Oswestry Town Trail - Oswald Road

Former Railway Station - Oswestry (image) [+]
Former Railway Station in Oswestry

When the railway came to Oswestry, Oswald Road was created to link the station and town centre. By the late 1860s Oswestry had two stations. The first, opened in 1848, served the Shrewsbury to Chester railway and linked Oswestry to the main railway system. This station was known as Oswestry GWR. The second station, owned by the Cambrian Railway Company, formed part of the network extending from Wrexham and Whitchurch in the east to Aberystwith and Pwllheli in the west and Brecon to the south.

Oswestry became the headquarters of the Cambrian Railway Company. They had a large engineering works here making engines, carriages and wagons. The railway provided work for several hundred people and was partly responsible for the rapid population growth in Oswestry in the latter part of the C19th. The population rose from approx. five and a half thousand in 1861 to nine and a half thousand in 1901. Many of the workers were housed in back to back terraces in the area around Gate Street, most of which were bulldozed during redevelopment in the 1960s.

Also in the 1960s, Dr. Beeching and the Conservative government were responsible for the closure of many of England’s railway stations. In Oswestry, both railway stations closed. The GWR station and the buildings near it were demolished along with the railway track. In their place came supermarkets and a new bus station. The engineering sheds are, for the most part, still to be seen but have been converted to smaller workshops for light industrial and commercial use.

The Cambrian Station survived and has been converted into an attractive and interesting Visitor Centre and café. An exhibit in the Centre shows just how extensive Oswestry’s railway used to be.