Oswestry Town Trail - Arthur Street

Arthur Street was known in the past as Stryt Arthur, Street Arthur and Butchers Arms Shut. The latter took its name from the half timbered Butchers Arms Inn which stands on the corner of Arthur Street and Willow Street. This is one of the oldest inns in Oswestry and dates back to at least the C17th. Part of the building, facing on to Willow Street, was rebuilt in the 1800s. The building did not start out as a public house. A Royal Licence, granted in 1672, permitted the building to be used for public worship by the Independent Church. At the time the owner was Hugh Edwards. Church meetings were held in a first floor room over the street passage and also in the front bar parlour. Isaac Watkin suggests that the first publican was probably Edward Lewis in 1783.

By the mid 1800s the Butchers Arms had become very dilapidated and unsuitable for worship. In 1748, a building and malthouse near the castle hill were bought from Richard Thomas. On this site, the first Nonconformist Church in Oswestry was built and opened for worship in 1750. The church was enlarged, first in 1794 and again in 1808 and the first public elementary school was founded by members of the congregation. It was attended by 83 children. By 1830 the building had again become too small and was demolished and rebuilt. In 1872 a new building was erected on an adjoining site and the Old Chapel, as it was now known, was used by the Sunday School. The New Chapel is now the Kingswell Centre.

No 11, Arthur Street was formerly the home of the chapel minister. From 1792 until 1826 this was the Rev. John Whitridge. His daughter Ann was born in the house. She later married John Davies of the Golden Ball, Church Street. When he died in 1857, Ann returned to her childhood home and lived there with her daughter and grand daughter until her death, at the age of 85, in 1883.

The British School was built by James Vaughan of Beatrice Street at a cost, including the land, of about £800. Although it was a non-denominational school the Scriptures were taught. When the new council schools were opened, the school became redundant and closed. It later became an Art School and by 1900 had become known as the Science and Art School.

The 1881 census shows the houses in Arthur Street were mainly occupied by tradespeople and their families. Boarding in one house was 36 year old William Jones, the Town Crier. There was no retirement at sixty in those days. A sixty five year old widow, Mary Edwards was a mangler. A mangle was the ‘low-tech’ version of the spin dryer – it consisted of two rollers in a strong frame, connected by cogs, and turned by a handle and used for wringing water from wet clothes. Sixty nine year old Jane Price was a stay maker. Next door to Jane lived Joseph and Catherine Attwood who made umbrellas. Mary Williams, age 29, living at No. 9, was a County Court Bailiff. This seems a rather unusual occupation for a woman in the late C19th. Police Constable John Mapp lived next door to Mary with his wife and three young children. Part of his house appears to have been the lock-up. There was one prisoner in occupation that night, 65 year old John Kynaston, an agricultural labourer from West Felton.