Shropshire Routes to Roots

In the middle of the 19th century, to the west and south of Oswestry, much mineral extraction was taking place. The transportation of this coal, limestone and other products was putting a tremendous burden on the existing transport systems i.e. canals and roads. (See Shropshire's industrial heritage theme elsewhere on this site.) Could rail be the answer to this pressure?

These pages look at the growth of the railway system around Oswestry and in particular The Cambrian Railways, which had its headquarters in the town.

Apart from the pressure to transport minerals by rail there was a rich trade to be had in the transporting of people and goods to Ireland and America. The government of the day set up a commission in 1834 to investigate the best rail route to Ireland to speed up this trade. Some of the routes proposed went through Oswestry or had connections with the town.

Many of the routes were aiming for Porthdinlleyn on the north coast of the Lleyn Penisular where a grand extension to the existing port was proposed. It was not built. Nor was the Manchester to Milford Haven railway line, where Milford Haven was to be developed as a rival to the port of Liverpool for the export of cotton and the return trade of South Wales coal.

The route to Ireland and America was eventually built along an extended North Wales coast railway to Holyhead. This crossed Robert Stephenson's famous Britannia Tubular Bridge over the Menai Straight, especially built to carry the railway. So Oswestry still did not get its railway or any direct connection to America.

But all this excitement and development proposals did galvanise some of the local canal companies into getting together to counteract the railway development.