years that followed. This part of the Severn, though navigable, was difficult to cross, so the river offered a natural defence, while any ford or bridge would have provided strategic and commercial advantages and acted as a magnet for travel routes.

Despite this, Roger's son, Robert de Bellesme, in the context of his rebellion, found it advisable to abandon Quatford around 1101 and transfer his base to Bridgnorth, perhaps dismantling or burning down the castle (whose keep would only have been timber) in the process, and maybe also knocking down the bridge, the piles of which were observable at low tide ca.1840. Though the collegiate community also later relocated to Bridgnorth, presumably taking their church's endowments with them, not all lay residents moved and some who did retained landed interests at Quatford. Quatford ceased to be referred to as a town following the transfer, nor is there any evidence a market continued to operate there; it became a village within the liberty of the borough of Bridgnorth. Yet even these changes did not result in total abandonment of the place and Quatford's church continued to function as the parish church of Eardington, though by 1291 it was so poor as not to be worth taxing.

The present-day village is located north of the castle earthworks, situated to overlook the river, and of the church, which lies upslope just east of, and overlooking, the castle bailey. The north-south through-route passed between church and castle. The marketplace would surely not have been far off, and within easy reach of the bridge assumed to have been built by Earl Roger, in part to improve access to the marketplace, though also to tie together Quatford and the rest of Eardington. One factor in the choice of castle site may have been the need to keep an eye on the bridge. Part of the street either to north or south of castle/church seems the likeliest location for the market, and south has a slight edge, on the grounds of where the possible bridge remains were observed. The manor-house that preceded the castle may have stood in its bailey; Leland reported the remains of what he took to be such a building, apparently of stone, but did not specify the location. The plots and houses that comprised the borough were most likely laid out on one or both sides of that part of the street serving as the marketplace, but not much more extensive than that. Although the relocated town at Bridgnorth began life within the protection of the castle bailey, this was because of imminent threat, whereas the Quatford bailey was too small to accommodate many houses. The modern village seems too distant from castle and church to have been the site of the medieval borough.

Much of this reconstruction is conjectural since the short lifespan of the town, which would have had no time to grow very large, has resulted in it leaving very little trace on the landscape – with the exceptions of the castle earthworks and the church (if on the site of the eleventh century original); it remains to be seen if archaeology can clarify our hazy picture of medieval Quatford.