Shropshire Routes to Roots

2. The need for change

Early transport

The two main heavy industries around Oswestry in the 18th and 19th centuries were coal extraction from the mines in the Morda valley, and limestone extraction from the quarries at Llanymynech. These two industries had been established for many years, but as the demand for their products grew - for the coal to feed the Lancashire mills, and the limestone to repair the roads and flux the Coalbookdale furnaces - so the need to convey more material also increased.

The main route for material had always been the roads or the rivers Vyrnwy and Severn. Some roads were in an atrocious condition, and little could be carried along them without the breaking of a cart axle, or even the leg of a horse. Those promoting new canal transport were keen to suggest that most roads were impassable and, as with the railways today, many diarists' contemporary accounts of road transport only record the bad journeys, thus giving a distorted picture.

In fact, many roads, such as the turnpike road running up through the Marches to Oswestry and beyond were in reasonable condition. Even this road, however, was sufficient only when loads were small or infrequent.

Two old highways meet: The confluence of the Severn and the Vyrnwy [Secret Shropshire]

Although the Severn was navigable from Welshpool to Shrewsbury and beyond, it could only take boats of shallow draught in these upper reaches, so heavy coal and rock transport was not really viable.

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