| Legend says that a bird carried away a limb or the head of the dead king and where it fell a spring bubbled forth, since known as Oswalds well. Sadly, because of its historic and often violent past, Oswestry has less visible signs of its history than many a town with only half the history. According to some, monarchs and by God. The Welsh destroyed it when the English held it, the English destroyed it when the Welsh had it, and God destroyed it, according to one antiquary, when twice in the 16th century, fires broke out in the town. If all that wasn't enough, Cromwell finished off what others started by destroying what was left of the Norman castle and much of the church. Probably the oldest remaining building in the town is Lloyd's mansion, a beautiful timber-framed building on the corner of Bailey Street. Today, Oswestry is still very much a market town for the benefit of the surrounding rural parishes, although recent industrial developments have brought industries to the town that have little connection with agriculture. Although it probably leads the world in hot air balloon development for example.
Oswestry will never become the pretty historic town that Ludlow or Much Wenlock are, but its history is still as exciting to study, and because the few signs of its past are hidden so well between modern facades, their discovery, to the casual visitor, makes them that much more satisfying. | |
