Oswestry

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Oswestry
Oswestry Marketplace pictured on 31 May 2006.
Oswestry shown within Shropshire
Population	Civil parish: 15,613 (2001 Census)
OS grid reference	SJ292293
District	Oswestry
Shire county	Shropshire
Region	West Midlands
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	OSWESTRY
Postcode district	SY10, SY11
Dialling code	01691
Police	West Mercia
Fire	Shropshire
Ambulance	West Midlands
European Parliament	West Midlands
UK Parliament	North Shropshire
List of places: UK • England • Shropshire

Coordinates: 52°51′35″N 3°03′14″W / 52.8598, -3.0538

Oswestry (pronounced /ˈɒzwəstɹɪ/) is a town in Shropshire, England, very close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483, and A495 roads.

The town is the administrative headquarters of the borough of Oswestry and is the third largest town in Shropshire, following Telford and Shrewsbury. The 2001 Census records the population of the town as 16,660, and a 2008 estimate suggests the population has grown to 17,116.^[1]

1 History
2 Landmarks
3 Transport
4 Education
5 Religious sites
6 Sport
7 Notable people
8 References
9 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Prehistory

The area has long been settled. Old Oswestry is the site of a large Iron Age hill fort with evidence for occupation dating back to the 550s BC.

[edit] Saxon times

The Battle of Maserfield is thought to have been fought here in 642, between the Anglo-Saxon kings Penda and Oswald. Oswald was killed in this battle and was dismembered; according to a legend, one of his arms was carried to an ash tree by a bird, an eagle, and miracles were subsequently attributed to the tree (as Oswald was considered a saint). Thus it is believed that the name of the site derived from a reference to "Oswald's Tree". The spring Oswald's Well is supposed to have originated where the bird dropped the arm from the tree. Offa's Dyke runs nearby to the west.

[edit] The Conquest

Alan fitzFlaad (d. c1114), a Breton knight, was granted the feudal barony of Oswestry^[2] by King Henry I who, soon after his accession, invited Alan to England with other Breton friends, and gave him forfeited lands in Norfolk and Shropshire, including some which had previously belonged to Ernoulf de Hesdin (killed at Antioch while on crusade) and Robert de Belleme.^[3]

Alan's duties to the Crown included supervision of the Welsh border. He also founded Sporle Priory in Norfolk. He married Ada or Adeline, daughter of Ernoulf de Hesdin.^[4]^[5] Their eldest son William was made High Sheriff of Shropshire by King Stephen in 1137. He married a niece of Robert of Gloucester.^[6] But two of their younger sons, Walter and Simon, travelled to Scotland in the train of King David I, Walter becoming the first hereditary High Steward of Scotland and ancestor of the Stewart Royal Family.

[edit] Border town

The town, being very close to Wales, has many Welsh street and place names and the town's name in Welsh is Croesoswallt, meaning Oswald's Cross. The Domesday Book records a castle being built by Rainald, a Norman Sheriff of Shropshire: L'oeuvre (meaning "the work" in French) (which was reduced to a pile of rocks during the English Civil War), and the town changed hands between English and Welsh a number of times during the Middle Ages. Oswestry was attacked by the forces of Welsh rebel leader Owain Glyndŵr during the early years of his rebellion against the English King Henry IV in 1400, it became known as Pentrepoeth or 'hot town' as it was burned and nearly totally destroyed by the Welsh.

[edit] Market town

In 1190 the town was granted the right to hold a market each Wednesday^[7]. After the foot and mouth outbreak in the late 1960s the animal market was moved out of the town center. In the 1990s, a statue of a shepherd and sheep were installed in the market square as a memorial to the history of the market site. With the weekly influx of Welsh farmers the town folk were often bilingual. The town built walls for protection, but these were torn down by the Parliamentarians after they took the town after a brief siege on 22 June 1644, leaving only the Newgate Pillar visible today.

[edit] Military

Park Hall, a mile east of the town was one of the most impressive Tudor buildings in the country. It was taken over by the Army in 1915 and used as a training camp. On 26 December 1918 it burnt to the ground following an electrical fault. The ruined hall and camp remained derelict between the wars.^[8] For decades following World War 2, Oswestry was a prominent military centre for Canadian troops, later British Royal Artillery and latterly, a very successful training centre for 16-18 year old Infantry Junior Leaders. This long and proud military connection came to an ignominious end in the mid-1970s, shortly after some local licensed wildfowlers were shot by the young military guard one winter's night, mistaken for an attacking IRA force, as the locals discharged their shotguns at some passing ducks.

[edit] Landmarks

Attractions in and around Oswestry include: Whittington Castle (in nearby Whittington), Shelf Bank and the Cambrian Railway Museum, and the Old Station Visitor Centre. The town is famous for its high number of public houses per head of population; there are around 30 in the town today, many of which offer real ale. A story incorporating the names of all of the pubs once open in Oswestry can be found hanging on the walls of The Oak on Church Street.

St Oswald's Church, the parish church is almost 1,000 years old, with the Norman tower dating from 1085. There is a new window in the East nave designed by prestigious stained glass artist Jane Grey in 2004. There are also 12 other churches in the town, including a Welsh Presbyterian in Victoria Road.^[9]

[edit] Transport

Oswestry is located at the junction of the A5 with the A483 and A495. The A5 continues from Shrewsbury to the north, passing the town, before turning west near Chirk and entering Wales. Running near the town is a navigable section of the partially restored Montgomery Canal, which runs from Frankton Junction to Newtown.^[10]

Oswestry no longer has an active railway, although the buildings of the former railway station occupy a prominent place in the town. These buildings were reopened as the Cambrian Railways Visitor Centre in June 2006 but have subsequently (11th January 2008) closed due to the terms of the lease not being settled. The nearest active station is at Gobowen.

[edit] Education

As well as numerous primary schools in or just outside Oswestry, there are two private schools, Oswestry School and Moreton Hall, and a comprehensive, The Marches School and Technology College. In addition, post-16 education is provided by Walford and North Shropshire College.

The town also has a noted specialist orthopaedic hospital the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt^[11].

[edit] Religious sites

There are a number of places of worship in Oswestry.^[12] There are two Church of England churches, which are part of the Diocese of Lichfield^[13] - St. Oswald's Parish Church (a church since 640AD)^[14] and the Holy Trinity Parish Church, located on the corner of Roft Street, where it meets the Salop Road.^[15] The town of Oswestry and surrounding villages fall into the parish of Our Lady Help of Christians and St Oswald, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury.

There are two Methodist churches: the Horeb Church, on Victoria Road and the Oswestry Methodist Church. Cornerstone Baptist, a Baptist church is on the corner of Lower Brook Street and Roft Street in a modern 1970s building.^[16] Other Nonconformist churches include the Albert Road Evangelical Church; the Carreg Llwyd Church, which was founded in 1964 ^[17]; and Cabin Lane Church - a plant from Carreg Llywd Church^[18] in 1980, to the eastern expansion of Oswestry.

Another church in the town is Christ Church, now United Reformed Church, but was formerly Congregationalist.^[19] Additionally, there is a Welsh-speaking church, the Seion Church, and the Holy Anglican Church, a Western Rite Anglican establishment. Coney Green is a Jehovah's Witness' church. The Religious Society of Friends also holds meetings in Oswestry.^[20]

[edit] Sport

The former local football club, Oswestry Town F.C., was one of the few English teams to compete in the League of Wales. Oswestry Town folded due to financial difficulties in 2003 and merged with Total Network Solutions F.C. of Llansantffraid, a village eight miles (13 km) away on the Welsh side of the border. Following the takeover of the club's sponsor in 2006, the club renamed itself as The New Saints They moved to the redeveloped Park Hall Stadium on the outskirts of the town in September 2007.