Plans for a new passenger rail service, connecting Wrexham and Shropshire to London via the West Midlands, are making headlines locally. The, mooted to launch in 2025, would call at Gobowen, Shrewsbury and Telford. There is even talk of reconnecting Oswestry’s heritage-rail station to its mainline neighbour at Gobowen, three miles north.
Oswestry really comes in to its own in spring and summer. It hosts a popular food festival in early July, and its centrepieceOswestry is compact enough to explore on foot, but a car is useful for wider exploration in the Shropshire countryside.is a stylish Georgian property. It offers country-house rooms, split between Valley Rooms with private patios and the traditional Coach House. Many of these have countryside views, and some are dog-friendly.
The Visitor Information Centre has maps of themed town trails — look out for Llwyd Mansion dating from 1604. Just outside town,1) The Oswestry Town Museum is home to a Guinness World Records-holding collection of ear trumpets by local man Myk Briggs — 563 at last count. 2) When Sir Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand first crossed the Atlantic in a hot air balloon in 1987, the balloon was designed and built in Oswestry.
3) The statue of the farmer on Festival Square, known locally as Red Square, marks the site of the former beast market, where livestock was traded until 1849. The elephant dodged the usual bridge toll.