Volume 2 — OSWESTRY, SHROPSHIRE.

OSWALDESTRE.

THE hundred of Oswestry, though but of moderate extent, represents a tract of country which was for centuries a field of contest between the Britons and the men of Mercia, the Welsh and the English; for it was placed within the old Welsh district of Powys-Fadog, in the centre of the English march, and itself a marcher lordship. Its changes of name have been numerous, adopted as either language prevailed, or as any event occurred which seemed to the party in possession worthy to be commemorated.

The earliest known name of the district is “Maesdir,” compounded of the Welsh maes, a meadow, and tir, land, which in the hands of the English, and, no doubt, upon becoming the seat of a burh, or strong place, became Maesbury, and afterwards Maserfield, an unconscious but not uncommon reduplication of the same idea in the two languages. It was so called when here was fought the great battle between the Christian Oswald and the pagan Penda, about A.D. 642, in which Oswald fell; and his members are said to have been suspended to a cross or tree, in remembrance of which the place was long afterwards known as “Croes Oswald” and “Oswaldestre,”—a not very probable etymology. No doubt the former name really indicated a cross erected in memory of the Christian king; and the latter, also part Welsh and part English, meant “Oswald’s strong place.” The old Welsh maes possessed much vitality, and may be recognised in “Mersete,” the name of the hundred in Domesday, and probably in “Meresburie,” the name of the manor.

The next change was consequent upon the erection of a handsome Norman church, the precursor of the present structure, when Oswaldestre became Blanc-Minster, or, in the language of the records, “Album Monasterium.” Later on, however, as Oswald’s fame as a martyr gained ground, his name took the ascendency, and both town and hundred became known as Oswestry. The church was probably transferred from the Saxon foundation of Maesbury.

The oldest work of man in the district is, no doubt, a British entrenchment placed on high ground a little north of Oswestry, and known as “Hên Ddinas,” the old fortress, and which in later days has been called, for no sufficient reason, Old Oswestry. “Hên Ddinas,” however, though the British, did not become the Mercian centre; this was probably in the first instance at Maesbury—a name found about 3 miles south of Oswestry—but, so far as is known, not connected with any earthwork, the usual mark of an early residence. This evidence is found on a large scale at Oswestry, which, therefore, there is reason to suppose was the English centre at least as early as the tenth century.

The contention for the possession of the district does not seem to have commenced in the Roman times,—at least there are no Roman remains at or very near to Hên Ddinas. The Welsh assert that, before the departure of the legions, the district was held by Cunedda Wledig, a prince of the Strathclyde Britons, 328–89, who gave it to his son. However this may have been, it would seem that in the seventh century the Cymric Britons had retired from Hên Ddinas, and it had become part of the Mercian territory, so that Penda (635–55) held it, and fought the battle of Maserfield against the Northumbrian Oswald. This was a short time before the Mercians accepted Christianity. That the English held the district in the latter half of the eighth century is evident from its position within the Dyke of Offa (759–94); but as it is just outside of, or slightly intersected by, Wat’s Dyke, generally regarded as a few years earlier than that of Offa, it may be that the possession was at that time but recently settled. No doubt, after the construction of the greater dyke, the boundary, though often transgressed by either people, on the whole, in ordinary times, served its purpose, and established what the English at least came to regard as a right. The greatest, and before the arrival of the Normans the last, Welsh incursion was that of Griffith ap Llewelyn in the eleventh century, in alliance with Algar, the rebel Earl of Mercia. The result of their frequent and severe attacks was to lay waste the whole country, which, like Irchenfield in Herefordshire, so remained, and is so recorded in Domesday. The long period of English occupation is marked here, as all along the border, by frequent and strong earthworks in the fashion employed by Edward the Elder and Æthelflaed in the tenth century, of which those at Oswestry and Whittington are among the chief; and those of West Felton, Aston, and Belan Banks, though smaller, are said to be of a similar pattern. Maesbury was, no doubt, at one time the caput of the English lordship; but it is evident, from the fashions and dimensions even of the poor remains of the earthwork at Oswestry, that it became the chief place at least as early as the commencement of the tenth century, and so remained, although not actually designated in Domesday.

The Domesday hundred of Mersete and the later of Oswestry are very nearly identical, the addition being Ruyton, and the subtractions, Cynllaeth and Edeyrnion. Mersete extended from Weston-Rhyn, on the Morlais brook, in the north, to Melverley, at the junction of the Vyrnwy with the Severn, on the south; and from, or a little beyond, the Cynllaeth brook on the west, to Wykey on the Perry, to the east; about 12 miles each way.

Domesday calls Meresberie the caput of the lordship; but this, though a corruption of Maesbury, must be taken to indicate Oswestry. In it were five berewicks which are not specified, but which evidently included about twenty-four manors, of which nearly all bear English names. Two centuries later an inquest was taken, which gives the lordship as composed of two parts, Oswestry proper and the Welshery. In the latter was included nearly the whole of the hundred, five manors, Weston and Coton (now Weston Cotton), Mesbury or Maesbury, Middleton, and Treveleth or Treflach. Of vills there were very many: Blodnorvawr, now Cefn-Blodwell, Blodowanan or Blodwell, Brongarth, Bren or Bryn, Clanordaffe or Glyn-yr-Afon, Crucket or Crickheath, Dudleston, Fenches and Juston (now lost), Kahercohon or Carrechova, Radioners or Rhandir, Swine or Sweeny, Tibeton (now lost), Travereleuche or Trefar-Clawdd, Treveltholnel or Treprenal, Trevenen or Trefonen, Weston or Weston-Rhyn, Wigeton or Wigginton, and Yston, now Ifton-Rhyn. The lord’s advowsons were the chapel of the Castle of Blanc-Minster, and the churches of Blodwell and Llanmenagh or Llan-y-Mynech. In this latter parish, though in an island of Denbighshire, was the celebrated Castle of Carreghova. This township, however, was a later addition to the hundred, and never belonged to its lords. Osbaston seems at one time to have been in the lordship. In it was Knockyn, the celebrated castle of the Lords Strange, a fief held indirectly of Oswestry. There was also a castle at Kinnerley, also in the lordship.

Mersete, in the reign of the Confessor, and probably much earlier, was a royal domain, and under the names of the hundred of Mersete and manor of Maesbury was included in the grant by the Conqueror in 1071, on the forfeiture of Morcar and Edwin, to Earl Roger of Montgomery, who sub-granted it to Warin the Bald, his sheriff, and second in command, who held seventy manors in Shropshire, and by the earl’s niece Arnieria had a son Hugh. Warin died 1085, just before Domesday was compiled, and the shrievalty was given to Rainald de Bailleul, who married his widow, and built a castle. The entry under Meresberie is, “Ibi fecit Rainaldus Castellum Luure,” which is explained as Luvre or “l’Œuvre”, the work par excellence of the district. It is clear, however, that, as usual, Rainald’s castle was upon an earlier foundation, and not improbably was only an adaptation of existing works. Rainald dwelt at Oswestry, and either he or Warin granted its church of St. Oswald, with the tithes of the town, then for the first time mentioned, to Shrewsbury Abbey. It is uncertain on what tenure Rainald held his office, but it seems to have been held for a short time by his stepson, Hugh, son of Warin, till his early death; and on Hugh’s death, it was to Alan FitzFlaald, the ancestor of the succeeding lords, that the shrievalty and the fief were granted a little before the death of the Conqueror.

The Welsh claim to have recovered and held the lordship for a space about this time, and state that it was given, as part of Powys-Fadog, by Meredith ap Bleddyn to his nephew, or son, Owen, who destroyed Rainald’s castle and rebuilt it in 1148; and that the tower, in memory of Meredith, was called Tre-Fred. However this may be, the Welsh occupation must have been very brief, and Alan must have recovered possession. At this time the house of Montgomery had, in England, become extinct, and Oswestry was held of the Crown direct, as a marcher lordship, by the tenure of the defence and maintenance of the castle and the defence of the march.

Mr. Eyton, the extent of whose information concerning the early history of Shropshire is only equalled by its accuracy, has thrown great light upon the descent of this Alan, whom he shows with more than probability to have been the son of Fleance, and grandson of Banquo, Thane of Lochaber, killed about 1048–53. Fleance, or Flaald, seems to have married Gwenta, daughter of Griffith ap Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, by Aldith, daughter of Algar Earl of Mercia. Alan, who was dead in 1114, was unquestionably direct ancestor of the houses of Fitz-Alan of Oswaldestre, and of the royal house of Stewart.

Alan FitzFlaald, lord of Oswaldestre, was father of I, William; 2, Walter, steward of Scotland, who died 1177, having married Eschina, daughter of Thomas de Londoniis, “hostiarius” or “durward” to the King of Scotland. He was father of “Alanus Dapifer,” whose great-grandson, Walter, who died about 1320, married Marjory Bruce, and had Robert Stewart, King of Scotland.

William Fitz-Alan, the head of the house, born about 1105, and who died 1160, acquired with Isabel de Say, his second wife, the lordship of Clun, which long remained united with Oswaldestre, in the person of their descendants, the FitzAlans, Earls of Arundel, and afterwards by the female line in the Howards.

On the death of Thomas Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, in the reign of Henry V., a curious question arose. He died childless, and his sisters, Joan, Lady Bergavenny, Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk, Margaret, Lady Lenthall, and Alice, Lady Powis, became his heirs general; but his heir male was John Fitz-Alan, called Arundel, Lord Maltravers. The Duke of Norfolk, John Mowbray, claimed the earldom in right of his mother; but when the earldom was adjudged to Lord Maltravers, he was allowed the baronies of Clun and Oswaldestre with it, nor did the duke claim them. So also when Earl John’s descendant, Humphrey, Earl of Arundel, Lord Maltravers, Clun, and Oswaldestre, died childless, 16 Henry VI., the baronies were not claimed by Amicia, Lady Ormond, his sister and heir general, but passed to William Fitz-Alan, with the earldom, as heir male.

A good deal of constitutional, or rather peerage, lore has been exercised upon these two baronies, which were borne among the long train of titles which at various times have accrued to the houses of Arundel and Howard, and so appear upon the garter plates of Thomas, Earl of Arundel, in 1611, and of Henry, Duke of Norfolk, in 1685, with other and Parliamentary baronies. Nevertheless, these do not appear to be like Fitz-Alan, Mowbray, Greystoke, and the rest, really Parliamentary baronies, but land baronies only, which strictly should only be appended to the name of the possessors of these manors. However, after their alienation, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, heir general of the FitzAlans, was, by Act of Parliament, 1627, created Baron Fitz-Alan and Lord of Clun and Oswaldestre—in right of which, and of that date, and under the then limitation only, these titles are borne by the Dukes of Norfolk, his descendants.

THE CASTLE.

The visible remains of this ancient fortress, so celebrated in border story, are very scanty, and are confined to the central mound, and to some fragments of the rude but substantial keep which was placed upon it. The castle stood on ground rather higher than, and on the north-western edge of, the town, completely commanding it; and it is only of late years that its site has been nearly surrounded by buildings. The church is about half a mile distant to the south, the town intervening between the two. From the mound, the view to the east and south is very extensive; to the west it is shut in by the wooded heights of the Denbighshire border, crowned by Offa’s Dyke, at a distance of about two miles. To the north, a mile or so distant, is the detached hill and camp of Hên Dinas, or Old Oswestry, which is in part obscured by the still nearer but lower eminence of Llwyn. No water enters into the landscape, nor is there any considerable stream near at hand. Wat’s Dyke lies close to the east.

The castle mound, though standing on high ground, is wholly artificial, and rather oval at its summit, which is about 60 feet by 100 feet. It is about 30 feet high, and perhaps 200 feet diameter at its present base. On its table top are some fragments of masonry, composed of large rolled boulders, laid in a thick bed of mortar; very rude but very strong work. One fragment, which in places is about 8 feet thick, is 9 feet or 10 feet high; and near it are two other large masses, one of which at least is overthrown. The keep was of the shell type, and probably polygonal. The slopes are covered with bushes, much obscuring the surface, but there seems to be a further trace of masonry on the south-west side. The moat, out of which the mound rose, has been completely filled up, and all trace of the outer ward, its ditches, banks, or buildings, has been utterly removed. Nothing is known of a well. The entrance was probably on the south-west side. Gallowtree bank—a name preserved in the southern suburb—preserves the memory of the lord’s power, as does Oswald’s well of the ecclesiastical legend.

It is probable that the masonry remaining is the work of William Fitz-Alan, who, after 1155, confirmed a previous gift of the church of Oswestry to Shrewsbury Abbey. He died 1160, in which year the Pipe roll designates Oswestry as “Blanc-Minster.” On his death, Guy L’Estrange became custos of the Castles of Clun, Ruthyn, and Blanc-Minster, and works were in progress at the latter. The livery allowed for the garrison was £18. 5s. per annum. In July, 1165, Henry II. was encamped near Oswestry, but his advance was checked by the Ceiriog river, on which he retired to Chester.

Guy L’Estrange continued to be custos of the Fitz-Alan estates and castles until 1175, during which time very large sums were expended by the Crown upon Oswestry, apparently about £2,000. A well cost £5. 8s., palisades 40s. and £2. 6s. 8d. A house was built within the walls. The regular garrison was a knight, two porters, two watchmen, and twenty men-at-arms, costing £48. 13s. 4d. per annum. In 1188, William Fitz-Alan received Archbishop Baldwin and Giraldus in the castle. On his death, in 1210, King John stepped in, and Robert de Vipont was in charge in 1212, and in 1213 and 1214 John Mareschal and Thomas de Erdington, who had purchased the wardship during the minority of William Fitz-Alan, who, however, died under age at Clun in 1215. In 1216, King John was before Clun, and (August 16) burned the town of Oswestry, and attacked the castle, but probably without success. In 1226, Oswestry was named for the place of conference between Llewellyn and the lords marchers, but the king, distrusting John Fitz-Alan, sent Hubert de Hoese with nine knights to attend it. In 1240, John Fitz-Alan’s death placed the castle again in the care of the Crown.

In 1257, Oswestry was again named for the meeting of a Welsh and English commission, and John Fitz-Alan, the new lord, had license to levy customs dues for five years, to pay for a wall round the town. At his death, in 1267, the castle was valued at £44. 12s. 5½d. per annum, and mention is made of the “walcheria” or Welshery. The wall probably proceeded slowly, for, in 1283, King Edward issued a patent, licensing the bailiffs to levy customs for twenty years, to complete the wall. Probably this was in consequence of an attack by the Welsh, who actually held the town for a short time. In 1302, on the death of Richard, Earl of Arundel, it was found that he held Oswestry Castle and its lands by the tenure of two and a half knights’ fees. There were one hundred and forty acres of demesne land and four water-mills, but the castle was worth nothing; and its maintenance cost £10 per annum. The mills were Bailey, Weston, Cotton, and Cadogan.