Oswestry Town Trail - Beatrice Street

Beatrice Street was once one of the four main routes into the walled town of Oswestry with entry through the East or Beatrice Gate. It was said to have been named for Beatrice, wife of Henry IV. In the C16th. Beatrice Street was lined with 140 barns owned by the burgesses and used for storing hay and corn.

In 1439, Hugh and Alan Wythyford granted to Thomas, son of Roger Westbury of Oswestry, a plot of land and garden ‘in the street of Badestrete, in breadth between the garden of Sir John ap Egnon on the one side and the wall of the town on the other, and in length from the high street there to the wall of the town and the pond of the said Thomas on the other’. The rent for this together with land in Upton was five shillings per annum, to be paid at Michaelmas and the Annunciation. [1]

By the middle of the C19th. Beatrice Street was lined with shops and public houses instead of barns. The railway had encroached on the south side of Beatrice Street, with the railway track running alongside Beatrice Street and the Gobowen Road, together with the Cambrian and Great Western Stations, a coal depot, cattle pens and, of course, the massive buildings of the Cambrian Locomotive and Wagon Works, all providing work for several hundred men and boys. Much of this has now disappeared following the closure of the railway in the 1960s. In their place we have a bus station, supermarkets and petrol station.

Housing for many of the railway workers was provided by rows of back to back terraces mainly in the Gate Street and Duke Street area. Most of these have also disappeared and more modern and spacious housing has taken their place.

In 1856, there were five coal merchants in Oswestry, all with premises on Beatrice Street, no doubt due to the proximity of the coal wharf. Along the street were eleven shops selling groceries and sundries, two maltsters, six public houses, one beer seller, and one butcher but no greengrocers, probably because people either grew their own vegetables or bought them in the market. The trades were well represented with a blacksmith, a whitesmith, wheelwright, cooper, three plumbers and glaziers, a slater and a slate merchant. Two men who had expanded their businesses were Isaac Holland and John Vaughan. They were listed in Slaters Directory of 1856 as brickmakers, cabinet makers, joiners, builders, and timber merchants. John Vaughan was also a house painter and sign writer.

Isaac Holland was forty two years old in 1851, married to Ann, with three daughters and two sons living at home. The census gives his occupation as carpenter and tells us that he employed ten men. At the time Isaac was living next door to the Plough Inn. He had evidently moved to Oswestry in 1837 as his fifteen year old daughter was born in Denbigh and his fourteen year old son in Oswestry.

Isaac Holland built Llwyn Terrace on Beatrice Street shortly after the advent of the railway. The houses are still there but the appearance of many has been spoilt by the addition of modern windows and doors. They lack the uniformity which would have been one of their attractions. There are ten houses in all, built in two blocks of five, with Nos.5 and 6 larger than the other eight houses.

We can get some idea of the interiors of the houses as two of them were up for sale, No.5 in 1990 and No.2 in 1991. On the ground floor of No.5 are two large living rooms and a kitchen with access to a cellar. The first floor had three large double bedrooms (the smallest of these now converted to a bathroom). The master bedroom had a marble and cast iron fireplace while the fireplace in the second bedroom was of slate and cast iron. On the second floor were two further large double bedrooms. The houses have long front gardens and a walled yard at the back with a further lawned area which now appears to be used for parking. No. 5 was on sale in 1990 for £65,000.

No. 2 had smaller rooms and only one bedroom on the second floor. The asking price in 1991 was £45,000. [1]

In 1871, Isaac Holland and his family were living at 7 Llwyn Terrace. By 1879, Isaac had disappeared from the directories and in the 1881 census Ann Holland appears as a widow aged 74, still living in Llwyn Terrace. Living with her were two sons, 44 year old Joseph and 39 year old Samuel. Both men were joiners and both were unmarried. Listed next in the census is Mary Ann Crowther, Ann’s eldest daughter. Mary is listed as a lodger so was probably sharing a house with her mother. Although married, there is no Mr Crowther mentioned and Mary’s occupation is given as dressmaker. She had three sons living at home. Alfred, 18, was a railway clerk, Thomas, 17, a general clerk and George, 16, a grocer’s apprentice. We lose track of the family after this except for the middle one of the three sons. By 1900, Thomas Holland Crowther was living at 7, Llwyn Terrace. He had done well and was now Assistant Registrar and Assistant High Bailiff of the County Court.

No.1 Beatrice Street was built in 1866 for Edward Manford, a provision dealer, who named it The Golden Cannister. The shop continued as a grocers but the name seems to have disappeared once Mr Manford moved on. By 1900, this property was no longer mentioned in the directories.

The Old Swan, No.7, was a half timbered inn dating from the C17th. It appears in the parish registry for 1631 as Ye Swanne. One of its later owners, Philip Ashley, built the adjoining Swan Brewery about 1868. In 1879 the brewery was owned by Edward Ashley who also owned the Fighting Cocks Inn further up the street. Edward Ashley died in 1880, at a relatively early age and the brewery was sold to Messrs. Robert Richards and Sons and later to Greenfields. The Swan Inn and the brewery were demolished in 1930.

The Fighting Cocks, Nos. 11 and 13, was another of Oswestry’s old half timbered inns. It was originally known as the White Horse Inn. The owners, Francis and Edward Lloyd, sold it to their tenant, George Edwards, in 1713. Fourteen years later, Mr Edwards gave the property to his brother, Thomas, a mercer living in Cross Street. Thomas Edwards changed the name to the Fighting Cocks although it seems that the premises were never used for cock fighting. Cock fights are said to have taken place at the George Hotel, Bailey Street, between 1750 and 1800.

In 1881, two separate families were living above the Fighting Cocks. Mrs. Mary Ashley, widow of Edward Ashley, was living in part of the building with her sons James, 12, and Philip, 7. Living with them was a 19 year old servant, Margaret Jones. The other occupants were William Marshall, a licensed victualler and his wife, Leah. They also had a domestic servant, 18 year old, Annie Barrett. Mary Evans, a barmaid, also lived with them.

The top floor of the Fighting Cocks has now been converted into three flats but externally appears little changed. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the ground floor, now two shops, with rather ugly and relatively modern shop fronts which are not in keeping with the rest of the building.

The present Plough Hotel stands on the site of an earlier building. On the side wall can be seen a plaque marking the site of the old Beatrice Gate. When the gate was removed in 1782, its position was marked with pillars on both side of the road. These have now gone and the plaque marks their place.

Isaac Hughes, a master shoemaker lived at No. 12, Beatrice Street for some time. In 1881, when he was 62 years of age, he was living there with his wife and two unmarried children. His daughter, Sarah, was a general servant and Andrew, his 14 year old son, a tailor’s apprentice. Isaac was also a poet. In 1838 he had a book of poems published entitled ‘Poems on Various Subjects’. This was published by Samuel Roberts, a local printer. He also won second prize in a national competition for a poem on the subject of ‘Sunday’.

Apart from the changes caused by the coming, and going, of the railway, Beatrice Street has changed very little. Some buildings came down and new ones have replaced them, but it still remains a street of small, individual shops, one or two of which look as if they have changed very little in the last hundred years.

1. Shropshire Archives DA4/999/1/1/ 4-5