Oswestry

Oswestry, a thriving market-town and municipal borough (1397) of Shropshire, 18 miles NW. of Shrewsbury. It has an old parish church, restored in 1872 at a cost of £10,000; a fragment of the Norman castle of Walter Fitzalan, progenitor of the royal Stewarts; and a 15th-century grammar-school, rebuilt in 1810 and enlarged in 1863-78. Railway workshops were established in 1865, and sewerage and water works constructed in 1866. Oswestry derives its name from St Oswald (q.v.), who was slain here. In 1644 it was captured by the parliamentarians. Pop. (1851) 4817; (1891) 8496. See works by Price (1815) and Cathrall (1855).