Oswestry Town Trail - Church Street

Church Street now runs from The Cross down to the traffic lights at the crossroads but until the middle of the C19th. the name Church Street only applied to the stretch of road from the New Gate down to St Oswald’s Church. The New Gate was one of the four entrances through the town walls into the old town. It was removed in 1782 and its site is marked by a column set into the wall about half way along the present Church Street. The part of Church Street from the New Gate up to The Cross was formerly known by several different names – Middle Street, New Gate Street and Cross Street. Church Street, probably the widest of the four main routes into Oswestry, was home to some of its wealthiest citizens.

It is possible to piece together a little of the life of one C18th. gentleman with property in Church Street. Thomas Warter, a wealthy grocer, was born about 1683 and married a girl named Elinor in 1707. On January 29th. 1709, their daughters, Sarah and Jane, were christened. They died within a month of each other. Sarah was buried on October 12th. 1710 and Jane on November 10th. Another daughter, also named Jane, was christened on January 3rd. 1714. Eighteen months later this Jane also died and was buried on June 13th. 1715. On a happier note, three children survived – Elizabeth, born on February 9th.1710, Thomas, the only boy, born February 12th.1711 and Elinor, born on April 14th.1713.

Thomas senior, did not live to see his children grow up. He died in 1723 and was buried on June 26th. His will, dated August 10th.1721, left to his wife, Elinor, ‘all my several messuages and croft of land in Llanforda’ and ‘a house, barn and croft garden in Church Street’ together with the furniture, providing that she did not remarry or change her name. On her death, or if she remarried, the property would pass to their son, Thomas. If Mrs Warter remarried all she would receive was a bed and its furniture. The two girls, Elizabeth and Elinor, would receive £600 each but would have to give their mother £5 each per annum during her lifetime. If Mrs Warter remained a widow, her daughters would forfeit their £600 which went to their mother for their upkeep until the age of twenty two when they would each receive a bed and its furniture, and presumably were expected to have found themselves a husband. The silver plate was to be divided between the three children. It appears that Thomas had to wait for his mother’s death or remarriage before he received anything else. Elinor did not remarry but died twenty one years after her husband and was buried on January 15th. 1744. Thomas’s will holds one mystery. Right at the end is a very brief statement ‘to my daughter, Betty, £200’. So far it has not been possible to trace Betty and we are left to speculate as to her relationship, if any, to the rest of the family. [1]

The Coach and Dogs Inn on the corner of Church Street and Upper Brook Street was built for Edward Lloyd of Llanforda in 1660. He needed somewhere to stable his dog cart ( a light four wheeled carriage )and team of dogs while he attended church. In 1882, the Coach and Dogs became a temperance cocoa house. For some years in its recent past the building was a café and is now a fabric shop. Although the ground floor has been altered the upper part of the building looks relatively unchanged.

The Free Grammar School was founded by David Holbache in 1407. Free in the sense that it was not tied to any church or monastery, the school is one of the oldest in the country. It was housed in buildings next to St Oswald’s Church but by 1776 the school had grown and moved to new premises at the end of Upper Brook Street. Since then the old school building has seen several changes of use. For some time it was used as the workhouse until a new one was built at Morda and then, until the 1950s, became private houses. By the 1970s the building was in desperate need of repair and was restored and repaired by a local business man. It became the Museum of Childhood until the lease was bought by the Town Council. The building is now the Heritage and Exhibition Centre.

Only a small part of the mediaeval Church of St. Oswald remains, part of the tower dates back to the C13th. The church was badly damaged during the Civil War and was largely rebuilt. In 1807 the church was repaired and extended. A new entrance door was built at the chancel end of the church in 1831 and new pews were installed. Cathrall quotes from one headstone in the churchyard which shows the extent of infant mortality in the C19th. There were at least ten children in this family and four of those had died before reaching the age of fifteen months. The headstone reads ‘ In memory of Robert, second son of Robert and Sarah Edwards who died Dec. 1st. 1808 aged one year. Also of Robert, their fourth son, who died Jan. 10th. 1818 aged 6 months. Also of Martha, their fourth daughter, who died March 8th. 1823 aged 11 months. Also of Sophia, their fifth daughter, who died May 15th. 1824 aged 4 months. Also of Robert Edwards, grandfather of the above infants, who died May 10th.1837 age 84. Sacred to the memory of Joseph, fifth son of Robert and Sarah who died May2nd 1851 age 32.’ [2]

The church gates, made by Elias Phillips of Pentrepoeth (Upper Church Street), were erected in 1815 and cost the princely sum of £8. In 1826 the road by the church was widened by moving the church wall back into the churchyard by a few yards and building the present wall.

Bellan House, originally known as Swan Hill or Swan’s Hill House, was built in 1779 for Robert Lloyd and was occupied by member of his family until 1803, by which time it had become known as the Great House. It was then bought by John Jones and converted into two houses. The house nearest the church was called The Lymes and was occupied by various members of the Jones family and then by Dr. George Harvey Williams. Dr. Williams was mayor of Oswestry in 1854 and ‘55. He moved out in 1862 and both The Lymes and Bellan House next door were sold at auction to Thomas Hill. He sold The Lymes in 1871 for £2500 and it became St Oswald’s Vicarage until the upkeep proved too costly and the vicar moved to the Old Vicarage in Upper Brook Street. The 1862 sale particulars show that The Lymes was the larger of the two houses having twelve bedrooms and dressing rooms, large dining room, drawing room and breakfast parlour. Outside was stabling for twelve horses, a coach house, a servants’ cottage and extensive gardens. The houses have again become one, being home to the preparatory department of Oswestry School. [3]

Cae Glas mansion, now demolished, stood back from the road. In an old particular of sale, quoted by Isaac Watkin, it was said to have been a three storeyed house ‘ with a pillared entrance hall, breakfast and drawing rooms, the usual offices, twelve bedrooms and dressing rooms and spacious cellars’ Outside were outbuildings, dog kennels, kitchen garden and flower gardens with conservatories. There was also a gardener’s cottage and a plunge bath with dressing rooms attached. The whole property sat on a site of approx. ten acres. It was sold in 1834 to Thomas Jones, an architect. [4]

In 1908, Mr Charles Jones, nephew of Thomas, offered to sell the land to the Town Council for £6000 on condition that it was made into a park. The price included the two houses, Nos. 34 and 36, Church Street. Charles Jones also offered to contribute £200 towards the cost of landscaping the park. The park was opened to the public on June 23rd. 1910. The Memorial Gates at the entrance honour those men from the town who died in the two World Wars. Their names are inscribed on the two pillars.

Living at No. 36 in 1881 was Mrs Grace Rees, aged 48, the widow of Mr D. Rees, the late manager of the North and South Wales Bank. Mrs Rees derived her income from investments. Living with her were five of her children, two daughters, twenty five year old Ann and eleven year old Caroline. There were three sons, David, aged 20, was a bank apprentice, and Ferdinand and Oswald, aged 16 and 13, were both scholars. Also living with Mrs Rees and her children were three nephews, all scholars, as well as two boarders. Fifty one year old Caroline Ford is described as a Scripture Reader. The other boarder was Jane Jones aged seventy. Interestingly, there is no mention in the census entry of any live – in servants.

Next door, at No. 34, lived widowed William Bull, aged sixty one in 1881. William was a solicitor. He moved to Oswestry in 1835 and after an apprenticeship with Mr Richard Croxon he founded his own legal firm. He went on to serve as clerk on several local authority boards and in 1879 was Registrar for Births and Deaths. He died in 1893. Living with Mr Bull in 1881 were four daughters. Elizabeth, Catherine, and Frances, aged thirty seven, thirty and twenty four, were all unmarried. The other daughter, Mary Williams, thirty five, was a widow with two young children, five year old Edith and three year old William. William Bull’s son, Charles, a twenty five year old bachelor, was also a solicitor, living and working with his father. There was one servant living in the house, forty year old Ellen Jones.

No. 32 was occupied by doctors and their families for many years. In 1853 Dr. Robert Blaikie was living there. He was born in Oswestry, the son of a doctor, also named Robert. Dr Blaikie senior died in 1824 aged only forty four. His son was an assistant to Dr. Peploe Cartwright who lived across the road at No. 33. Robert Blaikie later became a partner in the firm and moved to No. 33 in the mid 1860s, presumably after the death of Dr Cartwright in 1865, and stayed there until his death in 1901. He later became senior partner in the practice. When Dr Blaikie moved out of No. 32, Dr Robert de la Poer Beresford moved in. He was born in London in 1843 and moved to Oswestry in 1865. Dr Beresford was elected Medical Officer of Health in 1868 and was Mayor of Oswestry in 1909 and 1910. Both Drs. Blaikie and Beresford were Medical Officers for the Oswestry House of Industry for many years and also worked at the Cottage Hospital. Dr Beresford later moved to Willow Street and No. 32 became Lloyds Bank.

By 1881, Robert Blaikie, then aged 62, was living at No. 33 with his family and had been joined in the medical practice by Dr. Beresford and Dr John Peploe Cartwright. Robert’s son, Arthur, became a doctor and surgeon and joined his father in the practice.

Living next door to the Blaikies in 1881, at The Lawn, was Frances Croxon and her sister, Alice. Both were spinsters, aged 85 and 79. Living with them was their cousin, Henry Croxon, his wife, Beatrice and their two month old son, Edward. Also living in the house were seven servants - a coachman, a cook, two housemaids and two nurses and a male footwear servant. The Croxons were a well-known and wealthy family who first moved to Oswestry in the late C18th. and had The Lawn built.

The Lawn was later purchased by Owen Owen MA from the Willow Street Academy. He opened The Lawn as the Boys High School in 1883. Mr Owen continued as head master until 1893 when he was appointed as the first chief inspector of schools to the Central Welsh Board for Intermediate Schools. He became a JP in 1893, retired in 1913 and moved to Colwyn Bay where he died in 1920. The building is now an estate agents and solicitors.

The Wynnstay Arms Hotel was formerly known as the Bowling Green and the Cross Foxes. Until around 1800 it was just an ordinary inn but was then extended and improved to cater for the coach trade operating between London and Holyhead, providing food for the travellers and a change of horses. It became one of the major coaching inns in Oswestry. A coach also left from the Wynnstay at 7am each day to take passengers to Shrewsbury. When Princess Victoria (later Queen) visited Oswestry in 1832 with the Duchess of Kent her coach stopped at the Wynnstay. It is said that the crowd waiting to see her was so great that one woman was killed in the crush.

The Salopian Journal carries a report of the wedding of Peploe Cartwright to the daughter of B. Churchill Esq. of The Mount on June 15th. 1842. It mentions at some length the gentleman’s party at the Wynnstay Arms on the 14th. where the guests included Mayor John Hayward, Thomas Penson and John Croxon. ‘… dinner, wines and dessert etc. did the new host and hostess infinite credit – everything was of the finest class and well served.’ [5]

Church Street has several old inns. The Sun Inn on the corner stands on the site of a much older building which was demolished sometime between 1875 and 1880. The Bell Inn is a half timbered building and is mentioned in parish registers as far back as the 1660s. The Old Vaults is said to have been built in 1770 while The Kings Head, next door, has had its frontage rebuilt although this apparently conceals an older structure. The Fox Inn is another of Oswestry’s old half-timbered buildings. It once had a projecting gable and Isaac Watkin tells a story about a traveller in the mid 1850s. This man didn’t see the gable, struck his head on it and badly damaged his new silk hat. After being threatened with the law the owner, Richard Smale, had the offending gable removed thus spoiling the whole look of the building.

Until 1849, Festival Square was the site of Oswestry’s livestock market. The market was then moved to a larger site of approx. two and a half acres between English Walls and Salop Road which is now the Central Car Park. In 1969 the market was moved to a larger and more convenient site on the outskirts of Oswestry.

References
1. SHROPSHIRE ARCHIVES – ref: 5169/2.
Will drawn up 10/8/1721, probate granted 24/9/1723