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About the Borough of Oswestry

Please click on a link below to jump to the section you wish to view, or scroll down this page to view the sections in order.

Regional Setting
Population
Oswestry Borough Map
Oswestry Town
The Rural Area
Local Economy
Local Papers
Links

Regional Setting

Oswestry Borough is situated in the north west of the county of Shropshire, on the border between England and Wales. The border with Wales runs to the north and west, to the east is North Shropshire District and to the South Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough.

The county town of Shrewsbury is located around 20 miles to the south east along the A5 trunk Road, with Telford (45 miles) and Birmingham (70 miles) accessible via the M54 and M6 Motorways.

Wrexham and Chester are 14 miles and 17 miles to the north, and Welshpool 16 miles to the south, along the A483 trunk road.

Rail facilities are located at Gobowen, 3 miles to the east of Oswestry town, with services to Chester and the north west, and to Birmingham and London, with links to Mid-Wales and Crewe via Shrewsbury.

OS X 328968
OS Y 329376
Post Code SY11
Lat (WGS84) N52:51:26 ( 52.857169 )
Long (WGS84) W3:03:23 ( -3.056386 )

Total Population as of 2001

Oswestry Borough is the smallest District in the Shropshire County, which was formed when Telford and Wrekin District was made a Unitary Authority in 1998. The Borough covers an area of approximately 26,000 hectares (around 100 Square miles).

West Midlands - 5,276,308
Shropshire - 283,171
Bridgnorth Distict - 52,497
North Shropshire - 57,108
Oswestry Borough - 37,308
Shrewsbury & Atcham - 95,850
South Shropshire - 40,410

Oswestry Town

The market town of Oswestry is the largest settlement in the borough, with a population of around 14,500. It acts as the principal commercial and administrative centre for the districts population, of around 45,000 people, extending into Midwales. The town centre includes over 200 shops and a thriving outdoor market every Wednesday. The town's cattle market and the Maesbury Road Industrial Estate are located to the south east of the town.

View map of Oswestry Town Centre
View parking map of Oswestry Town Centre

The Rural Area

Outside the town of Oswestry, the Borough is predominantly rural in character, with a distinct division between east and west. The upland areas to the west of the borough, along the Welsh border, provide some of the most attractive scenery in the County. To the east of the Borough in the rich lowland at the edge of the Shropshire plain, characterised by its traditional 'estate' villages and large scale dairy and arable farms enterprises. The borough also contains a network of larger villages each of which acts as a local service centre for it surrounding rural area.

Local Economy

Oswestry developed as a railway town, becoming the headquarters of the Cambrian Railway, and this has left an industrial legacy to the local workforce and to the local workforce and to the character of the town. The economy of the town suffered greatly in the 1960's with the closure of the railway works and the loss of a major employer in the large Park Hall Army Camp.

In response to this the Oswestry Borough Council established industrial estates in the Maesbury road area and the last three decades have seen the development of a wide employment base, with more than 1000 jobs on around 50 hectares of the industrial estate.

The largest employer in the Borough with over 1000 employees is The Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic & District Hospital NHS Trust (RJAH) situated in Gobowen. The RJAH Orthopaedic Hospital is a recognised leader in the field of arthritis and biomechanical research. British Telecom's Whittington House, a major operations centre for the Uk is also based in Oswestry.

In the rural areas the agricultural industry has dominated and over the years has been subject to changes resulting in progressive loss of employment. In the north of the Borough coal mining stimulated the growth of large villages at St. Martins, Weston Rhyn and Gobowen. Recent years have seen some diversification of the rural economy with the tourism industry experiencing rapid development.

Local Newspapers

www.bordercountiesadvertizer.co.uk
Oswestry & Border Counties Advertizer

www.northshropshirechronicle.com
North Shropshire Chronicle

www.shropshirestar.com
The Shropshire Star

www.wrexhamleader.co.uk/
Wrexham Leader