Oswestry School

Oswestry School is a co-educational independent school, located in Oswestry, Shropshire, England. Founded in 1407 by David Holbache, Member of Parliament for Shropshire and Shrewsbury, and his wife Gwenhwyfar ferch Ieuan, it is one of the county's oldest schools. It is the oldest non-denominational school in England as many other public schools of the time were established or affiliated with the Church of England.

The senior school is located on Upper Brook Street and the junior school is based at Bellan House on Church Street. Bellan House Preparatory School was a completely separate institution until its amalgamation in the 1970s.

The original school building, dating from 1407, is also on Church Street and is currently used as the town's visitor and information centre.

History

Established in the ancient half-timbered building close to the Parish Church of St. Oswald in 1407, the School later attracted the attention of Queen Elizabeth I and Oliver Cromwell; the former gave to the School an endowment of "forty shillings per annum" to help with its running, and the latter dismissed the headmaster at the time for being a "delinquent" (too "Royalist"). Early archive records show that a small percentage of the subsidised school-fees was set aside to pay for cock fighting, the pupil entertainment of that time.

Oswestry

Coordinates: 52°51′35″N 3°03′14″W / 52.8598°N 3.0538°W / 52.8598; -3.0538

Oswestry (/ˈɒzwəstri/; Welsh: Croesoswallt), one of the UK's oldest border settlements, is the largest market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483, and A495 roads.

The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of Oswestry until that was abolished under local government reorganisation with effect from 1 April 2009. Oswestry is the third largest town in Shropshire, following Telford and Shrewsbury. The 2011 Census recorded the population of the civil parish as 17,105, (up almost 10% from 15,613 in 2001), and the urban area as 16,660. The town is five miles (8 km) from the Anglo-Welsh border, and has a mixed Welsh and English heritage. It is the home of the Shropshire libraries' Welsh Collection.

Oswestry is the largest settlement within the Oswestry Uplands, a designated natural area and national character area.

History

It has also been known as, or recorded in historical documents as: Album Monasterium; Blancminster; Blankmouster; Blancmustier; Croes Oswald; Oswaldestre; Meresberie.

Borough of Oswestry

Coordinates: 52°51′36″N 3°03′14″W / 52.860°N 3.054°W / 52.860; -3.054

Oswestry was a small local government district with borough status in Shropshire, England. It was the smallest of the five districts of Shropshire in terms of both population and land area.

Its council was based in Oswestry, the only town and largest settlement in the borough. Villages in the borough included Morda, St Martin's, Whittington, Gobowen, Pant, Trefonen and Ruyton XI Towns.

The three most deprived wards in Shropshire (not including Telford and Wrekin) were found in Oswestry Borough. They are Victoria, Gatacre and Llanyblodwel.

The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, and was a direct successor to Oswestry Rural District.

The district and its council were abolished on 1 April 2009 when the new Shropshire unitary authority was established, as part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England.

See also

Oswestry (UK Parliament constituency)

Oswestry is a United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. It was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1983, when it was renamed North Shropshire. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post method of election.

Members of Parliament

Election results

Elections in the 1900s

Elections in the 1910s

Elections in the 1920s

Elections in the 1930s

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1939/40: Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;

Elections in the 1950s

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1970s

References