What’s going for it? With its red-brick Georgian townhouses, porticoed coaching inns, award-winning bookshop and black-and-white half-timbered cottages, Oswestry looks harmless, as pretty as a picture, as if it had peeled itself off the lid of a box of fudge fancies. Don’t be fooled. We are in border country here, and any border country hides a sizable cupboard of skeletons in its past. Oswestry has seen battles aplenty, horrifying dismemberments (don’t even think of Googling the tale of poor Oswald of Northumbria’s arm), pillaging, and regular burnings to the ground. It’s a wonder there’s anything left of the place and its people. The scars are there, if you care to look, deeply incised in the landscape beneath the undergrowth, like the mammoth iron-age fort of Old Oswestry, looming at the city limits (and home to Guinevere – yes, that Guinevere), and Offa’s Dyke, a few minutes further. This is a place that has been fought over for millennia. It’s happy in its slumber these days. Don’t mention the wars. Let sleeping dogs lie.
The case against It’s a trek away from anywhere (but a lovely trek), and there’s no train station in town (though there is one nearby, at Gobowen). It suffers, like so many places, from a spot of town-centre blues, although there are plans afoot for revitalisation. Culture-wise, it could do with some rocket fuel; the less easily entertained and those with metropolitan habits should look elsewhere.
Well connected? Trains: no, but nearby Gobowen station has hourly trains to Wrexham (18 mins), Chester (40 mins) and Shrewsbury (18 mins). Driving: it’s 25 mins to Wrexham, 40 mins to Chester and Shrewsbury, and just over an hour to the M6.
Schools Primaries: Woodside, The Meadows, Our Lady & St Oswald’s Catholic and Morda C of E are all “good”, says Ofsted. Secondaries: The Marches is “good”.
Hang out at… Booka, the town’s much-loved independent bookshop, and the Fat Rabbit vegan cafe. There are a lot of pubs for one small town. Sebastians is still the local lovely stalwart, with handy rooms upstairs if you overindulge.
Where to buy The large town centre is well stocked with cottages and Georgian townhouses. Look south and west, on and off Victoria Road to Morda Road and down to Morda itself, for sizable period detacheds and semis, some fabulous late Victorians and Edwardians. Large detacheds and townhouses, £400,000-£550,000. Detacheds and smaller townhouses, £175,000-£400,000. Semis, £125,000-£280,000. Terraces and cottages, £75,000-£250,000. Flats, £75,000-£180,000. Rentals: a one-bedroom flat, £300-£400pcm; a three-bedroom house, £550-£750pcm.
Bargain of the week An absolutely delightful, large five-bedroom detached Edwardian house; needs a spot of updating. £360,000, with woodheadsalesandlettings.com.
From the streets
Ian Cholmondeley ‘Stonehouse Brewery, where you can sit in the orchard in summer and drink beer brewed on the premises, and eat pizza. They also distil Henstone gin on site.’
Phil Griffiths ‘Friendly, community-minded place. Drive to Liverpool, Manchester or Welsh coast in under an hour. Welcome, gentle pace. Shame about Owen Paterson MP.’
Dave Ward ‘Booka, our super independent bookshop. Four traditional butchers.’
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